1. Strengthening rural livelihoods
in the face of rapid urbanisation in Africa
Employment opportunities in West African food systems
Thomas Allen
Brussels, Belgium, 20 March 2017

2. Urbanisation and cities

3. Urbanisation and cities

4. Urbanisation and cities

5. 1 Changing demand
2 Food: The largest private sector
3 The regional opportunities
4 Key messages

6. Diversifying diets
Urban 
Rural 

7. Demand for convenience
Urban
41%
Rural
36%

8. 1 Changing demand
2 Food: The largest private sector
3 The regional opportunities
4 Key messages

9. The region’s largest private sector
Size of the food economy
The region’s largest private sector c
36% of
regional GDP
178 USD billion
(2010)
32 USD billion
(2010)
GDP Ghana

10. Food imports = 7%…
The domestic food economy is 16x bigger than the agricultural export sector
178 USD billion
(2010)
11 USD billion
(2010)
Agricultural exports

11. 1 Changing demand
2 Food: The largest private sector
3 The regional opportunities
4 Key messages

12. 178 USD billion Increasingly non agricultural Economic diversification
(2010)

13. Employment structure in the food economy
Nigeria in 2016
13 m FTE jobs
19 m FTE jobs
Source: Tchirley et al. (2016) and author’s calculations

14. No youth-specific activities
Nigeria in 2016 %
Share of age group by segment
Source: Tchirley et al. (2016)

15. Different regional and local contexts
Concentration
of urban demand

16. Different regional and local contexts
Source: Karg et al. (2016)
Ouagadougou
Concentration
of urban demand

17. 1 Changing demand
2 Food: The largest private sector
3 The regional opportunities
4 Key messages

18. Emerging opportunities in the West African food economy
Key messages
Emerging opportunities in the West African food economy
Post-harvest segments of the food value chains will experience the fastest growth
Need to better understand the local contexts and spatial dimensions of job creation

19. Réseaux marchands
Thank you for your attention