In the media
The Economist draws on UNU-WIDER work for article on Africa’s development model

An article published in The Economist has drawn on the UNU-WIDER project Industries without smokestacks to discuss why Africa’s development model puzzles economists. The article argues that Africa has not followed the patterns of structural transformation that have been seen elsewhere in the world, and that orthodox remedies have lost their appeal. As a consequence, there has been a revival of interest in traditional industrial policy, and it is this policy which the project seeks to inform.

Building on our work under the Learning to compete project, Industries without smokestacks focuses on three drivers — exports, capabilities, clusters — that together determine the global pattern of industrial investment. The project supports Africa’s efforts in building a strategy to master these three factors.

An extract from the article

‘Structural change is about more than factories. John Page of the Brookings Institution, an American think tank, argues for the importance of “industries without smokestacks”: tradable, productive sectors, like cut flowers, call centres and tourism. Uganda, with its mountain gorillas and the Nile, is promoting even its edible rolex to tourists. Africa can learn from the successes of other regions, such as East Asia. But it will take a different path.’

Read the full article here.