In the decade-and-a-half since the 2008 global financial crisis, “growth” has become the dominant policy chant across Uganda and
much of sub-Saharan Africa—celebrated in boardrooms, parliaments, and donor briefings as proof that the continent has finally
“turned the corner.” Yet per-capita income still languishes below US$1,000, and every third household teeters on the edge of
destitution. Using firm-, household-, and labour-force micro-data, this paper interrogates the mirage of headline GDP expansion that
leaves the majority behind. This paper investigates the impact of growth in a sample of 50 countries terms of the benefits that growth
was able to unravel for its members. More than seventy years since the end of World War II, “growth” is the most sought goal and yet
the most elusive one for many economies. To a large extent, most developing economies have been highly successful in increasing
economic output. But, has such an impressive increase in national output actually improved people’s standard of living? A fast-
growing economy is in a better shape to tackle many of its inherent problems, such as infrastructural deficiencies, unemployment and
poverty, and to provide opportunities for its members to function at their highest capacity. Unfortunately, that very ray of hope has
been extinguished. The most evident sign of this failure of global economy is in the form of rising youth unemployment. In Europe
alone, around 15 million young people remain unemployed. In Italy, one out of every four young people is out of the workforce. Youth
unemployment is a far more serious issue that it appears to be on first glance. It is a reflection of eroding potential and another
impending crisis.