ACCELERATING INDUSTRIALISATION IN AFRICA: IMPLICATIONS FOR JOB CREATION AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Event: AURC 2018
Conference dates: 23 to 25 May 2018
Venue: Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
The quest for industrialisation in Africa goes as far back as the onset of political independence on the continent. Since then, Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs) have all designed industrial policies at one time or the other aimed at growing their economies, creating jobs and reducing poverty. However, the implementation of existing industrial action plans in African countries and regions has to a large extent not yielded desired development outcomes.
Instead, a de-industrialisation trend can be observed over the last few decades, leading to high unemployment rates with approximately half the continent’s population currently living in extreme poverty. These challenging realities have been related to the continent’s overdependence on natural resources, declining agricultural production, underdeveloped infrastructure, inadequate human capacity, and unfavourable terms of trade among others.
Under the current global dispensation, it is arguable that, without industrialisation, Africa cannot be on a sustainable path for economic development, job creation and poverty alleviation. However, recent decades have seen a growing impetus and an intensification of efforts towards industrialisation. Consequently, a number of initiatives are underway to enhance the depth and breadth of industrialisation in Africa. These initiatives are core to the realisation of the aspirations of the Agenda 2063 – The Africa We Want, specifically “A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development” aspiration. Agenda 2063 further articulates the need for and importance of regional economic linkages as a critical step to Africa’s aspirations to integrate and industrialise.
To advance the discussion on industrialising Africa, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), through its Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA, and in collaboration with The Department of Science and Technology, Department of International Relations and Cooperation, invites policy makers, researchers, business leaders, entrepreneurs and academics to the 8th Africa Union Renaissance Conference (AURC 2018) which will be held under the theme; “Accelerating industrialisation in Africa: implications for job creation and poverty alleviation.”
Conference Sub-themes:
The sub-themes of the conference are as follows;
- From a comparative to a competitive advantage: Industrialisation and the extractive industry (mining, oil and gas)
- Infrastructure development as an input and outcome of industrialisation
- Agricultural modernisation for industrialisation
- The development of human capital for industrialisation
Submission Guidelines
AURC 2018 invites policy makers, researchers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, and emerging scholars to submit abstracts on any of the four subthemes of the conference. Further details on each subtheme can be found in the full concept note.
Submissions should focus on practical country and regional case studies that could serve as domestic and international best practices for African countries to emulate in our quest to industrialise, create jobs and reduce poverty.
Abstracts should be maximum 300 words with 5 keywords. A 100-word author biography including email address should accompany abstract submission. Selected candidates with be asked to submit their full draft papers with a maximum required length of 6 000 words.
Important Dates and Deadlines
Deadline for submission of Abstracts: 31 January 2018.
Notification of Accepted Abstracts: 15 February 2018
Submission of Full Draft Manuscripts: 30 April 2018
Conference Dates: 23 – 25 May 2018
Conference Venue: Pretoria, Gauteng.
All submissions will be peer-reviewed through a double blind peer-review process coordinated by the Scientific Committee at AISA. Successful and unsuccessful submissions will be notified as soon as the reviewers complete the reviews.
Please submit your abstracts to Dr Emmanuel Sekyere on esekyere@hsrc.ac.za. COPY Dr Vuyo Mjimba vmjimba@hsrc.ac.za and Dr Check Achu on cachu@hsrc.ac.za.
For any further information or clarity regarding your submission please do not hesitate to consult any of the three contacts stated above.