UCT’s African economic development workshop

A recent two-day workshop hosted by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) School of Economics gave some 40 postgraduate students the opportunity to gain deeper understanding of global value chains (GVCs) and the role they play in sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development.

Taking place on 18 and 19 September, the workshop was presented by Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM), a unit located within the School of Economics, in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

According to Anthony Black, director of PRISM and professor in the School of Economics, the workshop was specifically targeted at postgraduates, who made the most of the opportunity not only to gain new knowledge, but also to interact with internationally acclaimed researchers.

“All the students who attended are either interested in this field, working in this field or have some background in this area,” he said.

“They’ve certainly participated well.”

With a jam-packed programme of presentations, training sessions and panel discussions by researchers from both UNIDO and UCT, the participants were exposed to the theoretical underpinnings of industrialisation and GVCs in the context of sub-Saharan Africa.

“We want to encourage further research on this topic that is of relevance to South Africa’s industrialisation or economic development at large.”

What are GVCs and why are they important?

On UNIDO’s website, GVCs are defined as “the full range of activities (design, production, marketing, distribution and support to the final consumer, etc) that are divided among multiple firms and workers across geographic spaces to bring a product from its conception to its end use and beyond”.

Countries can engage with GVCs in either backward or forward participation. Backward participation sees a country importing foreign materials, knowledge and inputs for its export production, while forward integration involves a country providing inputs for another country’s export production.

Combining backward and forward integration gives a measure of a country’s total GVC participation.

GVCs are a relatively new phenomenon that has emerged as a result of globalisation as well as the liberalisation of trade and investment.

In recent years, research has shown that GVCs are powerful drivers for job creation, growth in productivity and, by extension, higher living standards.

While many developing nations have successfully embarked on active participation within GVCs, others are battling to find their niche. This is often because of outdated policies and strategies.

It is thus important for researchers working in these fields to gain knowledge about industrial policy required to support the development of local industries and firms in reaping the benefits of opportunities offered by GVCs.

This was also, then, one of the main objectives of the UNIDO-PRISM workshop.

Introducing a new platform for analytics

Of course, having relevant data and the tools with which to analyse it at their fingertips is a huge boon for any researcher.

During the first day of the workshop, UNIDO introduced its newly developed Industrial Analytics Platform (IAP), which provides data on a set of tailored indicators relevant to industrial development. This online tool enables researchers to explore, compare and analyse countries’ industrial performance and participation in global value chains.

“What’s different about this workshop – compared to most others we are running – is that the focus was on graduates rather than policymakers.”

“A key component of the workshop was piloting IAP and testing it in the context of the capacity building work we do,” explained Adnan Seric, researcher and industrial development officer at UNIDO.

“What’s different about this workshop – compared to most others we are running – is that the focus was on graduates rather than policymakers.”

It was the second in of a series of capacity building activities focusing extensively on the use of IAP. The first pilot training session was delivered to a group of 40 policymakers from the Thai government in July.

When asked about the decision to target postgraduate students on this occasion, Seric said there were two important reasons.

“First, we want to encourage further research on this topic that is of relevance to South Africa’s industrialisation or economic development at large.”

Secondly, he said, UNIDO hoped to foster an exchange of best practices and policy lessons learned elsewhere with an emerging generation of policymakers “who will be well versed in policy tools and options in terms of promoting inclusion into GVCs”.

Forging an ongoing partnership

Both Black and Seric hope that this partnership between PRISM and UNIDO will strengthen and flourish over the coming years.

“We are excited to be partnering with UCT, which is renowned as a leading academic institution on the African continent – especially when it comes to research around global value chains, as well as trade and investment,” Seric said.

Plans are already being made to host another combined workshop in 2020.