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C. Staritz, M. Morris, L. Plank:
"Clothing Value Chains and Sub-Saharan Africa: Global Exports, Regional Dynamics and Industrial Development Outcomes";
in: "Future Fragmentation Processes Effectively Engaging with the Ascendancy of Global Value Chains", issued by: The Commonwealth Secretariat; Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 2017, ISBN: 978-1-84929-166-8, 123 - 132.

This rise of textiles and clothing global value chains (GVCs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is generally perceived as a successful process of
beginning the industrial development process through leveraging preferential market access (PMA) and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). However, simply using an aggregated analysis of SSA clothing exports masks some crucial differences: end-market shifts, the emergence of regional value chains (RVCs), the variety of firm types inserted in different value-chain channels, the political-economy dynamics driving this, and related sustainability and development implications. Within this chapter, different types of firms in the textiles and clothing industry - transnational, regional,
diaspora and indigenous - are identified in SSA and their implications for upgrading are described. Transnational investors, as opposed
to regional or diaspora investors, for example, were initially attracted to SSA because of lower costs, quota restrictions and preferential access to the US market resulting from the Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Because of changes in the trade preference regimes, as well as other regional and global dynamics,
within this chapter four key policy areas are identified for governments to focus their efforts so that they can continue to leverage the income and employment opportunities arising from GVC participation: increasing productivity through investing in skills,
fostering local entrepreneurship, diversifying markets and, finally, facilitating trade, including through seeking more favourable
market accesses as well as developing business networks.

http://dx.doi.org/10.14217/9781848599604-en