Current Trends in Job Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa across GVCs

This chapter sets out to answer this question. First, the chapter analyzes the extent to which countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have benefited from GVC participation to grow jobs in the manufacturing sector. Although the emphasis is on job growth in manufacturing, the chapter also examines the contribution of GVC participation to job growth in the agriculture and services sectors. Second, the chapter documents and discusses the productivity growth effect of GVC participation in the region. The third section discusses the role of upgrading in manufacturing GVCs in Sub-Saharan Africa, examining the link between GVC integration and industrial upgrading, and the drivers of industrial upgrading through participation in GVCs. Each section highlights policy options for achieving sustainable job gains, productivity growth, and industrial upgrading in the region through integration into GVCs.

Current Trends in Job Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa across GVCs

GVC Participation and Job Growth in Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector in Sub-Saharan Africa has generated jobs through GVC participation. In South Africa, the most industrialized country in the region, a total of 629,000 manufacturing GVC jobs accounted for slightly more than 20 percent of all GVC jobs in 2014. In Senegal and Ethiopia, there were 24,000 and 215,000 manufacturing GVC jobs, respectively, accounting for less than 10 percent of GVC jobs in each country in 2014 (figure 5.1). When compared with other developing countries, the region has, on average, the lowest share of formal manufacturing jobs in overall GVC jobs, at about 15 percent. For example, the share of formal manufacturing jobs in overall GVC jobs in comparator countries, such as Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, and Malaysia, is above 35 percent (Pahl et al. 2019).

Despite having a lower share of manufacturing workers, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Senegal recorded increases in the number of jobs in manufacturing GVCs between 2000 and 2014: 150,000, 64,000, and 3,000, respectively. The number of jobs in manufacturing GVCs declined by 184,000 in South Africa during that period. The recorded gains in manufacturing GVC jobs can be attributed to the implementation of significant GVC-oriented industrial policies in these countries, particularly in Ethiopia.

The contribution of GVC participation to jobs is even higher for the agriculture and services sectors in the region. In Ethiopia, Kenya, and Senegal, the number of GVC jobs was highest in agriculture, followed by services. In 2014, the agriculture sector was responsible for about 2.5 million jobs in Ethiopia, accounting for 75 percent of the overall GVC jobs; comparable figures were 1.3 million (65 percent) in Kenya, 171,000 (64 percent) in Senegal, and 781,000