UNIDO’s Africa Programme

Welcome to the website of UNIDO’s Africa Programme. In the following, you will find information on this programme’s priority areas and major activities. A range of publications is also available to present the scope of current projects and illustrate UNIDO’s role in mobilizing resources for their implementation.

You will see that the main challenge for development experts dealing with Africa is poverty alleviation which remains a serious issue in many parts of the continent. Our various programmes share the common objective to give people the tools, skills, education and infrastructure to pull themselves out of poverty and create sustainable livelihoods. We must understand, as Africans, that it is our responsibility to mobilize resources for the development of our countries. The African Union Commission, with UNIDO’s assistance, has formulated the “Action Plan for the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA)”, a strategy which aims to mobilize both financial and non-financial resources and increase Africa’s competitiveness with the rest of the world. Since the Industrial Development Decade of Africa of the 1980s and 90s, and the Alliance for Africa’s Industrialization (AAI) of 2003, this Action Plan is the latest far-reaching initiative endorsed by the African leaders.

In this light, the theme for the Africa Industrialization Day of 2009, “Industrialization for Integration” (celebrated on 20th November), underscored the key role of industrialization as a necessary condition for meaningful integration into the global economy. The benefits of enhanced regional integration in Africa include improved competitiveness through economies of scale and scope, increased trade opportunities through larger markets, new avenues of opportunities for larger investments, and increased production and marketing networks across countries.

Another key objective of our programmes is to add value to goods for export and develop local production capacities. Overall, Africa lags behind, accounting for less than 3 per cent of global gross output, and less than 1 per cent of global manufacturing output. UNIDO responds by undertaking a range of activities to upgrade value chains, bringing a product through various phases of processing to its final market destination. Strengthening local production capacities as well as enhancing skilled work force are the central prerequisites for an effective and sustainable upgrading of value chains.

We feel confident that the combined actions of UNIDO, Africa’s governments and their development partners in the public and private sector will tackle the challenges successfully, accelerate the continent’s industrial development and spread wealth among its people.   

Massata Cissé
Chief, Africa Programme
UNIDO