The Africa Transformation Index (ATI) is an index that tries to capture the progress of African countries towards economic transformation as defined by ACET. ACET defines economic transformation as: A process of sustained high economic growth, increasing technological sophistication, diversification and international competitiveness that creates jobs and shared prosperity. In line with this definition, the index covers seven main attributes, many of which have sub-attributes. Each attribute is developed into an index, and the seven are combined to form a composite index—the ATI.
The ATI (as well as its sub-indices) is an outcome index. It measures the state of the economy at a point in time using the attributes that make up the index. It does not, by itself, tell us how a country got to that state. Its main purpose is to provide a common quantitative tool to measure progress among countries on economic transformation and to serve as a point of departure for seeking explanations in terms of policies, institutions, natural endowments, etc.
The ATI, as well as the sub-indices, will be computed for two periods in time and the change between the two periods computed. This will generate three types of comparisons: (a) comparisons of countries according to their ranking on the index for the later of the two periods; (b) comparison of countries, in the form of ranking, according to how they changed (improved or deteriorated) between the two periods; and (c) comparison of a particular country in terms of how it changed (improved or deteriorated) from one period to the next.
Currently, ACET is developing a series of technical notes to serve as the theoretical foundation of the index and has compiled most of the required data to estimate it. A trial estimation of the index and refinements will take place in the next three months.
