Burundi in the Energy Global Value Chain: Skills for Private Sector Development

February 28, 2014

Penny Bamber | Andrew Guinn | Gary Gereffi

The Skills for Private Sector Development Project, commissioned by the Education Division of the World Bank, employed the GVC framework to identify specific workforce development strategies to foster upgrading within three industries crucial to Burundi's economic development: agribusiness, coffee and energy. Upgrading in these value chains is dependent on developing new capabilities and generally requires a substantially different set of workers with different skill sets. Knowing the requirements at each stage can help policy makers to prepare the workforce for the needs of future upgrading strategies. Burundi faces high and growing demand for electrical energy. Political and economic instability over the last two decades, however, has undermined the development of the country’s energy sector. With very low installed capacity, Burundi faces significant challenges with respect to energy supplies in the country. 90% of the country’s energy needs are currently met by the burning of biomass, primarily wood, for cooking and heat contributing to deforestation and health care issues, and the lack of electrical energy supply constrains the development of the country in the long term. As the country continues to rebuild its economy following the end of the crisis, policy makers, donors and the private sector have expressed interest in bolstering the sector, both as a means to promote economic output and also to leverage the sector for improved labor productivity and job creation for the large number of unemployed youth in the country.