Research reading: making Africa’s integration work for jobs and enterprise growth

Research selection checked on 27 October 2026. Original publication: 14 January 2026.

Andrew Dabalen, Woubet Kassa and Pierre Nguimkeu examine how regional integration can support employment and industrial development in Making Africa’s integration work for jobs, scale, and structural change, published by Brookings as part of Foresight Africa 2026.

The authors identify four connected priorities: stronger regional production networks, lower trade costs, more effective trade agreements and shared regional infrastructure and institutions. Their analysis discusses the role of agro-processing, logistics and light manufacturing in linking firms to larger markets.

For Tanzanian and East African businesses, the practical reading question is how border procedures, transport rules, energy reliability and common standards affect the cost of expansion. This is an InAfrika reading guide to a policy research essay; the source contains the authors’ full argument, evidence and references.

Read the original research and access the publisher’s chapter download.