Transitioning to a green economy in EA

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) identified the green economy as one of several approaches to sustainable development, the green economy should “contribute to eradicating poverty, as well as sustained economic growth, enhancing social inclusion, improving human welfare, and creating opportunities for employment and decent work for all while maintaining the healthy functioning of the Earth’s ecosystem.” Africa is home to many of the nations with the fastest expanding economies in the world. Nevertheless, a sizable portion of the population in these nations continues to live in poverty.

Therefore, it is crucial to consider how to make economic growth an effective and competitive driver to reduce poverty for as many people as possible and to ensure the sustainability of the environment. Some African nations have begun to intentionally alter their direction after realizing the promise of a green economy. Despite this, many African nations still lack widespread local-level application.

East Africa is rich in biodiversity and iconic landscapes and if managed well, these resources spur economic growth and improve livelihoods.
The region however faces challenges such as natural resource depletion, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, urban-industrial pollution and climate change. This has resulted in declining natural resources, increased conflicts over water and land including decreased food production and increasing levels of poverty. 
To deal with such challenges, there is a need to green the economies in the East African region. Economic growth is necessary to reduce poverty in low-income countries, but it needs to be socially and environmentally sustainable.
The transition to green economy/growth within the East African region is underway despite the fact that the countries in the region are at various stages of this transition. At the recent launch of the Green Economy Coalition - East Africa Hub (GEC-EA) it was observed that the regional partners specifically Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania have robust policy and legal frameworks that address climate change, environment and development. Institutions have been established and mandated to implement these laws/policies. 

Climate change and the environment have also been mainstreamed into economic and development policy. However, during the discussions, it was noted that there are still challenges facing the transition to a green economy in the region which include: inadequate collaboration in each country for greening initiatives despite the existence of the institutions; capacity and knowledge gaps; limited institutional mechanisms and platforms to bring in voices and visions of civil society and other actors such as business, and academia. Lastly, Finance for nature, positive investments and actions and green economies is a common challenge.

The East African Community (EAC) has an EAC Climate Change Policy whose overall objective of the EAC Climate is to guide Partner States and other stakeholders on the preparation and implementation of collective measures to address Climate Change in the region while assuring sustainable social and economic development. Likewise, the region should formulate an elaborate policy specific to transitioning to the Green Economy. It should be aligned to the existing EAC Climate Change Policy. This will guide the partners in the region on the strategies to transition to a green economy. Specifically the policy can be a framework which provides a strong focus on fostering the necessary conditions for innovation, investment and competition that are able to give rise to new sources of economic growth – consistent with resilient ecosystems.

Stakeholder inclusion in the design and implementation of regional and national strategies intended to transition to a green economy can help overcome the power relations, political obstacles and implementation challenges. Opportunities exist for the EAC member states to scale up their funding for greening the economy. This can be through mobilisation of public finances and leveraging public-private partnerships.  
The author, Ms Anna Amumpiire Akandwanaho works with Advocates Coalition for Development