Africa’s Socio-Economic Balancing Act under Climate Change
The balancing act, that countries across the globe have to perform in ensuring they meet both their social & economic development priorities alongside meeting their environmental & climate action obligations is as true to Africa as it is to every country elsewhere. In Africa, this premise takes on a different dimension because of two key aspects.
First, the continent being a negligible emitter, is not locked in high emitting and unsustainable economic models such that the cost of transitioning to sustainable models is relatively low.
Second, the continent stands out as the most disproportionately vulnerable region of the globe to climate change. This high vulnerability is driven by the prevailing low levels of socioeconomic development where Africa’s economies are up to 20times less productive than competitors in the global space. With this, the majority poor are unable to afford the goods & services that they need to buffer against the worst of the changing climate effects.
These two aspects therefore mean, that in Africa, the climate action and sustainability trajectory must be premised as a source of competitive socioeconomic opportunities capable of driving realization of key socioeconomic priorities — including food security, creation of income, enterprise and job opportunities, development of globally competitive economies that offer products mostly to the continental consumer markets.
To achieve the above, the following then is key:
a) The continent needs to leverage on catalytic sectors of the economy. These are sectors are defined by 3 crucial criteria. They are socioeconomically inclusive, meaning they are accessible to a majority in the economy who are in the informal sector which engages up to 80% or more, as well as the youth who are 60% of the population. Africa also holds a unique global comparative advantage in them in terms of resources. These sectors are also capable of ensuring that Africa actualizes its key socioeconomic priorities alongside achieving globally competitive productivity and mitigating emission and protecting its ecosystems to realize its sustainability obligations. Accordingly, 2 sectors — agriculture & clean energy engaged in complementarity (as opposed to in silos) towards establishing sustainable agro-industrialization as the engine of socioeconomically inclusive, globally competitive and environmentally sustainable growth, stands out for meeting these criteria. Other sectors of the economy therefore need to be convened as enablers of maximized productivity around this catalytic trajectory.
b) Strong policy prioritization is key, where transformation needs to build on past policy investments already made. Accordingly, the region has prioritized these sectors in nearly all national & regional blue-prints. Nationally, nearly every country with an economic development plan lists agriculture and clean energy as key drivers. Up to 70% of country commitments on climate action — popularly known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), list agriculture and clean energy. Regionally, the overarching continental blue print for transformation — the AU Agenda 2063, lists these sectors as among moist critical.
c) The extractive sector, by its very nature, stands out for its non-inclusiveness as it engages only a minority. At the same time, it has been responsible for financial inflows and forms a considerable part of GDP. What should happen is that the financial flows from extractives should be re-invested to drive productivity in the catalytic trajectory explained in point a above. This can be in form of prioritizing infrastructure development (e.g. roads and connectivity networks to efficiently link highly productive areas to markets), skills retooling, financial & other incentives to drive productivity engagement and investment in this catalytic area.
