GEO-6 Regional Assessment for Africa

GEO-6 Regional Assessment for Africa

• Fostering local innovation and cross-sectoral partnerships

The private sector plays a strong role in all scenarios, whether as large companies or SMEs. Fostering social entrepreneurship,

corporate social responsibility and

highlighting opportunities inherent in sustainable business and innovation is key. It is necessary to help realize the benefits of the green economy by establishing transparent and simple rules to guide investment and encourage development of private-sector guidelines on responsible practices. Investment safeguards and frameworks must also be implemented (WWF/AfDB 2015).

3.4.3. Specific actions highlighted from environmental and development domains

A number of actions can be highlighted that focus on specific environmental and development domains. The policy pathways in Table 3.4.5 highlight the importance of minimizing environmental and developmental trade-offs, and maximizing Africa’s potential to reach a sustainable, inclusive development path that effectively safeguards its land, water, air and biodiversity:

• Infrastructure

Expanding core infrastructure in urban areas and increasing basic transport infrastructure and energy supply are key to quality growth. However, this must be done while also ensuring that there is a transformative shift away from carbon-intensive development as well as strengthening effective spatial and coordinated strategic planning. It is imperative that all infrastructure policy, planning and implementation explicitly recognizes the value of ecological assets (WWF/AfDB 2015).

• Land

In terms of land, options for action should include regulating large-scale land investments to ensure they do not threaten food and livelihood security. In addition, targeted investment in basic transport infrastructure, which can

increase access and lower transportation costs, as well as enabling small-holder farmers, particularly for improved irrigation coverage and efficiency, fertilizer and high-yield seeds, can lead to increased land productivity, minimizing agricultural expansion and land degradation.

• Air quality

In order to improve air quality, increased effort to achieve widespread deployment of renewable energy, including off-grid energy infrastructure, can be key to reducing outdoor pollutant emissions from energy and industry. Targeted investment in electrification, increased energy efficiency and increased demand-side management can also lead to reduction of transport and industrial emissions, improving overall air quality with co-benefits of climate change mitigation. Indoor air quality can also be improved by promoting the uptake of improved cooking stoves and better household ventilation.

• Water The thematic area of water can see significant improvements through the implementation of integrated water resource management strategies. Focus should be on increasing water-use efficiency by households, industry and particularly agriculture. Enforcing integrated coastal zone management while improving ocean surveillance as a way to reduce illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing can improve the health and sustainable management of coastal and marine resources.

• Biodiversity

In terms of biodiversity, key policy priorities are in the area of halting poaching, deforestation, wetland conversion and coastal and marine degradation. Promoting trans- frontier conservation areas as well as benefit-sharing and participatory management approaches, such as community- based natural resource management as has been done in Namibia, and payments for ecosystem services, are also key to safeguarding biodiversity throughout the region.

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