Digital Dividends or Dependency? Industrial policy in the age of digital economies
From Kenya’s digital economy, Maria Mexi and Kitrhona Cerri unpack how platforms, data, and algorithms are redefining industrial policy and the risks of falling into digital dependency.
A considered examination of whether digitalisation can enable inclusive growth—or entrench new forms of dependency.
As industrial policy reasserts itself on the global stage, a central question comes into focus: will digitalisation serve as a driver of inclusive development, or risk reinforcing existing structural dependencies?
In their latest contribution to the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Trade and Sustainability Review, TASC Platform’s Senior Policy Advisor, Maria Mexi, and Executive Director, Kitrhona Cerri explore this question through the lens of Kenya’s evolving digital economy. The article examines how digitalisation is reshaping labour markets, patterns of value creation, and economic governance and considers why, in the absence of robust policy frameworks, the anticipated digital dividends may remain unevenly distributed.
The analysis underscores the importance of aligning digital innovation with effective labour protections, targeted skills development, and mechanisms for domestic value capture. It calls for a more deliberate and strategic approach to industrial policy to ensure that digital economies are not only competitive, but also inclusive and grounded in local contexts.
At a time of intersecting green and digital transitions, the piece offers a clear message: technological advancement alone will not guarantee inclusion; it is ultimately shaped by policy choices.
Read the full article to explore how digital transformation can be harnessed to support more equitable and sustainable growth.
The Trade and Labour Programme convenes stakeholders across trade and labour research, policy and practice to examine how economic, digital and climate transitions can deliver more just and inclusive outcomes. Through fieldwork, multistakeholder dialogue, and policy engagement, the programme is building momentum for a global trade system that is socially responsive, economically resilient, and fit for the future of work, and the future of working together.
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