Where are we on African industrialization?
While it is manufacturing that is most closely associated with employment-intensive growth, there are also ‘industries without smokestacks’ in agriculture and services that can create good jobs, but investors in these industries don’t see Africa as an attractive location. How can this change? What patterns of growth and transformation can contribute to diversification and to building a dynamic economy? Can those patterns allow a majority of citizens to effectively participate in the growth process?
Objectives
Industry in Africa has declined as a share of both global production and trade since the 1980s, and domestic private investment has remained at about 11 percent of GDP since 1990. This is well below the level needed for rapid structural change, and foreign investment is overwhelmingly in oil, gas and minerals. Building on UNU-WIDER’s work under “Learning to Compete (L2C)”, this project focuses on three drivers – exports, capabilities and clusters – that together determine the global pattern of industrial investment. To boost job growth Africa needs a strategy to master them, and this component aims to support that.
Case studies and publications
By employing some of the tools and approaches developed in the L2C project, “Industries without Smokestacks” intends to identify and explain relevant patterns of growth in terms of practical utility. Along with a set of selected country-specific case studies, a set of general papers presenting the analytical and policy issues involved will be published as WIDER Working Papers and peer reviewed publications
Keep an eye on the project website and WIDERAngle blog for updates on research from this project. These materials will be a valuable resource for policy makers and organizations looking for hard data regarding the challenges of industrialization and growth.
This is part of the Jobs, poverty, and structural change in Africa project.
Team
Focal point: Finn Tarp
Research fellow: John Page
Assistant: Janis Vehmaan-Kreula
Communications: Annett Victorero
In partnership
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Blog
The ins and outs of African industrialization: UNU-WIDER provides open access to a wealth of informationThe question ‘why is there so little industrialization in Africa?’ has been a key focus of UNU-WIDER researchers and research partners for the last...
Book Chapter
Industries without smokestacks in Uganda and RwandaPart of Book Industries without Smokestacks
Book Chapter
Implications for Ethiopia's industrializationPart of Book Industries without Smokestacks
Book Chapter
Agro-processing and horticultural exports from AfricaPart of Book Industries without Smokestacks
Book Chapter
Telecommunication and ICT-based services tradePart of Book Industries without Smokestacks
Book
Industries without SmokestacksThis is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. By 2030 more than three quarters...
Policy Brief
Industries without smokestacksOur research shows that structural change in Africa is relying on a new set of economic activities, called ‘industries without smokestacks’, created by recent technological changes and a changing global market place. Adopting a broad concept of...
Blog
‘Industrial’ policy in the 21st centuryDuring the past week, I participated in two international conferences. The first was the WIDER Development Conference in Helsinki: Think development -...
Blog
What is the future of industrial policy in Africa: Views from Experts13 September through 15 September 2018, UNU-WIDER hosted the Think development - Think WIDER conference in Helsinki, Finland. Over three days...
Working Paper
New technologies create opportunitiesThis paper argues that new technologies—for communication, such as mobile phones and the internet, but also for manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and transport—have the potential to bridge many of the productivity gaps between sub-Saharan Africa...
Working Paper
Integration along the Abuja road mapThis paper reviews integration among the eight African Regional Economic Communities by comparing their characteristics and progress with three other South–South Regional Integration Arrangements. Three conclusions emerge: (i) slow progress towards...
Working Paper
Prospects for information and communications technology-enabled services in KenyaThe mobile money transfer industry has been the most successful information and communications technology-enabled service in Kenya, having recorded an exponential growth relative to its neighbours within the East Africa region. This could be...
Working Paper
RwandaSince civil war and genocide left the country in ruins, Rwanda has undergone a remarkable transformation. Growth rates since 1995 have averaged 8 per cent annually, poverty rates have fallen, maternal and child health have improved, and...
Working Paper
Air transport in AfricaSub-Saharan Africa’s air transport, though low in overall volume when compared to other regions in the world, has experienced significant growth in the last decade, both in international and domestic traffic. The sector, in part because of its...
Working Paper
Trade in servicesThis paper reviews the role of services in development and growth, the potential role of trade in services as a driver of the productivity performance of sectors that use services as inputs, and the links between services policies and domestic trade...
Working Paper
Tourism global value chains and AfricaAs Africa continues to attract record numbers of international arrivals, there are industry undercurrents that influence the continent’s participation in tourism value chains. African tourism is characterized by high foreign demand, which elevates...
Working Paper
Employment and productivity growth in Tanzania’s service sectorDespite Tanzania’s rapid recent growth, the vast majority of employment creation has been in informal services. This paper addresses the role that different subsectors of formal and informal services have played in Tanzania’s growth. It finds that...
Working Paper
Industries without smokestacksAlthough the manufacturing sector is known to have a unique role in structural transformation, the industries without smokestacks that include tradable services (e.g., IT, tourism, transport), horticulture, and agro-industry can provide new...
Working Paper
Industries without smokestacks in Uganda and RwandaWe use unique high-frequency Government of Uganda and Government of Rwanda tax administration datasets to map the characteristics of ‘industries without smokestacks’ in East Africa. First, we find firm size appears to be crucial for successful...
Working Paper
The agro-processing industry and its potential for structural transformation of the Ghanaian economyThe paper explores the potential of Ghana’s agro-processing industry in contributing to the development and structural transformation of the economy. Although the industry is not well advanced, a number of factors are discussed which make it a viable...
Working Paper
Industries without smokestacksThis paper provides a basic understanding of the nature of emerging key information and communication technologies, and establishes the distance of countries from high-quality access to the internet—the necessary threshold one needs to cross in order...
Working Paper
Agro-processing and horticultural exports from AfricaSub-Saharan African exports of horticultural and processed agricultural products are growing in line with the major shift towards these products in world markets. Continued growth in these exports may be vitally important for expanding returns from...
Working Paper
Regional opportunities in East AfricaSignificant progress has been made by the East African Community partner states in implementing the East African Community customs union. Trade within the East African Community is now free from import duties, and partner states have adopted a three...
Working Paper
Industries without smokestacksUnder the current international economic conditions, where Asian countries are strong competitors in the manufacturing commodities, low-income countries like Mozambique could attempt to compete in industries without smokestacks. Fruits and vegetables...
Working Paper
Understanding and characterizing the services sector in South AfricaThe South African services sector is large and growing. This coupled with declining employment shares in manufacturing and mining (i.e. deindustrialization) suggests that South Africa is a de facto service-orientated economy. Employment patterns in...
Working Paper
How trucking services have improved and may contribute to economic developmentIn East Africa, there have been numerous concerns over logistics efficiency. Among them, the regional integration of the trucking industry is perceived as a major problem. This paper utilizes a combination of unpublished data surveys and published...
Context
Main subject
Theme: 2014-18, Transformation