Opportunities for large-scale job creation and structural transformation in Africa

The African continent faces a defining challenge: How to create productive employment opportunities at scale for its rapidly growing youth population and accelerate economic transformation. Historically, this challenge has been addressed through the industrial sector, notably manufacturing. Around the world, however, both industrial activity and employment have tended to peak at lower shares of GDP in earlier stages of economic development—a phenomenon dubbed premature deindustrialization. Development specialists have also begun to question Africa’s ability to replicate the industrial success of regions before it, such as East Asia.

Several years ago, the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings, in partnership with African think tanks and research institutions, initiated a research program that set out to explore the potential of “industries without smokestacks” to create large-scale productive jobs and become viable development escalators. The results, published in the book “New Pathways to Job Creation and Development in Africa: The Promise of Industries Without Smokestacks,” suggest that if stewarded properly, these service-based sectors, like horticulture, tourism, and information and communication technology, can indeed help accelerate structural transformation in Africa, even in the face of premature deindustrialization.  

On May 27, the Africa Growth Initiative hosted a launch event for this new book, featuring the book’s co-editors and expert panelists who discussed the growing number of industries without smokestacks which, across the region, suggest a different—but potentially effective—route to employment creation and structural transformation.

Viewers joined the conversation and asked questions in advance by emailing [email protected] and on X @BrookingsGlobal using #IndustriesWithoutSmokestacks.