Industrial Policy And Economic Transformation In Africa

The revival of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is all the more welcome for having followed one of the worst economic disasters—a quarter century of economic malaise for most of the region—since the industrial revolution. Six of the world's fastest-growing economies in the first decade of this century were African. Yet only in Ethiopia and Rwanda was growth not based on resources and the rising price of oil. Deindustrialization has yet to be reversed, and progress toward creating a modern economy remains limited. This book explores the vital role that active government policies can play in transforming African economies. Such policies pertain not just to industry. They traverse all economic sectors, including finance, information technology, and agriculture. These packages of learning, industrial, and technology (LIT) policies aim to bring vigorous and lasting growth to the region. This collection features case studies of LIT policies in action in many parts of the world, examining their risks and rewards and what they mean for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Much of the information relevant to policy formulation for industrial development is held by the private sector, not by public officials. There is therefore fairly broad agreement in the development literature that some form of structured engagement, often referred to as close or strategic coordination, between the public and private sectors is needed, both to assist in the design of appropriate policies and to provide feedback on their implementation. There is less agreement on how that engagement should be structured, how its objectives should be defined, and how success should be measured. In fact, the academic literature on close coordination provides little practical guidance on how governments interested in developing a framework for government business engagement should go about doing it. The burden of this lack of guidance falls most heavily on Africa, where -- despite 20 years of growth -- lack of structural transformation has slowed job creation and the pace of poverty reduction. Increasingly, African governments are seeking to design and implement policies to encourage the more rapid growth of high productivity industries and in the process confronting the need to engage constructively with the private sector. These efforts have met with mixed results. For sustained success in structural transformation, new policies and new approaches to government-business coordination will be needed. In 2014 the Korea International Cooperation Agency and UNU-WIDER launched a joint research project on 'The Practice of Industrial Policy'. The objective of the project was to help African policy-makers develop better coordination between the public and private sectors in order to identify the constraints to faster structural transformation and to design, implement, and monitor policies to remove them. This book, written by national researchers and international experts, presents the results of that research.

This book revisits the perennial challenge that scholars, economists, and politicians have been grappling with since the 1960s. Development, in this book, has been defined in a context that projects it as a multidimensional and complex process which seeks to enhance the human, social, economic and cultural welfare of the people. This book calls for a rethinking of trade and industry for Africa's development. It uses data drawn from national development plans and strategies, and trade and industry issues have been prioritized at the continental level, in key policy documents. On the whole Africa's industry and trade performance have been poor in spite of national, regional, and continental plans. The contributors to this volume propose some alternative strategies and policies which are necessary for trade and industry to grow and to contribute to the well-being of Africa's people. It calls for a developmental trade and industry policy which, fundamentally, must be people-centred. African states should invest time, energy and resources to develop policies which will take into consideration African realities.The different contributors are aware that Africa has experienced strong economic growth in the recent past but this growth has largely been due to a strong demand for Africa's primary commodity exports. It has also been a result of increases in productivity and domestic investment and remittances from Africans living in the Diaspora. It is important to note that despite this unprecedented growth performance, the impact of trade and industry on development has been limited. The book argues that a structural transformation of Africa's economies is inevitable if Africa is to achieve the shift from the dominant paradigm of production and export of primary goods. The various contributors to this book agree that there is need to rethink policy and strategy in order to achieve industrial development in Africa. There is no unique solution or answer that can fit all situations as African countries are not the same. While Africa can draw lessons from other regions which have successfully industrialized, this book argues that policies and strategies will have to be adapted to country-specific situations and circumstances.

This study presents the findings of original field research into the design, practice, and varied outcomes of industrial policy in three sectors in Ethiopia: cement, leather and leather products, and floriculture. Given that there is a single industrial strategy, why do its outcomes vary across sectors? To what extent is this a function of the specific market and political economy features of each sector? The book examines industrial structures and associated global value chains to demonstrate the challenges faced by African firms in international markets.

This volume is the result of the 2012 International Economic Association's series of roundtables on the theme of Industrial Policy. The first, 'New Thinking on Industrial Policy,' was hosted by the World Bank in Washington, D.C, and the second, 'New Thinking on Industrial Policy: Implications for Africa,' was held in Pretoria, South Africa.

This book maps the process and political economy of policy making in Africa. It's focus on trade and industrial policy makes it unique and it will appeal to students and academics in economics, political economy, political science and African studies. Detailed case studies help the reader to understand how the process and motivation behind policy decisions can vary from country to country depending on the form of government, ethnicity and nationality and other social factors.

Sustainable Industrialization in Africa explores the issues that confront development policy in the context of the MDGs and the post-2015 development agenda from an African perspective. The book argues that development is an ultimate outcome of sustainable, equitable industrialization, and that any development agenda for the future has to ensure that industrialization is fostered in a way that makes economies independent and responsive to the needs of all citizens. Future challenges for sustainable industrialization in Africa, based upon the differences in its current industrialization trajectories, are discussed to ensure that industrial growth results in positive economic and social outcomes in the context of the post-2015 development agenda.