Building Back Better: Fostering Commodity-Based Industrialization, Manufacturing and Regional Value Chains in Southern Africa

Southern Africa has borne the brunt of the impact of COVID-19 on Africa. To develop economic recovery strategies to counter the damage caused by the pandemic, efforts have been animated by the goal of building back better (BBB) to create economies that are resilient to external shocks. Fostering commodity-based industrialization (CBI), manufacturing and build out of regional value chains in Southern Africa are the core BBB strategy advocated in this report. All 11 Southern Africa states covered by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Subregional office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which is the Regional Economic Community (REC) that this strategy targets. Regional markets are essential to both achieving economies of scale and competitive pricing as well as being the building blocks for accessing the massive continental market through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Building upon the region’s comparative advantages in commodities production, an analysis of the linkages is discussed namely, forward or downstream, mainly to manufacturing agriculture and construction, backwards or upstream to inputs comprising capital equipment, consumables and services as well as side stream linkages—knowledge and lateral linkages—spillover of expertise into other sectors.