Events

Background and Objective

Background and Objective

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Africa Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Commission for Africa (UNECA) and Africa Development Bank (AfDB), with funding from the European Union through the SWITCH Africa Green programme, developed the ‘Guidelines for Accelerating the Circular Economy Transition in Africa’ through a consultative process with African countries, RECs and Civil Society Organisations.

The agri-food sector is a large greenhouse-gas emitter, estimated to account for 21-37% of global emissions (IPCC 2019). Previously, the sector was sidelined in climate targets and strategies due to significant difficulties in reducing sector emissions and conflict with other goals such as food security (hard-to-abate sector).

The need for better management of our resources is becoming more and more evident as resources are becoming scarce and improvements in resource management have been demonstrated to have positive impacts on climate change mitigation, economic savings, resilience and poverty eradication, amongst others. There is a need to transition to a cyclic model all throughout the value chain wherein we do more and better with less resources.

In 2011, Ethiopia launched the Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy, its blueprint for green development, outlining the vision, strategy, financing and institutional arrangements that it will pursue to become a middle-income country by 2025. The strategy has the triple goals of economic growth, net-zero emissions and climate resilience and is mainstreamed into the country’s development plan and green initiative guidance.