Shaping value chains with a view to development needs

Project description

A growing share of global output is accounted for by integrated value chains in which large corporations define the production parameters, and thus also the framework for their partner companies’ activities - be they suppliers of raw materials, components manufacturers, or the retail trade. For developing countries as well, competitiveness is increasingly a matter of being integrated into efficient value chains. If companies are to participate in modern value chains, they are required to meet increasingly demanding standards, i.e. the barriers to market access are growing.

Analysis of value chains enables us to identify market access barriers in developing countries. It also provides us with information concerning knowledge transfer, dependencies, and income distribution between value-added stages. This enables us to identify policy approaches that may serve to ease market access for (small) producers in developing countries and to improve distributional effects.
The department’s research on this issue includes conceptual papers, analysis of international best practices, case studies on individual value chains, and guidelines for development-policy practice.