Economic Report on Africa 2014

The 2014 Economic Report on Africa builds on the previous year’s report, which made the case for commodity-based industrialization. It calls on the continent to refocus its economic development strategies on industrial-ization, particularly on the means for formulating and implementing efective industrial policy. In the past, most African countries pursued industrial policy with mixed results. It is now time to reacknowledge that state support is vital to address market failures and spur industrialization—and to institutionalize industrial policy in national and regional development strategies at the highest levels of government. Yet the state’s role is different from a direct producer of goods.

Executive Summary

Dynamic Industrial Policy in Africa: Innovative Institutions, Effective Processes and Flexible Mechanisms

ERA 2014 focuses on how to build innovative, effective and flexible industrial policy institutions, processes and mechanisms to enhance industrialization and structural transformation in Africa. ...more

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Featured Stories

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Country Case Studies

Kenya - Mauritius - Nigeria - Rwanda - South Africa - Tunisia

Key Messages

“There is a strong consensus that an expanding and prosperous industrial sector is crucial to the structural transformation of African economies and that, given the ubiquity of market failures, industrial policy interventions are usually required. Markets by themselves are also generally incapable of undertaking the kinds of structural transformation needed to move from low- to high-productivity activities..”

Guest Blog

Africa’s economic transformation: industrialisation as the masterpiece

By: Isabelle Ramdoo

Africa’s transformation agenda must change the current paradox where sustained economic growth remains trapped in otherwise poor performance on poverty, unemployment and inequality. As clearly articulated in the 2014 edition of the Economic Report of Africa, released at the 7th AU- ECA Joint Annual Meetings in Abuja on 30 March 2014, reversing this trend requires boldness and consistency.

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