Workshop on the National Productive Capacities Gap Assessment of Zambia and the fostering of productive capacities for a smooth transition from the LDC category

Zambia’s National Productive Capacities Gap Assessment (NPCGA) shows that the country lags behind developing countries in all measures of the PCI, except on the natural capital component.

Nevertheless, the country’s overall performance in the composite PCI is slightly better than the average for LDCs. However, it is lower than Africa’s regional average and, by far, lower than the region’s top performers.

Zambia’s weak performance in the energy (electricity), ICTs, private sector, and transport components is particularly worrying.

Objective

In view of the completion of Zambia’s NPCGA and listed therein gaps in terms of productive capacities as well as suggested policy interventions, the main objectives of the workshop are:

1. To present the NPCGA to domestic stakeholders in Zambia;
2. To validate the results of the NPCGA with the Government of Zambia and to examine the causes and consequences of the country’s development performance, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of Zambia’s productive capacities;
3. To agree on the formulation of the policy responses to ensure the building of productive capacities, and to align policy interventions with Zambia’s national development vision, and domestic plans and strategies, particularly, the 8th National Development Plan 2022-2026.
4. To build capacity among Government technical experts to utilize UNCTAD’s Productive Capacities Index PCI in order to design tailored and focused policy interventions to address the gaps in Zambia’s productive capacities.

Specific issues to be examined during the national workshop include:

1. Levels of productive capacities in Zambia (based on Zambia’s NPCGA) as compared to other developing economies, and their causes and consequences.
2. Utilization of the PCI to evaluate gaps in productive capacities and to identify binding constraints to structural transformation and subsequently formulate adequate policy responses;
3. Challenges to fostering productive capacities, diversifying the national economy and accelerating structural transformation in Zambia;
4. Successful experiences and best practices in policy formulation, building productive capacities and achieving structural economic transformation and their implications for Zambia.

Participants will include senior Government officials, national, regional, and international experts in the field of economic development and representatives of the private sector and civil society, including academic institutions in Zambia.