Over 300 African academics, policy
makers, politicians and government officials from
all over the continent and beyond gathered in Nairobi
on 15–17 September 2008 for a conference on
Natural Resource Management and Climate Change
in Sub-Saharan Africa. Part of the 20th Anniversary
observances mounted by the African Economic Research
Consortium (AERC), the conference afforded a sobering
look at these global issues and their potential impact
on economic development in Africa.
Natural resource management has been
on the policy agenda for a long time, but the effects
of climate change present new and urgent challenges.
Although everyone on earth may be affected by changes
in climate, SSA is most vulnerable, in part because
of its geography and in part because of its already
low level of development. The multiple linkages among
climate change, natural resource management, food
security, water scarcity and energy security have
been brought to the fore by the ongoing food price
crisis. Accelerating or sustaining economic growth
in SSA is thus all the more urgent in the face of
these risks. Implications of the combination of these
and other factors for poor people need to be better
understood and addressed on a country-by-country basis.
Conference discussions of climate change
and natural resource management – both in the
presented papers and in the commentary from the floor
– underscored the complexity of the development
challenge faced by SSA. They brought home the fact
that concern about these issues cannot be restricted
to rich countries; it is a shared global responsibility.
Both climate change and natural resource management
raise difficult issues of economic disparity, political
power and social justice. Recognition of climate change,
for example, is owed to modern science, yet solutions
involve deeply ethical considerations. Climate change
renders people vulnerable to the actions and choices
of others, and the way forward will require overcoming
divisions among regions. How SSA countries come together
to tackle these unprecedented challenges is likely
to become a defining feature of our time, affecting
the lives of current and future generations.
Emerging issues from the conference
The papers presented at the conference,
from the plenary to the group discussions, highlighted
the necessity for urgent capacity building and further
research to address the problems. SSA countries already
have a myriad of other pressing priorities –
low capacities, the very high opportunity cost of
investment, lack of investment in agriculture and
rural infrastructure, poor access to credit and markets,
inadequate social safety nets, degradation of arable
lands and forests. Climate change and accelerated
demand for natural resources will make these worse
– dangerous floods and storms, exacerbated water
stress, decline in agricultural productivity and food
security, and further spread of water-borne diseases.
There is great potential for widespread hunger, population
displacement, migration and conflict. Women, indigenous
communities and marginalized societal groups are most
vulnerable. The policy environment is critical to
determining how the continent will cope, and it is
the policy angle that stimulates AERC’s involvement.
Building research capacity in these issues to support
policy making is imperative.
Fundamentally, the challenge is to help poor SSA countries
grow their economies and improve living standards
despite the higher costs of development inflicted
by the challenges of climate change and resource degradation.
Consequently, there is a need to improve regional
and country-based knowledge of these cost components
and ways to minimize the total burden. This also implies
that policies should be balanced, with consideration
of national burdens of adaptation and the equity and
social concerns across and within the countries. There
is scope for research in adaptation actions that can
achieve lower carbon emissions growth and be supportive
of national development priorities and local business
opportunities such as energy efficiency, renewable
energy, sustainable livelihoods and environmental
protection.
Roadmap: Challenges for research,
training and policy dissemination
Priority areas for
research and analytical work in climate change and
natural resource management are numerous. They include
the following:
