Addis Ababa — The Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management Division (TCND) at ECA is leading a study on unleashing the potential of the private sector to drive green growth and employment in Africa. Reports are currently being drafted by national consultants on 6 selected countries (Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia). Besides the country case reports, a regional study will be conducted.
Through action-oriented recommendations the reports aim at strengthening private sector capacity to undertake green growth and create sustainable employment. The study will also provide practical guidelines for policy makers to design and implement policies conducive to green growth. The focus will be on four key sectors: energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and waste management. While these wield high growth and investment opportunities, they have also been associated with a high environmental foot print.
The study will outline key opportunities for greening the private sector and sustainable job creation, related to finance, technology, capacity development and policies. Existing green business models will be evaluated on their feasibility and scalability and best practices will be identified. The reports also aim at strengthening national strategies for private sector investment and identifying platforms or networks for collaboration and peer learning. In that way, the study will make substantial contributions to the achievement of various SDGs, Africa's Agenda 2063, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Greening the economy, accompanied by decent job creation, is crucial in order to address national development challenges and ensure inclusive and sustainable development. African growth has largely been driven by heavy reliance on natural resources, leading to a growing degradation of natural capital as well as waste generation (ECA, 2016). At the same time, growth is being constrained as a result of climate change, by which the region has been disproportionally affected.
African growth also needs to be more sustainable in terms of employment. The region has the highest rate of informal and vulnerable employment in the world, respectively 85% and 66% (UN, 2019). An estimated 12.4% of young Africans is unemployed (ECA, 2017). In order to accommodate young people entering the labour market, an estimated 18 million jobs each year will need to be created over the next 15 years (IMF, 2015).
The private sector plays a key role in fostering green growth and job creation (ECA, 2016; ECA 2016a). Businesses are at the forefront in innovation and technology transfer and an estimated 78% of all employment in low-income countries is created by SMEs. However, in a context of weak standards and safeguard systems, African private sector growth is characterised by a large environmental footprint. It is therefore paramount to create the right policies and incentives. This ECA study will make substantial contributions to identifying key opportunities for sustainable growth and job creation in the private sector across the continent.
