africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
Figure 16.7 links the maturity of GVCs with their potential for assisting a country’s
socioeconomic development. Not all GVCs have such potential: some lead firms
essentially tap into the resources of poorer countries without transferring any kind
of knowledge/technology or offering these countries real upgrading prospects.
Three phases in the maturity of value chains are distinguished: a predation phase
in which developing countries are confined to exporting raw materials and importing
processed goods and services; a segmentation phase in which developing countries
benefit from the delocalization of certain production activities, mostly to serve local
markets; and a consolidation phase in which local innovation turns into export of
processed goods and services to other developing and developed countries. While
the last phase has the greatest potential for assisting a country’s development, it is
also more selective: the consolidation of GVCs corresponds to a diminution of the
number of participants in GVCs, and hence threatens to leave more developing
countries outside major trade flows and upgrading paths.
Figure 16.7: The Maturity of GVCs and Their Potential for Assisting
Socioeconomic Development
Source: Cattaneo and Miroudot, 2015.
Staritz and others (2011) have analyzed how the potential of GVCs for assisting
socioeconomic development changes when end-markets shift to the South. In line
with the theory of maturation of GVCs presented in Figure 16.7, lead firms and end
markets shape the development path of upstream participating countries. Figure 16.8
shows the example of the timber value chain between Gabon and China. Between
1985 and 1995, China’s imports of processed wood (plywood) steadily grew, until
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