How Bureaucracies Work: AUDA-NEPAD's Approach to Trade and Industrialisation

The paper examines AUDA-NEPAD's role in driving Africa's structural transformation through trade integration and industrialisation. While the agency has successfully established high-level policy frameworks and partnerships, it faces significant implementation gaps due to institutional complexity, donor dependency, and structural bottlenecks. The document highlights a persistent disconnect between policy design and execution, particularly in the area of green industrialisation, and argues for a shift toward locally adaptive action and reduced external influence to achieve sustainable economic growth.

• AUDA-NEPAD has successfully developed continent-wide policy frameworks and facilitated high-level partnerships, contributing to an increase in intra-African trade from approximately 10% in 2012 to about 15% by 2022.
• Despite policy gains, Africa's share of global manufacturing value-added remains stagnant, typically staying below 2%, hindered by structural bottlenecks such as skills mismatches, costly logistics, and unreliable power supplies.
• The agency's efforts toward green industrialisation, guided by the Africa Green Minerals Strategy (AGMS), have failed to deliver necessary transformations due to insufficient domestic funding, limited data capacity, and a lack of independent evaluation systems.
• AUDA-NEPAD's operational agenda is significantly influenced by external donors and international financial institutions, which sometimes dilutes the original homegrown vision and creates a mismatch with diverse national contexts.
• Implementation of trade goals is obstructed by persistent non-tariff barriers, customs inefficiencies, and coordination failures between AUDA-NEPAD, the AU Commission, and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
• The agency's engagement with the private sector is primarily consultative and fails to adequately address the practical business obstacles faced by local manufacturers and MSMEs.

APA

Toulassi, K. (2025). How Bureaucracies Work: AUDA-NEPAD's Approach to Trade and Industrialisation. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/how-bureaucracies-work-auda-nepads-approach-to-trade-and-industrialisation

Chicago

Toulassi, Kossi. How Bureaucracies Work: AUDA-NEPAD's Approach to Trade and Industrialisation. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2025. https://afripoli.org/how-bureaucracies-work-auda-nepads-approach-to-trade-and-industrialisation.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Toulassi |first1=Kossi |title=How Bureaucracies Work: AUDA-NEPAD's Approach to Trade and Industrialisation |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=1 July 2025 |url=https://afripoli.org/how-bureaucracies-work-auda-nepads-approach-to-trade-and-industrialisation |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{toulassi2025how, author = {Toulassi, Kossi}, title = {{How Bureaucracies Work: AUDA-NEPAD's Approach to Trade and Industrialisation}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://afripoli.org/how-bureaucracies-work-auda-nepads-approach-to-trade-and-industrialisation}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }