Conservation, public officer accountability top priorities for Africa

What you need to know:

  • Africa’s ‘rising’ tag may continue, but public officers will have to change their attitude about climate change and see their positions as those of service, not enrichment.
  • Dr Okonjo-Iweala argues in the report that while Africa has contributed the least dangerous emissions to the environment, it is the most-exposed to effects of gases that contribute to global warming, the driver of climate change.
  • That anomaly is a blot to a continent said to have 10 of the fastest growing economies in the world. But experts had warned before, since 2010, that it will be the continent’s biggest headache.

Africa’s position in the upcoming decade could depend on how officials conserve the environment and remain answerable to the growing population.

In a new report by non-profit think-tank Brookings Institution, Africa’s ‘rising’ tag may continue, but public officers will have to change their attitude about climate change and see their positions as those of service, not enrichment.

The Foresight Africa report released last week puts forward six key areas that African leaders may focus on if at all the people’s livelihoods are to be improved.

It says they must allocate more attention and funds to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the UN’s vision for a poverty-less world by 2030.

They must also inculcate public accountability through better elections and services, target the welfare of the youth and combat climate change.

The leaders, the report says, must also invest in the ‘fourth industrial revolution’, where innovation is encouraged and policies that support private investors implemented, rather than rake in debts for white elephants.

CLIMATE CHANGE

It seems this has to start with a clean environment.

“Make no mistake, the big emitters absolutely must step up their domestic climate action, and quickly," said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, now a non-resident Distinguished Fellow at the Africa Growth Initiative of the Brookings.

"But building the new climate economy is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that every African nation should prioritise and claim a stake in."

Dr Okonjo-Iweala argues in the report that while Africa has contributed the least dangerous emissions to the environment, it is the most-exposed to effects of gases that contribute to global warming, the driver of climate change.

“Devastating cyclones affected three million people in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe in the spring of 2018. GDP exposure in African nations vulnerable to extreme climate patterns is projected to grow from $895 billion (Sh89.5 trillion) in 2018 to about $1.4 trillion (Sh140 trillion) in 2023—nearly half of the continent’s GDP,” she noted.

BIGGEST HEADACHE

That anomaly is a blot to a continent said to have 10 of the fastest growing economies in the world. But experts had warned before, since 2010, that it will be the continent’s biggest headache.

“Climate change is and has been an issue for the continent for the last 15 years and has been continually getting more complex to manage,” said Macharia Kamau, Former Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for el-Niño and Climate Change.

Mr Kamau, now Kenya's Principal Secretary of Foreign Affairs, told the Nation that he would tour the world warning leaders that the effects of climate change would worsen.

“The cost to African economies is anywhere between one and a half to three per cent of the GDP. This translates to a punitive climate change penalty and a severe restriction on economic potential, growth and positive social transformation."

But climate change is a result of nearly 200 years of the industrial revolution, which Africa did not take part in.

GOVERNANCE

Further, the UN says about 430 million people in Africa are bone-poor or in “extreme poverty” and may need at least $1 trillion annually to implement SDGs.

Brookings experts suggest that issues of governance and inclusion could be top priority as well.

A random poll showed that nearly half of the people want better elections and governance (48 per cent) prioritised so that youth development, health, climate change and regional integration policies are implemented.

“Strong institutions and human development calibre; those are the constraints for Africa,” Armando Manuel, the Alternate Director of the World Bank, said last week during a panel discussion on the report in Washington.

“The rate of discoveries of natural resources in Africa is currently so high that the countries can easily turn into middle income countries. But the problem is that when they reach middle income level, they reach a trap; facing constraints of growth, constraints of income distribution….no inclusion."

POPULATION EXPLOSION

This decade, the UN says should be one of action on poverty, wars, environmental degradation and poor governance. The African Union prioritised 2020 to end violence and 2063 for full integration.

Foresight said business environments across the continent were improving, regional integration centered around the African Continental Free Trade Agreement were progressing, and that transformational technologies were present.

But the rapid rise of the population requires better policies.

Mr Matt Rees, the Interim Coordinator for Prosper Africa at USAID, the US government’s private investment support arm, argues African leaders must prioritise solutions to deal with the population explosion.

“Governments and, most importantly, private players must step up to solve the problem … so that they can collectively create employment for the urbanising population … begin to pay for the achievement of the SDGs ... guide for policies that can lead to environmentally friendly outcomes and begin to hold governments accountable,” he said on the panel last week.

“They have to allow people to vote with their economic powers rather than their demographic powers or kinship," he said.

"The priority should be … how to work with the private sector on policy shift. At least propose answers that are more achievable rather than take on more debt from either international development banks, multilateral banks or unsavoury characters who not only tie people in debt but also don’t invest in labour…and capacity transfer.