For more than decade Africa has registered strong
economic growth with impressive results across a range of social, environmental
and governance indicators. Not since independence have the continent’s
prospects looked so promising. And now, more than ever, the world needs Africans to
succeed. However, Africa's continued rise is by no means assured and many
questions remain unanswered. 2015 looks likely to be a decisive year for the
‘Hopeful Continent’.
Two historic international negotiations are taking place in 2015 that
require Africa to speak out and to speak with one voice: the
adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the UN General Assembly
expected in September and the UN’s Climate Change Summit in Paris in November.
The outcome of these interlinked negotiations will
determine the direction and pace of Africa’s rise and its necessary transition
to a sustainable and climate resilient economy that, by
definition, must be low carbon, resource efficient, socially
inclusive and environmentally responsible.
African leaders in their Consensus
Statement to the UN’s Rio+20 ‘Earth Summit’ in June 2012 made it clear that
the only way to succeed in this transition is by building a green economy. The African
Development Bank has made it equally clear that green
growth is critical for Africa’s future. In the months leading up to this year’s
summits Africa’s ‘green voice’ must be heard.
Unfortunately the opposite could easily happen, as there is mounting
concern that Africa is unsure of
its place on the world stage and may be losing the diplomatic
gains it has made internationally over the past decade.
It is against this vulnerable backdrop that Africa has to deal with a
host of converging and interconnected challenges - economic, social,
environmental and political - driven by both internal and external forces.
Economic: falling
commodity prices, fiscal and current account deficits, foreign exchange crises,
illicit capital outflows, tax evasion, rising borrowing costs and
non-performing loans are contributing to the continent’s unsustainable
debt.
Social:
persistent poverty, rising hunger, inequality, unemployment, illegal
migration, disease, extremism and insecurity if not addressed could turn
Africa’s huge demographic dividend into a global demographic
time bomb.
Environmental: climate
change, deforestation, soil erosion, flooding, desertification, biodiversity
loss and extreme weather events threaten Africa’s agricultural output while the
continent faces population growth of historic dimensions.
Political: With many
older leaders reluctant
to step down and nearly a third of Africa’s 54 countries
holding elections in 2015, the continent’s hard won democratic advances of recent
years will be severely tested.
Add mounting geopolitical crises and the ever-present threat of another global
economic downturn to the mix and it becomes clear that for Africa to
meet these challenges, continue to rise and contribute to sustainable global
growth, something urgently needs to change. The most viable route to bring
about such change and roll back business-as-usual is through developing an
inclusive and robust African green economy that measures Africa in new ways.
With the window of opportunity for change closing fast
there are four ways Africa can raise its ‘green voice’ on the world stage and
improve its negotiating position in 2015.
One.
Put the green economy into this year’s record number of Africa summits.
Worldwide there are more than one a week yet hardly any
have the green economy in their otherwise excellent programmes. Each of these
summits is a unique opportunity for Africans and their green partners to
explore ways and means of creating green growth with others who may not be
aware of the huge green potential in this ‘last frontier’.
Two.
Form a Pan-African Green Economy Coalition that will unite all 54 African
countries with a common goal of spreading knowledge of the continent’s current
and potential green growth. Despite a vast network of green
growth initiatives and partnerships
created in Africa over the past 20 years there is no single coordinating body
bringing all these together. Such a coalition would create space for the public
and private sectors to communicate in new ways and to form a single green voice
for Africa on the world stage.
Three.
Present a Pan-African green investment plan to the international community that
will demonstrate how Africa can become an engine of global green growth for the
21st century. Item 24 of Africa’s Consensus
Statement to Rio+20 called on the international
community to ‘put an international investment strategy in place to facilitate
the transition to a green economy’. As this has not been forthcoming, the 2015
summits offer an historic opportunity for Africans to develop and present a
green investment strategy of their own.
Four. Develop a smart Pan-African
publicity campaign designed to get Africans talking about the green economy.
This can be done through traditional as well as social media. Such a campaign
will clarify Africa’s unique potential for accelerating green growth. It should
be made clear that the green economy is not restricted to low carbon energy (as
is so often thought) but also, and equally, includes resource efficiency,
social inclusion and environmental responsibility.
If Africa is still a ‘green field for investment’ the challenge is to
keep it green while delivering the investments, goods and services Africans
need. Enough foundation
work has been done since the end of the Cold War to make this happen. The
knowledge and information are there. The management tools and green technologies
have been developed. The financial instruments are being honed. The skills have
been learned and the people are ready. Political and business leaders know what
is required. Global corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars of underperforming funds.
This is
Africa’s third era of hope. The first was at independence. The second came at
the end of the Cold War - Africa’s ‘second liberation’. Although ‘this time is
different’ unfortunately so much is still the same and business-as-usual, or
the high carbon, resource intensive, socially divisive, environmentally
degrading and unsustainable ‘brown’ economy, continues to be the most dominant force on the continent.
For this time to be truly different in ways that will benefit the world, this
is the time for Africa’s ‘green voice’ to make itself heard.
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