Category: Events

Roundtable: 29 August 2016, 10:00-13:00, Sarova Panafric Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

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Manufacturing in Kenya – Anzetse Were

The Role of Finance in Kenyan Manufacturing – Phyllis Papadavid

Transforming Kenyan Industry – John Page
Kenya aims to develop manufacturing through the Kenya Industrial Transformation Programme and the 2030 Manufacturing Agenda. However, so far, productivity growth in Kenya has been slow in a comparative context, the share of manufacturing in GDP in Kenya remains low and there are concerns about the low level of formal manufacturing jobs created.

The key questions explored at this roundtable were around Kenyan manufacturing: Why is productivity low in manufacturing? Why is informality not decreasing with economic growth? Why is there a lack of linkages between services on the one hand, and manufacturing and agriculture on the other hand? And what can be done about these challenges? The SET team is currently scoping out support for Kenya’s transformation with analytical and other inputs. The roundtable aimed to discuss and develop this collaboratively. Three scoping inputs were prepared by Anzetse Were, John Page and Dirk Willem te Velde, available for download below.

Chair

Dirk Willem te Velde – Senior Research Fellow, ODI and Director, SET

Presenters

John Page – Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

Anzetse Were – Economist and independent consultant

Views were also expressed by Government of Kenya representatives, Kenyan Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and DFID Kenya.

Presentations

Dirk Willem te Velde slides

John Page slides

The Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) Summit was held at Kenyatta International Convention Center in Nairobi, Kenya on 27th -28th August 2016. This was the first time TICAD is being held in Africa since its inception in 1993.

The SET programme participated at TICAD side events in partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). Industrial development and economic transformation are crucial for Africa’s development, but there is a heated debate on how to achieve them. Three events explored the respective roles of government and private sector in policy development and implementation for Africa’s industrialisation.

26 Aug 2016: Africa’s Transformation through Industrial development and implementing the Agenda 2063

13:00-15:00, Hilton Hotel, Nairobi Kenya

How can market mechanisms respond to the development challenges which Africa faces, and what are the roles of the government?  How should industrial policy be formulated and implemented? This seminar will discuss some of these key questions with scholars and practitioners.

Opening Remarks: Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka, JICA president

Keynote Speech

• Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University
• Helen Clark, President, UNDP
• Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, President, AfD

Panel Discussion

• Akbar Norman, Colombia University

27 Aug 2016: Industrial Development in Africa – KAIZEN and beyond

10:00-12:00, Sarova Panafric Hotel, Nairobi Kenya

Manufacturing plays a key role in the process of economic transformation. Enhancing competitiveness through improving productivity and quality is a key issue in Africa. This seminar will focus on firm-level policies, namely KAIZEN, an important element behind improving firm performances.

Opening remarks: Akiba Kenya (Member of the House of Representatives and Deputy Secretary General, Japan-African Union Parliamentary Friendship Association)

Panel Discussion

• Dirk Willem te Velde, Head of International Economic Development Group and SET Programme, ODI (Moderator)
• Dawarnoba Baeka, Chief Director, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana
• Daniel Kilenge, General Manager, Manufacturing, Quality, ME & Maintenance, General Motors East Africa
• Kenichi Tomiyoshi, Vice President, JICA
• John Page, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
• Getahun Tadesse, Director General, Ethiopian Kaizen Institute

Closing remarks: Mayaki Ibrahim, CEO, NEPAD Agency

Click here for JICA press release

28 Aug 2016: Industrialisation, private sector development and economic transformation in Africa: challenges and prosperity

13:30-17:00, Hilton Hotel, Nairobi Kenya

In consideration of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where industrialisation is critically needed in order to transform an over-dependent economic structure on agriculture and mining, this seminar will explore the potential pathways toward the transformation in SSA.

Hiroshi Sato, Institute of Developing Economies (IDE)-JETRO (Moderator)

Speakers

• Stephen Gelb, Team Leader, Private Sector Development, ODI
• Takahiro Fukunishi, IDE-JETRO
• Keijiro Otsuka, Kobe University

Panel Discussion

• Gerrishon Ikiara, Professor, University of Nairobi
• Lemma Senbet, Executive Director, African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
• Dirk Willem te Velde, Head of International Economic Development Group and SET Programme, ODI

Presentations & Reports

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Stephen Gelb ODI-IDE slides

Dirk Willem te Velde ODI-IDE slides

The SET team also held a closed session on 29 August with Government of Kenya, Department for International Development (DFID) Kenya, local and international experts, business representatives and others. The session discussed manufacturing in Kenya and SET support for economic transformation.

31 May 2016 | 10:00-14:00 GMT

For full one hour coverage, see please below

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Overseas Development Institute (ODI), in conjunction with DFID Nigeria publicly launched a new SET paper on Supporting Economic Transformation in Nigeria in Abuja on 31st May 2016.

The paper written by Nigerian and international experts (including David Booth, Danny Leipziger, Ebere Uneze and Dirk Willem te Velde) draws on international experience from large developing countries that have managed to transform the structure of their economies, as well as the record of economic transformation and economic policy in Nigeria to date, to chart a way forward for Nigeria’s economic transformation efforts.

Key messages

• Nigeria has so far experienced little economic transformation and low-quality growth. Business as usual is not going to generate the large increase in productive employment that the country needs.
• Successful transformation elsewhere has been supported by a co-ordinated push through a central agency or ministry pursuing a path of transformation based on openness and competitiveness.
• In the past Nigeria experienced a persistence of inward-looking policy mind-sets and lack of a shared vision of national development and state-building.
• The current economic climate and development of the government’s economic plans (including the 2016 budget) provide an ideal opportunity for the government of Nigeria to show it is serious about economic transformation and promote a number of carefully selected projects which demonstrate that progress in export-oriented transformation can be made, contributing to a shared visions of transformation.

The published report and an earlier related brief are now available online.

Speakers and representatives

Dr Aisha Abubakar: Hon Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI)

Mr Según Awolowo: Executive Director/CEO, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC)

Mr Laoye Jaiyeola: CEO Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG)

Mr Muda Yusuf: Director General Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)

Dr Dirk Willem te Velde, Head of International Economic Development Group and Director of SET, ODI

Moderator: Boason Omofaye, Head of Business News on ChannelsTV.

Full summary:

Media coverage

Online

Channel S TV, 31 May 2016

Okrote Blogspot, 31 May 2016

Nigerian Times, 31 May 2016

Business Day Online, 1 June 2016

Sarewah, 1 June 2016

Leadership, 2 June 2016

All Africa, 3 June 2016

This Day Live, 3 June 2016

News360, 3 June 2016

Bizwatch Nigeria, 3 June 2016

TechTrendsng, 8 June 2016

Friday Posts, 8 June 2016

African Business Magazine, 6 Feb 2017

Print:

Leadership Newspaper p38 – 2/6/16
The  Authority p8 – 1/6/16
National Mirror p4 – 1/6/16
Nigerian pilot p7 – 1/6/16
People’s Daily p22, 1/6/16
New telegraph p28 – 1/6/16
African Business Magazine – 6/2/17

22 March 2016 11:30 – 13:00 (GMT+00) | Public event

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On March 14 to 15, 2016, the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), in partnership with the Government of Rwanda, convened the first African Transformation Forum (ATF) in Kigali, Rwanda.

The first objective of the ATF was to facilitate knowledge sharing and peer learning across global and African luminaries from the public and private sectors. These participants contributed their rich insights, and uncover challenges and solutions for galvanizing economic transformation in Africa. The discussions fell into two categories: i) the coordinated development and implementation of national development plans; and ii) catalysing transformation within critical sectors, notably: extractives; light manufacturing; agriculture; skills development; entrepreneurship; financial inclusion; infrastructure; and regional integration.

The second objective of the ATF was to launch the Coalition for Transformation in Africa, a new leadership network organized in chapters, each addressing a specific thematic area. These chapters and the policy makers, business leaders and development partners who will constitute their membership will examine and develop implementable solutions for development. ACET will serve as the Secretariat for the Coalition, building consensus, coordinating activities and assisting the membership in securing funding to support their agreed initiatives. The chapters will also report their progress at subsequent African Transformation Forums.

The SET team has collaborated with ACET on background papers to inform discussion sessions on three areas:

• Public and private sector collaborations to achieve transformation
• Promoting light manufacturing for export
• Facilitating trade and regional integration

For more information please contact Buddy Buruku, Director, African Transformation Forum: atf@acetforafrica.org

Africa’s industrialisation: reversing the decline | Event | Overseas Development Institute (ODI)

But there are also some positive signs. Manufacturing production has been increasing faster in Sub-Saharan Africa than in the rest of the world, and it now makes up  a greater share in world manufacturing than fifteen years ago. Recently, several Asian firms have set up new manufacturing operations in African special economic zones such as in Ethiopia.

John Page joins a panel of experts to explore the challenges and prospects for industrialisation in Africa.The panel will discuss what caused the lack of industrialisation in sub-Saharan Africa and what can be done to improve it.

ODI has undertaken research on industrialisation in the context of a project with JICA on the role of Kaizen and through the SET Programme.

Economic growth is necessary for development. The increase in the quantity of resources available to produce and/or distribute is essential in the development process. However, economic growth alone does not guarantee all development objectives. The quality of economic growth matters, and it essential for sustained development that growth involves some form of productivity change and economic transformation.

Trade can be a powerful channel to mobilise resources from low to high productivity sectors and to improve productivity within sectors. The Supporting Economic Transformation (SET) programme has explored the links between trade, trade policy and economic transformation. Trade helps to diversify production, discover and develop new productive capabilities and increase domestic value added. Services are becoming increasingly important in world trade and SET has focused on the role of services in economic transformation.

The aim of this workshop is to examine the links between trade (in services) and economic transformation. How have countries been successful in using trade for economic transformation? How can we analyse what sectors are promising for economic transformation? How does services trade affect manufacturing and agriculture development? What are the implications for trade policy?

Agenda for WTO Ministerial Conference
17 December 2015, 11:00-12:30, Hilton Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

Chair
Dirk Willem te Velde – Senior Research Fellow, ODI – Director, SET

Speakers

Chris Barton – Director of International Affairs, Trade Policy & Export Control (ITEC), UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)

Max Mendez-Parra – Research Fellow, ODI/SET

Arancha Gonzalez – Executive Director, ITC

Bernard Hoekman – Director of Global Economics, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

Frank Matsaert – Chief Executive Officer, TradeMark East Africa

Event page on TDS/ICTSD website can be found here.

Download agenda

Download 10 things you need to know about trade and economic transformation

Download concept note

Download full event report

Download ‘Where next for trade negotiations?’

Download services presentation – Max Mendez Parra

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The Government of Tanzania, through the President’s Office Planning Commission (POPC), has begun the process of preparing the second Five Year Development Plan (FYDP II) (2016/17 – 2020/21) focusing on the theme “Nurturing an Industrial Economy”. The POPC hopes to conclude the plan by June 2016.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is providing analytical support to aid this process through its Supporting Economic Transformation (SET) programme. On Tuesday 6^th October 2015, a workshop was convened in Dar es Salaam on  to provide an opportunity for the POPC to outline their initial thinking and to enable discussion on emerging priority areas and potential means of implementation for the FYDP II, both informed by background research undertaken by the ODI and REPOA.

The workshop brought together a diverse range of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors in Tanzania and provided a valuable opportunity for consultation which was less prevalent in the first FYDP. Download the event report below.

SET Tanzania FYDP II Workshop Report

Stakeholders Presentation

SET Presentation

Photo credit: REPOA

Overseas Development Institute, London

Where do we go wrong, and what do we need to do differently to understand economic transformation in Africa?

Morten Jerven’s recent book “Africa, why economists get it wrong” questions what we really know about growth and economic transformation in Africa. He argues that mainstream economists have not used appropriate methodologies or sample periods, used data without critically assessing them, and focused on the wrong policies.

This event organised by ODI’s Supporting Economic Transformation (SET) programme discussed where we are going wrong and what should we be doing differently if we want to properly understand the prospects of economic transformation in low income countries. What are appropriate research methodologies, what data can be used, and what do we know about policies and institutions for economic transformation?

After an introduction to the main points in Jerven’s book, a number of speakers discussed the main questions: Blandina Kilama is an expert on economic transformation in Tanzania, Nick Crafts is a world leading authority on economic history, and Louise Fox is a leading voice on employment and labour markets in Africa.

Chair:

Dirk Willem te Velde – Director, Supporting Economic Transformation, ODI

Speakers:

Morten Jerven – Associate Professor in Global Change and International Relations, Norwegian University of Life Sciences; Associate Professor, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University

Blandina Kilama – Senior Researcher, REPOA, Tanzania

Nick Crafts – Professor of Economics and Economic History at the University of Warwick

Louise Fox – Visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Downloads:

Morten Jerven Event Report

Understanding Eco Transformation- Blandina Kilama

Jerven’s book on African growth in 10 points Dirk Willem te Velde

Comments on Jerven and Economists in the Tropics Louise Fox

Africa-why economists get it wrong-Jerven-ODI 2015

Photo credit: UNU-WIDER

Overseas Development Institute, London.

Economic transformation involves the movement of factors of production toward higher productivity and/or value addition firms or sectors. It has traditionally been assessed through the degree of export diversification, taken as an outcome of the process.

Trade can support this process, e.g. through its impact on firm competitiveness – access to cheaper and better quality inputs, and opportunity to take advantage of economies of scale. The literature on global value chains (GVCs) further suggests a new way of looking at economic transformation (which was traditionally seen as moving from agriculture to manufacturing and services). Integration in global production networks allows countries to unlock their comparative advantage, but rather than focusing on producing all parts of the entire chain, it is now possible to focus on specific tasks and sub-sectors.

The discussion focused on the following questions:

• Under which circumstances does trade openness foster export diversification through GVCs?
• What are the determinants of GVC integration?
• How and under which circumstances GVCs integration spills over beyond integrated sector and benefits the domestic economy, thereby supporting a sustained economic transformation?
• What are the trade policy implications at the domestic, regional and global levels?

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Overseas Development Institute, London.

Leading economist Dani Rodrik shed light on the future of economic transformation in developing countries.

Economic transformation is needed for the type of growth that leads to poverty reduction. It leads to growth that generates income across the income distribution, is robust against price shocks and price cycles, and increases the opportunities and options for future economic growth.

Focusing on economic transformation involves understanding what determines growth and productivity at the micro and macro level. For example, how can resources be shifted to higher-value uses? How can diversification of a country’s productive capabilities, including exports, be encouraged?

But economic transformation in low-income countries is changing. For years, developing countries have tended to transition from agriculture to manufacturing to services. Yet recent evidence suggests that countries are running out of industrialisation options much sooner than expected. Is this a cause for concern? Or are there opportunities in agriculture and services that are just as effective at generating growth and ending poverty?

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Media Coverage

The Broker Online, 30 June 2015

Oxfam blog, 26 June 2015

Overseas Development Institute, London.

Dr Tang Xiaoyang, Associate Professor of International Relations at Tsinghua University discussed  China’s engagement with Africa through an analysis of  China’s Special Economic Zones in Africa and how they support economic transformation followed by a Q&A session.

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Intercontinental Hotel Nairobi.

Public and private sector representatives met to discuss the potential for Kenya to become a services hub. The workshop assessed the role of services in economic transformation and job creation in Kenya, and included an in depth discussions of two services sectors – the IT enabled services and financial services sectors.

The aims were to (i) examine Kenya as an example of services-led transformation (ii) examine what needs to be done to raise Kenya’s services sector to become a regional and global services hub; (iii) examine the costs and benefits of a services-led approach to economic transformation and employment vis-à-vis an agriculture or manufacturing-led approach.

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Media Coverage

Daily Nation, 28 April 2015

Xinhua News Agency, 28 April 2015

Standard Media, 29 April 2015

ODI, London.

Experts from DFID, ODI, the World Bank, IMF, University of Groningen and Harvard Kennedy School discussed different data sources and methodological approaches for analysing economic transformation, with a focus on economic structures and trade data – as part of the SET data portal work.

The workshop addressed the following key questions: what are the key issues in data for economic transformation? What else needs to be done in the near future for SET data analysis? And, what are the economic transformation data gaps in the medium term?

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