<p>In the literature on the impact of GVCs on developing and emerging economies, there is a consensus that participation in these networks is crucial for securing enhanced access to markets and knowledge networks, as well as new opportunities for production capability formation by local suppliers. Strategies on how to gain higher value activities within GVCs aim at industrial upgrading through product or process upgrading and intra-chain or inter-chain upgrading.</p><p>Looking at the preconditions for participating in GVCs, the ACP countries perform relatively poorly, facing geographical, institutional and infrastructural barriers to trade. The need to tackle these barriers is especially relevant in light of the recent developments in GVCs, comprising trade in services and the shifting geography of locations, which might offer new opportunities for the ACP countries to finally plug in or upgrade.</p><p>This study first shows the relevance of GVCs and global production networks in general, after which it considers the challenges of fragmentation for ACP countries. It analyses the role of GVCs in modern trade and development and then shows the problems faced by ACP countries wishing to integrate into GVCs and upgrade within them. Accordingly, it clusters the heterogeneous ACP countries into groups with similar characteristics before asking what they can do to integrate into value chains, whether global or regional.</p>