Sustainable Global Supply Chains

Gideon Ndubuisi and Solomon Owusu

This chapter discusses the prospects of a global supply chain-led development strategy for Africa amid four megatrends to identify relevant research gaps. The megatrends considered in the chapter include China’s rising global economic power and transition to knowledge-intensive sectors, the global digital transformation, Africa’s regional integration, and global trajectories towards stringent environmental sustainability. The overarching conclusion of the paper is that GSCs remain important as a vehicle for economic development in Africa, yet these megatrends hold profound implications for any such prospect, as they present great opportunities to seize as well as risks to mitigate. Concerning relevant research gaps, the chapter points to many important avenues for further research based on the discussions for each megatrend in line with the chapter’s objective.