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Clustering for Growth in Africa: The Pan-African Competitiveness Forum

Increasingly African stakeholders from business, academia and government emphasize the role of a competitive private sector as key in growth and poverty relief initiatives. This priority is largely supported by development partners from within and outside Africa.

This agenda offers a unique possibility for African stakeholders involved in cluster-based competitiveness initiatives to make a significant contribution to re-energizing and re-thinking private sector development activities.

A number of key stakeholders from all over Africa – representing business, academia and government – have in recent years met at national, regional and international seminars to discuss how to effectively initiate and implement cluster-based competitiveness initiatives. The Competitiveness Institute has played an important role in facilitating and organizing a number of these events.

Most recently, stakeholders from 8 African countries met at the 9th annual conference of The Competitiveness Institute in Lyon, France, 9-13 October 2006, to share their experiences with national and regional cluster-based competitiveness initiatives. Importantly, the stakeholders also discussed the potential of initiating a Pan-African collaboration on cluster-based competitiveness.

The stakeholders agreed that a Pan-African collaboration on cluster-based competitiveness would be a valuable contribution in further developing national and regional cluster initiatives. The reason for this rests not least with the fact that even if cluster initiatives have proven successful for competitiveness, many initiatives are still at their infant stages and would benefit from gaining access to good practice initiatives elsewhere in Africa.

To accommodate learning on how to re-energize and optimize existing cluster-based competitiveness initiatives as well as for how to most effectively design and implement new initiatives, the stakeholders agreed to develop a Pan-African platform for exchange of experiences and mutual learning: The Pan-African Competitiveness Forum. The Forum will be constituted by leading cluster practitioners/individuals from participating African countries and a representative of The Competitiveness Institute.

It will be a principal role of The Pan-African Competitiveness Forum to provide the platform for exchange of experiences and learning on cluster-based competitiveness initiatives in Africa. Furthermore, the Forum will provide a platform for advocacy through-out Africa of the tools and benefits of cluster-based competitiveness initiatives vis-à-vis governments and international development partners engaged in business and private sector development.

The stakeholders welcome all African professionals from business, academia and government working within the area of competitiveness to join us in the process.


The African stakeholders participating at The 9th Annual Conference of The Competitiveness Institute, Lyon, France