Creating productive jobs for growing a labor force is both one of the world's greatest challenges as well as one of its greatest economic opportunities, and one of the most consequential global megatrends. Nowhere is the job creation challenge more acute than for young people in Africa. In response to this challenge and to also address Africa's structural economic transformation, the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings has undertaken research on the prospects for large-scale job creation through the development of 'industries without smokestacks' including tourism, agro-processing, horticulture, and services that has revealed a promising path forward. This book is the first to document the potential for non-traditional industries to address the formal sector job creation that is critical for Africa to simultaneously harness its demographic dividend and achieve structural transformation. In the face of premature deindustrialization, many economists have voiced pessimism about Africa's ability to replicate past economic development models. The book also documents the potential of an alternative economic development model for Africa based on industries without smokestacks. Finally, the book suggests practical policy solutions to realize the potential of these industries
Brahima Coulibaly is Edward Bernstein scholar, Vice President and Director of the Global Economy and Development program at The Brookings Institution after previously serving as director of the program's Africa Growth Initiative. He joined Brookings from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System where he was chief economist and head of the emerging market and developing economies group. John Page is Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of UNU-WIDER. His previous publications include the 2009 UNIDO Industrial Development Report Breaking in and Moving Up: Industrial Challenges for the Bottom Billion and the Middle-Income Countries and Made in Africa: Learning to Compete in Industry. Richard Newfarmer is the Country Director for Uganda and Rwanda at the International Growth Centre. Previously, he was the World Bank's Special Representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, after a career working with the Bank in China, East Asia and Latin America. In 2018, he co-edited Industries without Smokestacks: Industrialization in Africa Reconsidered. Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He serves on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), and holds a prestigious SARChI Chair in Economic Growth, Poverty and Inequality Research. He is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a UNU-WIDER Board Member.
