The cotton sector in different countries of sub-Saharan Africa shows different organisational models, ranging from atomistic competition to monopolistic structures. Each model differs in its type of service provision and purchase agreements offered to smallholder farmers, who are the main...

Le coton est l’une des cultures de rente les plus importantes en Afrique subsaharienne où il est presque exclusivement cultivé par de petits exploitants agricoles. On y dénombre environ 1,7 million de cotonculteurs, qui plantent du coton en rotation avec des cultures vivrières. La plupart...

Within the private sectors of low- and middle-income countries exists a significant productivity gap between a small number of highly productive large- and medium-sized enterprises and a large number of uncompetitive micro and small enterprises in backward industries. In fact, often the size...

Many low- and middle-income countries suffer from a lack of medium-sized companies, which tend to be the main creators of higher-income employment as well as the motors of innovation and economic diversification. The chief reason is that few micro and small enterprises are able to upgrade, that...

The World Development Report 2013 on ‘Jobs’ estimates that, in the coming years, hundreds of millions of new jobs need to be created to keep up with demographic changes and population growth in low and middle income countries (LMICs). This will even be necessary to keep unemployment and...

The diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries has profound implications – not only for existing retail stores and informal vendors but also for millions of producers and intermediary traders in the respective supply chains, and for consumers in these countries. Overall, societies are...

Structural change towards diversification and competitiveness is important to make our economies productive, wealthy and sustainable. In market economies, structural change is essentially driven by private entrepreneurs who challenge incumbents with new business ideas and take risks to implement...

Since the 1980s, international production patterns have fundamentally changed, creating opportunities for developing countries to integrate into global value chains (GVCs). Morocco, which is among the first countries in the Middle East and North Africa to pursue an export-led economic policy,...

Under the German Presidency of the G20 in 2017, the Compact with Africa (CWA) was launched with the goal of mobilising private capital and promoting the efficient use of public resources so as to increase private and infrastructure investment in Africa. In this discussion paper, we provide a...

The structural transformation of countries moves them towards more sophisticated, higher-value products. Network analysis, using the Product Space Methodology (PSM), guides countries towards leading export sectors. The identification process rests on two pillars: (1) available opportunities,...