AFRICAN ECONOMIC PARADOX: INDUSTRIALIZATION CREATING JOBS AND ADDED VALUE OR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: WHAT SOLUTIONS TO DEVELOP FOR THE LESS ADVANCED AND LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES LIKE BURKINA FASO?

Abstract

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2016) calls for resources for the implementation of the Action Plan for Accelerated Industrial Development in Africa, and states that: “Industrialization is essential for African countries as a means of increasing income, creating jobs, developing value-added activities and diversifying economies”. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the African Development Bank (AFDB), and the Organization for Cooperation and Economics Development (OCED, 2014, p. 16) explain the benefits to African countries’ participation in Global Value Chains (GVC) to industrialize without having to implement all stages of the chain. They add that the acquisition of new production capacities can allow countries and companies to move upmarket, which is to say to increase their share of value added in a GVC. But the opposite is the case, at least in some countries like Burkina Faso. We are witnessing a “specialization of primary products (cotton and non-monetary gold), to the detriment of manufacturing industry with high potential for multiplier effects on local economies” National Plan for Economic and Social Development of Burkina Faso (PNDES, 2017, p.12). Cusolito and al. (2016) mention that overcoming a series of obstacles (such as bad policies and governance, insufficient technology and skills) is the way to actively participate in GVCs. Yet
OPEN it is these same obstacles that have always prevented the industrialization of Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa). The results show that the Global Value Chains (GVC) contribute to the creation of added value in developing countries what has an effect on industrialization