This paper outlines the elements of a development-targeted economic framework aimed at creating decent employment opportunities as a strategy for realizing core human development goals in Africa. Four policy areas form the core of the paper: monetary policy and inflation, exchange rate policy, development finance and financial sector reforms, and public investment and fiscal policy. This paper draws heavily on three large UNDP-sponsored studies of employment-oriented economic policies in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa. The paper aims to discuss the elements of an alternative, development-targeted economic framework for African countries in general and, in doing so, the analysis draws on examples, research, and statistics from a wide range of countries.