Furthering its role as a leading voice on green growth in Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is the first regional development Bank to participate in the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP), a multi-stakeholder knowledge network including international organizations, bilateral agencies and academic institutions. The Geneva-based Secretariat of this new, state-of-the-art knowledge-sharing platform was officially launched at a high-level event at the end of January.
Through GGKP, AfDB shares reports, publications and other knowledge products on green growth with a special focus on the needs of Africa. Two recent examples of AfDB knowledge products include the 2013 report Green Growth Sierra Leone: Transitioning Towards Green Growth; Stocktaking and the Way Forward and the African Development Report: Towards Green Growth in Africa.
The Geneva launch event involved a moderated debate between Achim Steiner (UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director), Howard Bamsey (Director-General, Global Green Growth Institute), Marianne Fay (Chief Economist, Sustainable Development Network, World Bank) and Dale Andrew (Head of Environment Division, Trade and Agriculture Directorate, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Frank Sperling, Chief Climate Change Specialist in the AfDB Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Change, attended the GGKP launch on behalf of the Bank. In his remarks from the floor, he highlighted that the African Development Bank anchored inclusive growth and the transition to green growth as overarching strategic objectives. He furthermore emphasized that the GGKP represents an important repository of knowledge, where the Bank has already shared several of its relevant publications. In this context he expressed his hope that the diverse expertise and roles of the knowledge partners will help to fill knowledge gaps on green growth, providing practical guidance on how to advance the economic transformation of the continent in a sustainable and coordinated manner. In the response from the panel, UNEP Executive Director Steiner highlighted the leadership role played by AfDB President Donald Kaberuka and the Bank in framing green growth issues in the African context and the important role of the institution in promoting sustainable development pathways.
Also launched was the GGKP's new, updated web portal GreenGrowthKnowledge.org. The website comes in response to increasing demand from both policy-makers and the public for information on ways to achieve sustainable economic growth. The GGKP provides the green growth community of practice with access to policy analysis, guidance, information and data. It has a searchable e-library with over 600 technical and policy resources, as well as dashboards with data and policies for 193 countries. Finally, the website mobilizes knowledge, experience and support from partners in both the global economic and environmental sectors. It will help accelerate green economy transition.
The GGKP was founded by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank. It has a total of 29 knowledge partners, including international organizations, research institutes and think tanks. In the future, the GGKP will work with the AfDB and its other partners to promote collaboration and coordinated research on a number of priority themes, including green growth indicators and measurement, trade and competitiveness and green technology and innovation. The aim is to encourage widespread collaboration and first-rate research to practitioners and policy-makers.
