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One of Africa’s key strategies, as identified in the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns and its corresponding roadmap, is to promote a shift towards sustainable consumption and production – SCP – through eco-labelling. While eco-labelling is a very important tool for promoting SCP, eco-labelling capacity is low in South Africa generally, including among stakeholders of Proudly South African, South Africa’s local procurement advocacy campaign.
In Uganda, the coffee sector plays a major role in the national economy. It is the main source of income for an estimated 1.7 million smallholder families and a major contributor to gross domestic product and export earnings. Arabica coffee farming is seen as a promising opportunity to enhance the economic prosperity of the region and support its social stability. At Mount Rwenzori, however, the sustainability of the coffee value chain is in doubt because producing coffee is not profitable enough to guarantee economic security and provide decent livelihoods.
In South Africa, several traders, including supermarkets and food processing industries, have developed their own private quality and safety standards. Vegetable growers wishing to supply supermarkets, food processing industries and other high-value retail markets are expected to adopt the relevant standards and obtain independent certification.
Agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy: the sector accounts for 25% of gross domestic product and 65% of the country’s total export earnings. Composed largely of small-scale production (75% of the total agriculture outputs), the sector faces structural deficits such as stagnant productivity, expensive farm inputs, poor storage facilities and weak market competition.
Large- and small-scale horticulture is a key contributor to Kenya’s economy, but has a significant negative impact on the local environment, including through unsustainable water consumption and pollution from the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
The greatest challenges facing eco-enterprises are a lack of access to knowledge, networks, financing and high-quality business development services and poor enabling conditions, including a shortage of skilled people at the community level.
In Uganda’s northern region, about 80% of the population is unemployed or under-employed in the informal economy, and generally fully occupied with subsistence agriculture. Agriculture remains one of the few drivers of economic growth due to relatively fertile soils, two rainy seasons and the high demand for food and other agricultural products in the East African region, as well as the growing demand for organic products. Internationally, demand for sesame seeds has grown fast in recent years – sesame seed production in Uganda grew by 78% between 2002 and 2012.
The city of Port Elizabeth and its western catchment areas are experiencing considerable environmental, economic and social challenges, including energy and water supply constraints, that undermine the city’s potential to grow. Considerable environmental degradation due to poor farming practices, transformation of wetlands and rivers and the spread of invasive alien plants has had a negative effect on the hydrology of local river systems, which is threatening water security.
Declining farming profitability and water scarcity (drought, declining rainfall and excessive demand for water) has left South Africa with fewer than two-thirds the number of farms it had just a few decades ago. Agriculture is a key water consumer in South Africa, with about 62% of the country’s surface water being used for irrigation. Furthermore, soil erosion and degradation of agricultural land though overexploitation and inappropriate and unsustainable farming methods pose a threat to the country’s food security.
Fairtrade certification is the world’s leading ethical and sustainability certification system for agriculture, benefiting farming communities and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. The Fairtrade model of Fairtrade International directly and indirectly contributes to inclusive and green economic growth, leading to decent work, poverty reduction and – in the South African context – addressing the legacies of apartheid, including persistent social inequality and economic exclusion.
South Africa contains some of the most biologically rich rangelands in the world and a full 70% of the country is suitable for sustainable grazing. South Africa’s rangelands are also home to 76% of the poorest people in the country, many of whose livelihoods depend on livestock. In fact, 50% of the country’s livestock is owned by subsistence farmers or farmers who are just starting to sell to commercial markets. Increasingly, these farmers are women who have inherited herds.
Agriculture accounts for 3.4% of gross domestic product and 8.3% of employment in Mauritius. Although Mauritius is considered a net-food-importing country by the World Trade Organization, the small-scale agriculture sector is vital to the production of some 115,000 tons of food crops annually. Some 9,000 small-scale farmers are involved in vegetable and fruit production, with limited capacity in marketing group initiatives. There is growing demand for higher-quality food in Mauritius.
The Rodrigues fishing community is largely focused on massive fishing activities, to the detriment of the marine ecosystem. To improve this situation, the Commission of Environment and Fisheries introduced an “octopus closing period” to shift the local people away from fishing and towards alternative livelihoods, such as cleaning up and beautifying their local communities, for a limited period.
Centre de Formation Agricole Frère Remi is a training centre catering to young people, aiming to develop their academic and vocational skills. The centre welcomes teenagers aged between 12 and 18 years old who have experienced successive academic failures, mainly at the primary school level. It offers courses in mathematics, French, English, livestock rearing, horticulture, floriculture, mosaiculture, phytotechnics and zootechnics. The teenagers are encouraged by coaches and volunteers to develop their vocational skills in order to eventually start up their own micro-businesses.
Currently, Ghana has a wide range of traditional agriculture production that makes a major contribution to food security and livelihoods in rural areas, including production of shea nuts, palm kernels, peanuts, seeds and cassava. These products are processed using thermal energy before being consumed or traded. Firewood is traditionally used for the vast majority of thermal agro-processing, and recent increases in the price of liquified petroleum gas have supported this preference.
Fuelled by the accelerated pace of digitalization and the rise of a global middle class, the market for electrical and electronic equipment is expanding rapidly, and with it the production of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste). In Ghana, the vast majority of e-waste is managed under poor environmental, health and safety conditions. Open burning of cables and manual disassembly of lead-acid batteries are still widely used practices, causing significant environmental pollution and damage to human health.
In urban areas, hygiene and sanitation are an ongoing struggle because of increasing urbanization and the resulting growth in household waste. Aside from the unbearable odour of rotting garbage that affects the daily life of residents, such waste attracts insects, rodents and reptiles capable of transmitting disease.
Cashew industry waste (currently about 2,000 tons/year, with the potential to increase to 15,000 tons/year) is a sustainable alternative to wood as a fuel for domestic and industrial needs.
“NEERE” in the local language means “pretty” or “clean”. As the project’s name suggests, its general objective is to contribute to the emergence of clean, sustainable cities through the use of integrated waste management strategies. By the end of the project, all households should be educated in responsible waste management and should be subscribed to the newly created waste management system. The project should result in a more pleasant living environment, with the removal of at least 60% of the garbage piles and dumps scattered around the communes involved.
The by-products and waste streams of agricultural processes are currently not widely utilized. This project is aimed at fostering the use of biomass technologies to turn such agricultural by-products and waste into feedstock or fuel, as a means of adding value to farm produce and increasing farmers’ incomes. The manufacturing sector would also benefit from the transfer of technology for biogas burners, milk coolers, lighting equipment and appliances, briquette presses and other related equipment.
Many micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises lack an awareness of sustainable agricultural value and supply chains and how agricultural waste-to-energy systems can support sustainable consumption and production practices. The agricultural sector is facing unprecedented resource pressures. The Renewable Energy and Energy-Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), a Vienna-based international organization that advances markets for renewable energy and energy efficiency, envisions future agricultural production in South Africa as being clean, powered by renewable energy and energy-efficient systems.
Kenya has 14 operating tanneries, most of which face challenges pertaining to limited modernization and effluent management. Approximately 95% of the leather produced is being exported in a semi-processed state (wet blue), earning approximately $160 million a year.
Volumes of e-waste and end-of-life vehicles (ELV) in Ghana are increasing by about 49 million tons per year due to a growing population, and in particular due to changing lifestyles, as well as to imports of e-waste and ELV. While there is a high level of reuse and refurbishment of used electrical and electronic equipment and used vehicles and their components, unsound treatment and disposal of e-waste and ELV cause enormous damage to the environment and human health. This project is aimed at supporting eco-entrepreneurship opportunities for the treatment of such waste.
In Ghana, 95% of the population depends on on-site, stand-alone treatment systems to meet their sanitation needs. The contents of such sanitation facilities, whether domestic, industrial or in the hospitality sector, are rich in methane gas, but are disposed of indiscriminately in the open air, with all the attendant public health implications.
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SWITCH-Africa Green Programme is implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme with the financial support of the European Union. The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of the project partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.