LAC Participation in Digital Business Process-Related Services

This background paper report was prepared for Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI). It defines and describes the global digital business process–related services ecosystem, presents Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries’ participation, and provides considerations for increasing participation. From a global perspective, the LAC region is viewed as an offshore destination for cost reduction and workforce availability rather than innovation. Export-oriented foreign investors are primarily shared services centers and third-party providers of contact center services. Opportunities for LAC to contribute significantly to the global digital services ecosystem are unlikely, at least in the short to medium term, given the dominance of U.S. technology firms and LAC’s limited participation in terms of supply and demand. Increasing use of digital technologies and services and supporting regional firm development are more feasible objectives. LAC firms may be able to reach a global audience in niche areas based on local expertise and partnerships with global digital firms.

Roles of the Business Environment in Global Value Chains

This technical report was written by Stacey Frederick for the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) Business Environment Working Group. It examines how the business environment can support positive integration and upgrading of formal firms in global value chains (GVCs). It addresses the role of the business environment and reform regarding attracting lead firms and supporting positive effects from investment, increasing the quality and supply of domestic firms, facilitating linkages between foreign and domestic firms, and supporting integration into new chains via regional trade agreements. These are discussed in this report as they relate to factors affecting competitiveness in GVCs.

A Study on APEC Cooperation for Digital Economic Utilization in GVC in the COVID-19 Era

This report investigates the digital transformation occurring within GVCs and describes the implications those changes carry for APEC cooperation. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to accelerate the digital transformation and bolster the digital economy as work is underway to overcome this unprecedented crisis. Under these circumstances, understanding digital transformation within GVCs is critical to surmounting the COVID-19 crisis and preparing for a post-pandemic era.

From Jobs to Careers: Apparel Exports and Career Paths for Women in Developing Countries

It is well-established that bringing more women into the formal labor force is critical for economic development. One strategy often cited is further integrating developing countries into global trade, particularly global value chains (GVCs), to contribute to female labor market outcomes through the expansion of female-intensive industries. As a result, a big question frequently debated, is whether the apparel industry – which is the most female-intensive and globally engaged manufacturing industry – can be a key player in this regard. In recent decades, the apparel industry has shifted its production to low-wage developing countries, increasing the demand for women, closing male-female wage gaps, and bringing women into the formal labor force. Indeed, the benefits of apparel exports have reached the female population, but is an apparel-led export strategy sufficient to induce the transition from jobs to careers? This book provides an answer by focusing on seven countries where the apparel industry plays an important role in its export basket – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam. The Report’s key finding is that countries should take advantage of the apparel industry as a launching platform to overcome the fixed costs of introducing more women into the labor market. However, for this approach to work, there needs to be complementary policies that tackle the barriers that hinder women in their pursuit of long-term participation in the labor force and better-paid occupations. A hope is to shift the paradigm of how we think of women’s participation in the labor force by demonstrating the importance of the distinction between jobs and careers. Although aspirations towards careers are achieved in different ways, understanding how progress is being made in each country towards a more equitable life between men and women will pave the way for a better route forward.

Occupational safety and health improvement in agricultural global supply chains

This synthesis review identifies common drivers and constraints for OSH improvements in agricultural global supply chains. The findings provide information that can assist in developing effective strategies to improve OSH in agricultural global supply chains and to identify research gaps and potential for future research. The report is published by the ILO Vision Zero Fund.

Occupational safety and health improvement in the garment industry

The objective of this synthesis review is to establish OSH vulnerability profiles and identify the common drivers that could be leveraged and the constraints that should be addressed to improve OSH in garment factories. The findings provide information that could be used in developing effective strategies to improve OSH in global supply chains in the garment industry and to identify research gaps and potential for future research. The report is published by the ILO Vision Zero Fund.

GVC lens can inform responses to bolster tourism industry in developing countries

Stacey Frederick and Jack Daly look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry in developing countries and provide insights from global value chain (GVC) analysis as in this op-ed for Trade and Development News managed by the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF).

Trade flows in the age of automation

This report analyzes four digital innovations that have the potential to disrupt global value chains: the Internet of Things (IoT); blockchain; artificial intelligence (AI); and advanced manufacturing. While advances in information and communication technology have largely worked in concert in the past to support the expansion and fragmentation of global value chains the impact of these innovative digital technologies are unlikely to be uniform. The report evaluates these new technologies in the context of financial, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries to arrive at three key takeaways. First, the private sector’s competitiveness will increasingly depend on an ability to collect, store, organize, and analyze data. Second, regional value chains will emerge as global trade orients more around regional poles. And third, big tech firms could disrupt global value chains, although it appears as likely that they will collaborate with existing firms in established markets. The report was published by the Atlantic Council and written by Jack Daly and Nick Brown, related experts Bart Oosterveld and Ole Moehr.

Global Value Chain Mapping

Abstract: Global value chain research has evolved over the last two decades from a theoretical framework to an applied research approach widely used in industrial organization and development studies to address a myriad of research questions. A key element of conducting such research is establishing a clear, repeatable process to identify and describe the stakeholders and concepts of the analysis across a range of industries and topics. The global value chain (GVC) research approach has two main steps: value chain mapping (identifying who and where) and value chain analysis (the what and why). This chapter focuses on value chain mapping – the process of identifying the structural elements along the value chain, including firms, workers, activities, products, and places. It includes steps and data sources to define the scope of an industry using a combination of international standardized classification systems and insights from existing research and fieldwork. The general approach is presented along with industry-specific examples of how the process has been applied in GVC studies. This chapter was written by Stacey Frederick and appears as Chapter 1 in the Handbook on Global Value Chains.

The Rise of Digital Companies and Strategies: Case Studies in the U.S. and Korea

This article is related to research conducted as part of the collaboration between KIET and GVCC. The article was published in the March/April 2019 KIET Industrial Economic Review, Volume 24, Issue Number 2, p. 14-27.