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This report presents an analysis of the implementation and results of the SWITCH Africa Green programme in the manufacturing sector focusing on the participating countries Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and Uganda. It covers the strategic interventions, results realised, cross cutting thematic issues notably energy, water, eco-innovation, labels and standards, sustainable trade and markets, challenges, lessons learnt and presents a set of recommendations.

Ms Perrine Marie Samuella is a beautician from Latanier, Rodrigues. She is, however, not your usual kind of beautician. The owner of a mobile beauty and health salon, Marie uses products that are natural for her work and to make money and make her clients happy. This work involves beauty care and hair dressing using bio products, slimming and relaxation, Ayurvedic and Swedish massage.

Complexe Scolaire Baraka is a technical college located in Bobo-Dioulasso in the South-West of Burkina Faso. The institution had 410 students in 2017 in various courses including masonry, electricity, metal works, hair dressing, and tailoring. About 26% of the students are women and only 2% of the students taking electricity as a major are female.

The college was started in 2005 and in 2017 employed a total of 14 people; four of those being women.

Champion Shoes Limited, a leading shoe manufacturing firm situated in Thika town is perhaps one of the oldest establishments in leather footwear manufacturing in the area, having existed for over 15 years. It is run by entrepreneur Mr. James Mwaura.

Ciel Textile is a large scale company based in Port Louis, Mauritius that specializes in textile production. With a daily production capacity of 25,000 pieces, the company is considered a large scale producer in the textile industry. With SWITCH Africa Green support, the company carried out a baseline to understand the type of waste available. As a result, the company noted that plastic formed a significant amount of waste. This led the management to come to the decision of halting packaging of fabric in plastic to reduce amount of plastic coming in.

On the factory floor of Champion Shoes in Thika, northeast of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, company owner James Mwaura is pointing to a pile of irregularly shaped offcuts from the process of making men’s and school shoes. “This is the most important part of the business. This is money for us. Before, we used to throw it away,” Mwaura says.

‘Before’ was almost two years ago, when his business began benefitting from a European Union-funded project that is accelerating Africa’s transition to a green economy.

Afri Banana Products (ABP) supports incubatees (Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and start-ups) and stakeholder farmers to commercialize and upscale innovations along the banana value chain. ABP also supports students to obtain hands on experience through internships and industrial attachment opportunities.

AK Oils and Fats (U) Ltd produces sunflower and soya bean crude oil from sunflower and soya bean seeds respectively. It’s a subsidiary of Mukwano Industries
(U) Ltd, a private limited company located in the Upper Nile Water Management Zone.

On engaging with SWITCH Africa Green, water efficiency was an eye opener to the operations manager who realized the need to participate in the program. This resulted in the company conducting daily monitoring for leakages throughout the entire company.

The overall objective of SWITCH Africa Green is to support 6 countries in Africa to achieve sustainable development by engaging in transition towards an inclusive green economy, based on sustainable consumption and production patterns, while generating growth, creating decent jobs and reducing poverty. The objective will be achieved through support to private sector led inclusive green growth.