Ivory Coast Joins the African Gold Rush – But It's No Quick Fix for the Economy

Feb 16, 2014 | The Guardian
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From the sky, Ivory Coast looks like a patchwork quilt, with fields of varying shapes and shades of green and brown woven together. In the 60s and 70s, the country's economy was built on agriculture and it became the world's biggest producer of cocoa, as well as Africa's leading exporter of rubber and cashew nuts.

When peace finally arrived in 2011, after more than a decade of conflict, President Alassane Ouattara's new government pledged to unlock the economy, not only by increasing trade with the non-francophone world, but by expanding it to sectors other than agriculture.