K. Y. Amoako

Amoako completed his secondary education at the Ghana Secondary Technical School. He then obtained his B.A. (Hons) from the University of Ghana and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.[3] In recognition of his contribution to Africa’s development, in 2003, he was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa, by the Addis Ababa University,[4] and a Doctor of Letters degree, honoris causa, by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, in May 2005.

After obtaining a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California-Berkeley in 1974, Amoako began his career at the World Bank. At the time, the Bank employed few Africans, but it impacted much of the continent’s destiny through lending policies that were not always favorable to Africa. Amoako became Division Chief for Country Programs in the Africa Region and also Division Chief for Sector Programs in the Latin America and Caribbean Region. Over a ten-year period, he helped improve Bank operations in several countries.

In the early 1990s, the Bank began to shift its focus by placing greater emphasis on poverty reduction and underserved but vital economic and social development issues, such as gender equality. To provide intellectual leadership in these areas, guide operational staff at the country-level, and collaborate more effectively with United Nations agencies and other development institutions, the Bank created the Department of Education and Social Policy in 1992. Amoako was appointed its first director. He led a group of 40 economists and sector specialists in producing major Bank policy papers on poverty, gender, social protection, labor markets, and education that were endorsed by the World Bank’s Executive Directors.[5]

In 1995, then UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appointed Amoako as the Executive Secretary[1] of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the level of Under-Secretary General.[3] He gave Amoako a mandate to transform the institution into an influential voice for Africa and an effective player in global development. Within two years of his appointment, Amoako implemented sweeping reforms to remake the institution. Boutros-Ghali later commended the ECA for being “at the vanguard of reform in the United Nations.”

In 2006, K.Y. Amoako was awarded with the "Distinguished African Scholar Award[2]", supported by the Open Society Institute, which brings senior African scholars or policymakers to the Woodrow Wilson Center in order to conduct research on topics of their choice. His research focused on "strengthening policy research institutions within Africa and their contribution to African development strategies".

Amoako founded the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) in 2008 to help African governments transform their economies and address policy and institutional barriers to economic growth, with operations based in Accra, Ghana.[6]

The title of the book is based on an African proverb: "If you know the beginning well, the end shall not trouble you". The book draws on his five decades of experience to offer an account of the people, policies, and institutions that have shaped Africa's post-colonial development history with a goal of learning from the past to better inform the future. Amoako has lived this history, worked directly with governments and global leaders on issues that continue to affect African progress: financing sustainable development, moving beyond aid, industrializing and diversifying economics, closing the gender gap, getting regional integration right, and attaining accountable and transformative leadership. This book recounts the growth of Africa offers a hopeful vision of a transformed continent.[7]

Amoako, K.Y. Know The Beginning Well: An Inside Journey Through Five Decades of African Development. Africa World Press, 2020.