Making Foreign Direct Investment Work for Sub-Saharan Africa Local Spillovers and Competitiveness in Global Value Chains

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is becoming increasingly critical to the economies of developing countries, in part due to a major expansion in the scope of global value chains (GVCs), whereby lead firms outsource parts of their production and services activities across complex international networks. FDI delivers important contributions including investment, employment, and foreign exchange. However, it is FDI’s spillover potential—the productivity gain that may result from the diffusion of knowledge and technology from foreign investors to local firms and workers—that is perhaps its most valuable contribution to long-run growth and development. While substantial research has been undertaken on the existence and direction of spillovers from FDI, many questions remain. Moreover, there is a need to understand better the dynamics of spillovers in certain contexts, including in low-income countries, in resource-based sectors, and in the context of GVCs. Making Foreign Direct Investment Work for Sub-Saharan Africa: Local Spillovers and Competitiveness in Global Value Chains presents the results of a groundbreaking study designed to address some of these questions, drawing on detailed field research in eight countries (including five in Sub-Saharan Africa) across three sectors: agribusiness, apparel, and mining. The book presents a summary of the results of this analytical work and discusses the implications for policy makers hoping to harness the power of FDI for greater development outcomes.