Sustainable Industrial Development Programmes of International Donor Agencies in Africa: An Analytical Perspective

Abstract

The study identified some of the sustainable development programmes of international agencies in Africa and assessed their impact on the economic development of the sub region. Data were randomly collected from primary and secondary sources. Data from secondary sources included reports from government and international agencies. Descriptive statistics, including percentages were used for analyses. The result showed that International Donor Agencies‟ projects were evenly spread across Africa and such projects include Policy Research Institutes that support the national government in floating qualitative polices for the industrial sector. In Nigeria, an entrepreneurial research centre which had been instrumental to the development of small and medium scale enterprises was established by UNIDO in conjunction with the federal government at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife . UNIDO also continues to spend billions of US dollar on the capacity building of women support enterprises across the continent. The identified support programmes included weaving, textile, leather, food processing, dairy and other technology based industries. The study concluded that Donor agencies like UNIDO have been instrumental to the ongoing economic restructuring to increase annual growth rate of manufacturing value added in the sub region. However, more insightful corporate entrepreneurship programmes with improved infrastructural and electric power facilities should be encouraged. Increasing support to firms through diverse channels would boost rapid economic development of the sub region.

Key words: Sustainable programmes, economic development, infrastructure, and value added.