Structural transformation
Structural transformation involves the movement of workers from low-productivity sectors (such as agriculture), to high-productivity (industrial, urban-based) sectors, leading to job creation, improved labour productivity and poverty reduction.
In much of Africa, urbanisation has taken place without structural transformation, leaving high numbers of city dwellers trapped in low-productivity informal employment. To create growth and reduce poverty, it is therefore essential to disentangle the connections between cities and structural change.
ACRC will look at how key city systems – including urban planning, infrastructural service provision (such as transport, energy, water and waste management), productivity-enhancing policies and regulatory frameworks, and educational and technology accumulation strategies – need to be pulled together to facilitate structural transformation. Our approach considers how the political economy of cities affects the potential for structural transformation. Success requires ruling elites to commit to investing in the public infrastructure necessary for firms to operate productively, and to building productive state–business relations. This can stand in tension with the incentives to extract rents from firms and household enterprises and to enter into collusive relationships, such as offering subsidies and contracts in return for political and personal financing.
LATEST NEWS from ACRC

From Margins to Models: Co-creating climate resilience in Lagos community
“From Margins to Models” – a new ACRC action research project being rolled out in the vulnerable coastal informal settlement of Ajegunle Ikorodu, Lagos – seeks to unlock the potential of communities to enhance climate resilience.

Urban economics in action: Addressing African cities’ challenges
Earlier this month, our CEO Professor Diana Mitlin participated at the 9th Urbanization and Development Conference, organised by the World Bank and the International Growth Centre in Cape Town.

Land in her name: Legal titles transforming the lives of women in Nigeria’s Borno State
Through the Systematic Land Titling Project, women across informal settlements in Maiduguri are now registering their land – and receiving statutory rights in their own names.