Africa finds itself at a critical moment in its global economic engagement. The continent's abundant resources have recently attracted external interest, raising concerns about potential exploitation by major global players. Yet, there's also an opportunity for deeper integration into global value chains (GVCs), potentially amplifying African countries' voices on multilateral platforms.

Given these dynamics, policy-making in the continent’s interest requires a profound understanding of their (medium to long-run) implications not only on directly related measures such as trade and invest-ment, but also more broadly on economic development.

The conference is jointly organized by the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Boston University, the Economic Research Forum (ERF), the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at University of Cape Town and the Research Network Sustainable Global Supply Chains. The in-person conference will take place at the premises of IDOS in Bonn (Germany).

Conference submissions and related inquiries should be directed exclusively to socioeconomic@idos-research.de. In both cases, please use “AfrEcon 2024” in the subject line.

There are no conference fees. Limited funds for travel and accommodation for participants from the Global South are available. Please indicate in your submission if you wish to apply for funding.

Participants are fully responsible for organizing their travelling, but we will provide logistical and information support if necessary.

Conference deadlines

Please note that participants need to provide full papers, i.e., self-contained papers that include (first) empirical results, in order to complete registration for the conference.