Ghana’s commitment to sanitation waning, despite being off-track

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A female public toilet in Ghana

Available statistics indicate that Ghana’s commitment to the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, especially sanitation, is still very low, in spite of the common knowledge that the country has and is still performing abysmally in terms of coverage for its people.
There seems to be no let-up in Government’s very low commitment to the sector, and in fact it is rather spiraling downwards, while investment has also been very poor.
Alluding to this in Accra Friday, November 18, 2011, Mr. Ibrahim Musah, Head of Policy and Partnership, WaterAid in Ghana, said  “in 2008, Ghana as a percentage of GDP, allocated 0.38%, in 2010 it fell to 0.28%, so even as we talk about the crisis in water, especially in sanitation, allocation to WASH is dwindling and this is not a good sign for progress in WASH in Ghana.”
“More frightening is the case that if you take government investment, figures from Ghana in 2010 reveal that 78% to Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing is coming from donors, and only 35% to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is coming from the donors and this is not acceptable.”
Mr. Ibrahim Musah, who was presenting an overview of a global report by WaterAid, an international NGO, charged government to invest in the sector, stating, “interestingly if you take education, within the same period 35% of donors’ money went to education and 5% went to health, indicating much of the resources to health and education is coming from government.”
He questioned why government could not pay for the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector and thereby improve livelihoods and school enrolment among others, saying the report, which was being launched, aimed to bring attention to such inequities.
WaterAid in Ghana’s Head of Policy and Partnership stated further that even from the donors’ perspective, the least developed countries are not getting the required funding as compared to the middle income countries and so the report – “Off-track Off-target” calls on donors to ensure proper targeting of aid.
He urged that after such aid has been received, governments must endeavour to focus first on the marginalised and excluded in their countries.
Shifting his attention to what the report holds for Ghana, he urged government and all WASH sector players to ensure that government’s allocation to WASH is improved. Mr. Musah made reference to the eThekwini declaration, where the Ghana government signed and made a commitment in 2008, to allocate 0.5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to sanitation.
He continued that when Ghana attended the African Sanitation Conference (AfricaSan) in Kigali, Rwanda this year, government was only allocating about 0.2%, which is not good.
Ibrahim Musah also reminded government of its commitment in the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Compact, to commit a total of US$ 350 million to the WASH sector yearly and the need to make that pledge good and sustained till 2015.
Responding to the concerns of low commitment as expressed by WaterAid in Ghana’s Policy and Partnership Head, Chairman for the launch, Mr. Lenason Naa Demedeme, Director, Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, acceded that indeed Ghana has a lot of frameworks for the sector, which other countries borrow from and are able to do exploits but the challenge for the country was the very little allocation always made by the Ministry of Finance, despite the many tangible arguments they always advance.
“We will continue to advocate, we will always urge civil society organisations to advocate using the many platforms available to bring about change in the sector,” he said.

Getting countries off-track to meet MDG-7: WaterAid shows the way

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

Dr. Afia Zakiya delivering her address at the launch

Investment in water, sanitation and hygiene by governments and donor partners the world over, especially in Africa, still remains a big challenge, the reason why many countries have not only gone off-track but are now derailing.
According to UNICEF, all but six countries are off track in Africa, as far as meeting the sanitation MDG is concerned, while no country in West and Central Africa is on track.
In its overview of the situation in Africa, UNICEF states “Despite the efforts made by some countries, approximately 155 million people in West and Central Africa – that is 39% of the population - are without access to safe drinking water and, current trends indicate that only seven countries will reach the MDG water target.”
“The situation of sanitation is even more worrying as 291 million people do not have access to improved sanitation, of which 101 million [over four times the population of Ghana] have access to no sanitation facilities at all, and, no country is on track to achieve the MDG target for sanitation,” the United Nations agency states further.
Ghana, for her part, is not only off-track, but has the unenviable position of  being the second country from the bottom on the list of countries which have severely gone off-track as far as sanitation coverage and meeting Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 is concerned and according to the Joint Monitoring Platform (JMP) figures, has been marking time at 13% since 2008.
It is to help arrest this situation and salvage what is left of humanity’s dignity, that WaterAid, an international charity organisation, has published and indeed launched a 64-page policy report titled “Off-track, Off-target, why investment in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is not reaching those who need it most.”
Launched globally Friday, November 18, 2011 to coincide with World Toilet Day, which was commemorated worldwide on Saturday, November 19, 2011, the report recommends actions for national governments, civil society organisations (CSOs), the private sector, donors and international agencies to arrest the dire situation of sanitation, water and hygiene education.
Off-track, Off-target, also reveals that political priorities lead governments to favour other sectors such as education and health and concentrate on communities (mainly rich people) already served, while excluding poor and marginalised communities and groups.
Labeling progress made in the provision of resources to the poor and those mostly in need as uneven and unjust, Dr. Afia Zakiya, Country Representative of WaterAid in Ghana (WAG), in a statement delivered during the report’s launch, said “In most parts of Africa, including Ghana, it is a common sight to find poor rural and urban women and physically challenged persons commuting long distances in search of potable drinking water – including in urban areas in Accra: Nima, Mamobi, Chorkor and Old Fadama.”
“This is mainly due to poor planning, inadequate resource allocation by both central and local governments and poor aid targeting,” she submitted further.
Dr, Zakiya lamented that despite Ghana’s laudable SWA compact in which government committed to allocate US$ 200 million to the water, sanitation and hygiene sector from 2011 to 2015, Ghana did not reach its first target and the sanitation situation remains dire, with serious consequences on health, education and livelihoods.
Recounting the recent cholera outbreak which claimed some lives in the Ghanaian cities of Accra, Cape Coast and Takoradi and stating that it is a manifestation of poor sanitation, she said, “This tragic loss of lives and indeed the daily loss of life and health, especially amongst our children, is something we cannot ignore any longer.”
According to the WaterAid Country Representative, the report, which covers over one year of intensive research in six countries – Ghana, Ethiopia, India, Madagascar, Nepal and Tanzania, is designed to get off-track countries back on track to meet the MDGs, especially MDG 7, particularly because all of those countries with WaterAid programmes are signatories to the Millennium Declaration.
In an overview of the entire report, Mr. Ibrahim Musah, Head of Policy and Partnership, WaterAid in Ghana, said “It shows that there are more people in the world today lacking adequate sanitation services than in 1990. Unless urgent action is taken, nearly all governments in Sub-Saharan Africa will fail to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) pledge they made to halve the proportion of people without sanitation by 2015.”
“It states that to get the sanitation and MDGs back on track, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa need to spend at least 3.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product on sanitation and water,” he added.
Recommendations made to get off-track countries back on track, he intimated, include strengthening sector leadership, establishing equity as a core indicator in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming, increasing and improving national government spending on WASH, increasing aid and targeting it more effectively among others.
Officially launching the report, Mr. Lenason Naa Demedeme, Director, Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, said after going through the 64 pager, he found it very interesting, especially its title.
“The fact that we get very minimal funding from government for sanitation and water, where the money doesn’t go to the right group, I think that is why they are saying that even though we are off-track in meeting the MDGs, we are off-target in terms of the benefits from the little funding that we get.”
He said he saw the document as a Christmas present for all WASH sector players and urged all present to take time off to read it and examine the issues raised in the report.

WASH experts hail Kufuor’s appointment as SWA chair

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

Former President John Kufuor

Some experts in Ghana’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector have hailed former President John Kufuor’s appointment as the new Chair for the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership, as good news for the sector.
First to express his excitement about Kufuor’s  appointment was Dr. Afia Zakiya, WaterAid in Ghana’s Country Representative who said it was very encouraging that a former President of Ghana had been selected.
“It will continue to bring global recognition to Ghana as a leading country in Africa that is concerned about critical issues that need to be addressed and will be seen as a country that has someone who will be working with people around the globe to highlight the issue of water and sanitation crisis,” Dr. Zakiya stated.
She explained that Kufuor’s role will not only be to highlight the issues in Ghana, but to chair the High Level Meeting (HLM) in Washington on April 20, 2011 to be attended by Ministers of Finance, Water and Sanitation from all over the world, to talk about progress in the eThekwini Declaration, the SWA Compact for Ghana, which will give Ghana the opportunity to have a recognition threshold in some way and report on its progress.
For his part, Mr. Benjamin Arthur, Executive Secretary, Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), said he saw it as an honour for Ghana to have one of its former leaders chairing such an important programme.
“For us, if we have our former President to be a leader there, then the only thing the country can do, is to marshal all the resources, to bring us up in terms of improvement in accessibility to water and sanitation services. That is the only way we can honour  him, because being a leader there, if we keep on going down in terms of people who do not have access to these facilities, it will be a disgrace to him, it will be a disgrace to the country,” he said.
To Benjamin Arthur, it is time now for “Ghana to re-look at herself and say that since we have a Ghanaian at the top there, what can we do to bring ourselves up, so that at least people can look up to him, not only as the leader or the chair of the SWA, but that through his influence, the country also reaches its target.”
Darren Saywell, SWA Vice-Chair and WASH/CLTS Director at Plan International USA, who sees former President Kufuor as a campaigner for better access to water and sanitation of many years, said, “His leadership will help bring greater political attention to this neglected development issue”.
Former President of Ghana (2001-2009), John Agyekum Kufuor, and former Chairperson of the African Union (2007–2008), was appointed as the first high-level Chair of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership in New York, USA, on November 15, 2011 for a two-year term.
Kufuor was chosen for being a passionate global advocate for leadership, governance and development and the regard for his African and international statesmanship, and the recognition for his contributions through awards such as the 2011 World Food Prize.
Responding to his appointment, former President Kufuor said: “The dream of sanitation and water for every person is within reach, but it will take a great deal of political will, adequate resources, and coordinated efforts. I am committed to making this happen, because I am not content to live in a world where 2.6 billion people lack access to a decent toilet and 900 million people do not have clean water to drink.”
Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is an alliance of governments, donors, civil society organisations, development partners, water and sanitation agencies, which is working to increase funding, improve the efficiency of resource use and strengthen the evidence base for the water supply and sanitation sector.
The partnership convenes a biennial High Level Meeting to raise political awareness, supports countries in their efforts to develop action-oriented plans and works with UN-WATER and WHO to produce the Global Analysis and Assessment of Drinking Water and Sanitation (GLAAS) report.

IIED proposes ways rich world can fulfil promises on Climate Change

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A briefing paper published today November, 21, 2011 by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), outlines three steps to ensure developed countries meet their agreed commitments to help poorer nations adapt to climate change.
Coming one week ahead of the Durban climate change conference where nearly 200 governments will meet to negotiate further action to address climate change, the paper analyses the five key promises rich countries have already made but finds these nations have yet to show how they can meet these commitments.
According to a press release from the IIED, in 2009, developed nations promised US$30 billion between 2010 and 2012, and US$100 billion a year by 2020 to enable developing nations adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
But although at last year’s UN climate change conference in Cancun, nations reiterated the pledges and specified that funding for adaptation should be adequate, fairly shared between donors, balanced with funding for mitigation, targeted on a needs basis, and governed well, the new analysis shows that they are not being met.
This, according to the paper, means that poor countries will find it harder to adapt to climate change.
It is however not a hopeless case for developing countries, as the briefing proposes three ways negotiators who gather in Durban next week can correct the situation.
Firstly, it suggests the adoption by developed countries, of a transparent, centralised accounting system, secondly establishing funding sources based on international trade and defining annual targets to scale up the total funding for adaptation.
“Money has yet to flow to meet even the most urgent adaptation needs of the Least Developed Countries,” says author David Ciplet of Brown University in the United States.
He adds that “Without adequate and predictable funding, developing countries most vulnerable to climate change cannot respond effectively,” saying “All of the talk about adaptation in Cancun will mean little unless reliable funding sources are established in Durban.”

Governments, businesses pushing for Green future

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE 

Governments worldwide, as well as large businesses are now pushing for green economies, a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has stated.

According to the report, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication released earlier this week in Beijing, China, the latest Bloomberg figures indicate global investments in renewable energy jumped 32 per cent in 2010, to a record US$211 billion.

It adds that after the emerging economies of Brazil, China and India, countries in Africa posted the highest percentage increase of all developing regions, with renewable energy investment in Egypt rising by US$800 million to US$1.3 billion as a result of the solar thermal project in Kom Ombo and a 220 megawatt onshore wind farm in the Gulf of Zayt.

In Kenya also, investment climbed from virtually zero in 2009 to US$1.3 billion in 2010 across technologies such as wind, geothermal, small-scale hydro and biofuels, whereas
in the California Mojave Desert, one of the world’s largest solar-thermal power plants is under construction and others are also being built in Spain and other parts of the United States.

China however, according to the report, is the world’s lead investor in renewable energy, overtaking Spain in 2009 and spending US$49 billion in 2010.  It says overall, China is committed to spending US$468 billion over the next five years, more than double the previous five years, on key industries, including renewable energy, clean technologies and waste management.

Commenting on China’s huge investment, Mr. He Bingguang, Director General of the Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection in China’s National Development and Reform Commission said, “China considers the Green Economy to be a strategic choice in an increasingly resource constrained world, and we have made that choice in our development plans.”  

“We appreciate UNEP’s contribution in promoting a global Green Economy transformation, which holds the potential for all countries to benefit,” he added.

Some countries, such as Barbados, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea and South Africa, for their part, already have national Green Economy plans that reflect the Report’s recommendations.

Others such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Kenya, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Senegal and Ukraine are focusing on greening priority sectors, such as agriculture, renewable energy, tourism and clean technologies.    

Meanwhile in Rwanda, East African countries have met to explore how laws and regulatory frameworks can help drive a Green Economy at the national and regional level.  Participants from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as Rwanda, were expected to examine case studies and continent-wide initiatives, the latter being led by the African Union.

The China Council was also due to meet this week, to put forward its own study for moving towards a Green Economy.    

On the business side, UNEP has teamed up with 285 of the world’s leading investors, representing US$20 trillion in assets, who called on governments to mobilise action on climate change, including investments in emerging industries – like renewables and green buildings.  

Similar calls have been echoed by the International Chamber of Commerce, which represents hundreds of thousands of businesses in more than 130 countries, a statement announcing the release of the report said.

In the statement, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon commented that: "With the world looking ahead to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012, the UNEP Green Economy report challenges the myth that there is a trade-off between the economy and the environment.” 

“With smart public policies, governments can grow their economies, generate decent employment and accelerate social progress in a way that keeps humanity's ecological footprint within the planet's carrying capacity," he added.

To Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) however, the elements of a transition to a Green Economy are clearly emerging across developing and developed countries alike.

“There are now some nations going further and faster than others which is in many ways generating a ‘pull factor’ that, if maintained, may bring others along over the coming months and years” he maintains, adding that the Durban climate convention meeting in a few week’s time and Rio+20 next year are key opportunities to accelerate and scale-up the Green Economy.

In his view, “central cooperative actions range from advancing Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), moving on green procurement to switch national efforts into the sustainability space up to a new indicator of wealth that goes beyond GDP and internalises the costs of pollution and degradation, while bringing the true value of the planet’s nature-based assets into calculations of a successful and sustainable economic path.”

The report, a result of a three-year global research effort involving hundreds of experts as well as a three-month public review, confirms that an investment of two percent of global GDP across 10 key sectors is what is required to kick-start a shift from the current brown, polluting and inefficient economy to a green one.  

It estimates that such a transition would grow the global economy at around the same rate, if not higher, than those forecast, under current economic models but without rising risks, shocks, scarcities and crises increasingly inherent in the existing, resource-depleting, high carbon 'brown' economy.

In addition to higher growth, it states that an overall transition to a Green Economy would realise per capita incomes higher than under current economic models, while reducing the ecological footprint by nearly 50 per cent in 2050, as compared to business-as-usual.

The Green Economy Report further acknowledges that in the short-term, job losses in some sectors - fisheries, for example - are inevitable if they are to transition towards sustainability.

However, it adds that over time the number of "new and decent jobs created" in sectors - ranging from renewable energies to more sustainable agriculture – will offset those lost from the former "brown economy".

The report shows that investing the equivalent of two per cent of global GDP into agriculture, energy, buildings, water, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, waste, tourism and transport would not only shift the global economy onto a more sustainable growth course, but would actually maintain or increase growth over time.  

Policy recommendations on each of the 10 key sectors, as well as on finance and enabling conditions, are outlined in the report and includes transport, for which the report suggests that prices need to take account of the societal costs accumulated as a result of congestion, accidents and pollution, which in some cases amount to over 10 per cent of the national or regional GDP.  

In Beijing, a 2009 study estimated that the social costs induced by motorised transportation are equivalent to between 7.5 and 15 per cent of the city’s GDP.   Meanwhile, between 2007 and 2030, the transport sector is expected to account for 97 per cent of the increase in the world’s primary oil use.  

With the number of vehicles in China expected to more than triple during this period, the government is promoting low-carbon, energy efficient cars and related infrastructure and in the city of Shenzhen, home of China’s first electric car, plans are underway to build large recharging stations and replace traditional buses with more than 7,000 electric ones in five years time.

Generating Jobs
The Green Economy Report suggests that over time “new and decent jobs” will be catalyzed in the 10 key sectors and concludes that while 800,000 workers in small coal power plants in China for example, are likely to lose their jobs due to climate mitigation actions, some 2.5 million jobs could be created by 2020 in the wind energy sector alone.

Currently, Denmark is home to the world’s top wind turbine manufacturer in terms of market volume, and China is in second place, followed by the United States and then another Chinese company.  

However, Germany which ranks fifth has recently committed to scale up its renewable energy, following a decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022, and has thus set a target to source 35 per cent of its electricity from renewable energies by 2022, instead of the earlier target of 19 per cent.

The report states that in Africa, despite recent economic gains, there is increasing interest in creating green and decent employment. It reveals that representatives from 11 African countries met in June this year with ILO, UNDP and UNEP to look at case studies in the areas of recycling, sustainable construction and natural resource management.  

As a result, participants adopted action plans for creating green jobs in fisheries, agriculture and forestry, sectors which represent over 70 per cent of the employment in the region.  

In Brazil also, the ILO recently helped support the construction of 500,000 new homes with solar heating systems, resulting in 30,000 new jobs, while  in South Africa, a similar project on water ecosystem restoration created 25,000 green jobs for previously unemployed people, and at the same time, restored vital freshwater sources.  

Generating Social Equity
The Green Economy Report argues that by moving to more sustainable agriculture practices, the approximately two billion small scale farmers of the world who live in poverty could increase their yields and profits.  

Globally, an investment of US$100-300 billion per year in green agriculture, between now and 2050, could lead to better soil quality and better yields for major crops, representing a 10 per cent increase over the current business-as-usual strategies, it argues, adding, as many of these farmers are also women, any benefits would most likely be shared with their families and communities.  

The waste sector is another area that is expected to enhance social equity but efforts to green the sector are often driven by cost savings, environmental awareness and resource scarcity.  
However, the report notes that greening the sector not only requires improving the often sub-standard waste treatment and disposal facilities, but also training the workers, providing more equitable compensation and ensuring proper health care protection for them.

It notes that decentralising large scale, capital-intensive waste management operations could also provide more employment opportunities in the community.    

The report also expresses concern about electronic waste (or e-waste), particularly for developing countries, saying current estimates suggest 20 to 50 million tonnes of e-waste are generated each year, while trade in waste becomes more prevalent, heightening threats to human health and the environment.  

As sales in mobile phones and computers continue to grow in China, India, and across Africa and Latin America, the report finds that resource recovery and recycling offer the greatest potential in terms of contributing to a Green Economy.    
The follow up meeting to the 1992 UN Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20 in Brazil in June 2012, is expected to tackle Green Economy “in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication” as one of the main themes governments are expected to address.

Ghana’s sanitation coverage now 11%

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

Patrons at a public toilet in Ghana

Ghana’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, has stated that according to available data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), urban sanitation coverage for the country now stands at 16%, while national coverage is 11%.

The Joint Monitoring Platform, made up of UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO), however puts coverage at 13% for the same period, which means only 13 out of hundred Ghanaians have access to improved sanitation.

Presenting the 2012 budget in Parliament yesterday, November 16, 2011, he said  “With regard to the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation, the GDHS 2008 indicated that national coverage for sanitation was 11 per cent, up from 8 per cent in 2003. For urban areas, coverage increased by 1 percentage point between 2003 and 2008 to reach 16 per cent.”

The finance minister continued that sanitation coverage in rural areas was recorded at 7 per cent in 2008, from a low of 2 per cent in 2003, reiterating that the MDG target for Ghana is 53 per cent of the population using improved sanitation by 2015.

“This means that about one million, two hundred thousand people will need to have access to, or use an improved sanitation facility each year till the target date of 2015,” he said.

In relation to water coverage however, he divulged that urban water coverage increased
from 59 per cent to 62 per cent whilst rural water coverage increased from 59 per cent to 61% by the first half of 2011, indicating both were at 59% by 2010.

Although Ghana’s MDG target for water is to reach 78 per cent coverage by 2015, he relayed that data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 2008 reported national coverage at 77 per cent by 2008.

He also disclosed that the Government of Ghana has in 2011 been undertaking a number of projects to improve the supply of potable water, and that by the end of September, Government had initiated the construction of 670 new boreholes and 29 hand dug wells, which are about 90 per cent complete.

He said under the Infrastructural Development for Accelerated Growth and Job Creation programme, 251 systems in four locations were almost completed, while there was also extension of piped water systems on the Ghana Water Company lines.

Dr. Duffuor however conceded that there were still a number of challenges as brought up by the 3^rd Ghana Water Forum (GWF-3) held in the September 2011. Listing the fast pace of urbanisation and the need to meet the growing demand for water for consumption, industry and commerce as some of the challenges, he stressed that the situation calls for a more concrete role for communities in the management and delivery of urban water within the catchment areas of the Ghana Water Company.

This, it is felt, will substantially improve the governance of water delivery and increase access to water and sanitation services, he said.

UNEP proposes projects worth $147 million to assist Rwanda

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has proposed an integrated package of almost 90 projects and interventions, totaling US$147 million, to help Rwanda accelerate its sustainable development agenda.

The report, Rwanda: From Post-Conflict to Environmentally Sustainable Development, one of two to be   released yesterday, November 16, 2011, was unveiled in the country’s capital, Kigali, by the Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Stanislas Kamanzi, at the start of a regional meeting with East African senior policy makers exploring how to leverage support for a shift towards an environmentally sustainable, climate resilient, low-carbon, resource-efficient future. 

Following a consultative process with the Government of Rwanda, the 380-page UNEP report,  which urges the country to build on its rehabilitation efforts and seed more opportunities for a transition to a green economy, provides a critical analysis of the most pressing environmental issues facing the country.

In particular, it recommends the Rwandan government reinforces its policies and investments in key areas, including large-scale ecosystem rehabilitation; renewable energies, sustainable agriculture and agro forestry, environmental management capacity building and regional environmental cooperation, including participation in natural resource trade initiatives.

Commenting on the report, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, Mr. Achim Steiner, said the shared lessons from implementing its recommendations would help reverse declining environmental trends and showcase a real-life pathway to a green economy. 

“Rwanda provides an exceptional case of a country’s willpower to overcome a traumatic conflict legacy, restore degraded ecosystems and lift people out of poverty and there is growing interest from development partners and other countries in Rwanda’s pioneering model,” Mr. Steiner said.

He added that “The ongoing metamorphosis of Rwanda’s economy offers a unique opportunity to catalyse green investments, to enhance sustainability, create green jobs and promote environmentally efficient technologies.”

Speaking at the launch of the report, Rwanda Natural Resources Minister, Stanislas Kamanzi, welcomed the scientific assessment, which he said underlines the intrinsic relationship between ecosystem services and the achievement of national development goals as outlined in Rwanda’s Vision 2020.

“We see the environment as the heart of our economy and need to ensure that it can sustain the economic growth achieved in recent years,” Mr. Kamanzi said.

“The damage to the Congo-Nile and Byumba highland ecosystems is highlighted not only as a threat to biodiversity but to livelihoods and Rwanda’s economic future because it must sustain hydropower, agriculture and drinking water supplies, as well as providing climate regulation and carbon sequestration services.

“For Rwanda and other countries in the region, the time has come to capitalise on green economy thinking and translate our policy targets into on-the-ground action to create jobs, combat poverty and accelerate sustainable development across the region,” the Minister added.

It is to further support Rwanda in its efforts to accelerate a sustainable growth path, that UNEP used the workshop to release another new report, Mainstreaming Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production in Policies and Strategies of Rwanda, a joint statement released by UNEP and the Rwandan Government announced. 

The second report, which was prepared by UNEP in collaboration with Rwanda’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (REMA), reviews existing policy and strategy frameworks of resource efficient and cleaner production (RECP) and identifies areas for mainstreaming RECP into the country’s national policies and strategies.   

In particular, the report identifies strategic entry points for mainstreaming under the following four components of intervention: institutional and policy integration; economic and fiscal incentives; capacity building and support to small and medium-sized enterprises; and, information and public education.

The two-day workshop, organised by UNEP and REMA, is expected to take these findings on board as they examine how regulatory instruments can contribute to reducing poverty and promoting the transition to a green economy in East Africa. 

More than 40 legal and technical experts from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as Rwanda, are attending the workshop, which is aiming to enhance capacity in East African countries to use the green economy as a driver for sustainable development and poverty reduction, and to identify actions, opportunities and challenges for integrating green economy in policies and legislations at national and regional levels.

It is envisaged that one of the enabling frameworks needed for the green economy is having effective laws and related governance structures to support it, hence strengthening the regulatory and governance frameworks will complement measures already being taken by governments and the private sector. 

Earlier this year at the UN Forest Forum, Rwanda launched a landmark Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative aimed to reverse by 2035 the degradation of the entire country’s soil, water, land and forest resources. 

Meanwhile, next week, an intensification of Rwanda’s tree planting programme is due to begin with the target of planting 68 million trees over the next 12 months to reach the government’s goal of raising forest cover to at least 30 percent of its land area by 2020.

Further, UNEP says it stands ready to assist the Government of Rwanda in mobilising resources to implement the post-conflict assessment’s recommendations and with broader ongoing environmental initiatives, as part of the One UN presence.

With over 10 million people in an area of 26,000 square kilometers, Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries striving to unlock a downward-cycle of natural resource over-exploitation. However, it has made remarkable progress following the aftermath of the 1994 genocide and is now considered an inspiration for African development.