Africa

Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya, the Acting Country Representative and Lead Advisor for Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), says the enabling environment in Rwanda is because there is a high level of commitment by the government to develop and create a climate-resilient economy. Courtesy: Emmanuel Hitimana

By Emmanuel Hitimana
KIGALI, Dec 3 2018 (IPS)

While the African Green Growth Forum 2018 was taking place for the first time ever in Kigali, Rwanda last week, IPS sat down with Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya, the Acting Country Representative and Lead Advisor for the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to talk about the new forum, working with Rwanda and green growth integration in Africa. GGGI organised the forum with the Government of Rwanda.

According to World Bank figures, Rwanda achieved impressive real GDP growth of about 9 percent per annum between 2000 and 2014. As a result, Rwanda is experiencing high urbanisation rates concentrated in its capital, Kigali. The GGGI has been supporting the Government of Rwanda’s work on the green development of six secondary cities and in operationalising the National Fund for Environment and Climate Change (FONERWA) to manage the country’s environmental projects. Excerpts of the interview follow.

Inter Press Service (IPS): You have had your first successful continental forum. How did it come to be?

Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya (ODO): Usually the GGGI holds annual international conferences but in the last couple of the years we have seen that governments understand that they can use this platform to become leaders and champions of green growth. Now we no longer have a separate international conference each year, rather there are country, regional and continental level conferences.

IPS: What was your goal in creating the African Green Growth forum?

ODO: GGGI’s goal is to share knowledge, to create awareness of green growth. Green growth is a concept that is applicable to our lives today, in the way we live in our homes, in our workplaces and in our societies. It is all about livelihoods. Our aim is to share this knowledge related to the work we do as an organisation globally but also tailored to the needs of individual countries. The African Green Growth Forum brought together policy makers, private sector and the general public to learn about green growth.

IPS: How was it to work with Rwanda, a country known to be serious about business?

ODO: Rwanda is the African country when it comes to green growth. The government has put together a National and Green Growth Resilience Strategy and anyone who comes here can see that the infrastructure being developed takes into consideration green growth issues. The enabling environment is here because there is a high level of commitment by the government to develop and create a climate-resilient economy. Let’s take for example when you drive to the City of Kigali, you can see that the road infrastructures that pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes are being integrated more and more.

IPS: Is that why you have introduced eco-bikes public sharing project?

ODO: The bike sharing project that also involved electric-bicycles, started earlier this year where we did studies in two secondary cities of Rubavu and Musanze. The idea is to understand an existing behaviour in terms of where people were using bicycles. But then we wanted to make it a business rather than just something that is seen as a way of life among the low-income community. We did that study and our aim is that private sector companies will pick up on the results of this study and invest in it as a business opportunity.

IPS: But there is a perception that green products are expensive. What it is your take on that?

ODO: I think it is just a mindset issue. We have seen in the last decade that in areas like renewable energy there has been drastic reduction in the costs of products like solar PV and solar home systems. So the mindset about the cost of green growth needs to change. There are upfront costs that might pull you up, but when you look up the life span of your project and the return on investment, it always shows that it is even more attractive to build green or to do sustainable development.

You said there has been change in public opinion about green economy, what is the rate of that change?

ODO: It is gradually changing when it comes to the public. When it comes to governments, we do note that countries we work with there is real change in the way policies are made, in the way things are done. Green growth policies are being mainstreamed into national plans. And when you go to the broader public, where you talk of the society, businesses, this is also gradually happening. We are now seeing green growth being talked about not only from the conference pulpits, but also in places like schools, in places like civil society organisations.

IPS: Any insight into Rwanda’s “Africa’s greenest airport” project?

ODO: In 2016, GGGI did discuss with the Ministry of Infrastructure about the possibility of greening the new Bugesera International Airport. The government was very positive about the need to ensure this big flagship infrastructure project was not only beautiful but beautiful in a sustainable way. We have worked closely with the Bugesera Airport Company where we looked closely into three areas: energy, water use efficiency and building materials resource use. These areas have been integrated into the design to ensure that when the airport is completed it will get green certified by Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority when the project is complete.

IPS: Are you happy with how African countries are integrating the green growth revolution?

ODO: Some countries in Africa are moving forward while others are lagging behind. There has been some recent development in regards to trade and transport in terms of collaboration. For example the African Free Continental Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a good sign that the continent wants to work together, to trade together and this is really important for the continent to grow.

IPS: How about the youth?

ODO: Youth are the future when you look at the demographics of the continent since most of the population are young people.  They are the driver of change that the continent needs. To support youth we run a program called “Greepreneur” where we ask young people to submit their ideas and ten are selected to receive training and the finalists are awarded with seed capital. Coming back here to Rwanda, we also have worked closely with the Ministry of Environment and Rwanda Green Fund to institute a green growth award within the Youth Connekt Africa program. In the coming years we are looking at the opportunity of not just giving the award but making sure that the winners, and those who came up with good ideas, could be supported so their ideas turn into good opportunities for entrepreneurs.

IPS: Where do you see the green growth revolution in five years?

ODO: My expectation is that we will see very solid projects that demonstrate that green growth is here and it’s real. We are already seeing this but I expect there will be more and bigger infrastructure projects proving that green growth works but most importantly that people are at the center in terms of job creation.

The post Q&A: How Political Will can Accelerate Green Growth in Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

IPS correspondent Emmanuel Hitimana speaks to OKECHUKWU DANIEL OGBONNAYA, the Acting Country Representative and Lead Advisor for the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)

The post Q&A: How Political Will can Accelerate Green Growth in Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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Francesco La Camera of the Italian Ministry of Environment Land and Sea commissioning Rwanda's first ecotourism Park in Kigali, the country’s capital. Courtesy: Emmanuel Hitimana

By Emmanuel Hitimana
KIGALI, Dec 2 2018 (IPS)

Rwanda’s capital city Kigali will be home to a 134 hectare urban park in the city’s biggest valley in 2020. The Nyandungu Urban Wetland Eco-Tourism Park will conserve wetlands and habitat for wildlife while providing walking and cycling trails, fish ponds and botanical gardens for residents and tourists.

The new park illustrates Rwanda’s vision that preserving natural ecosystems is a win-win situation said Faustin Munyazikwiye, Deputy Director at Rwanda’s Environment Management Authority. Speaking on the sidelines of African Green Growth Forum 2018,  he said the government wants to restore the area’s flora and birds for the benefit of researchers, residents and tourists.

The four-million-dollar project has the support of  Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) an inter-governmental organization focused on green economic growth, and the Government of Italy. The latter has contributed 1.3 million dollars while the rest is being raised through Rwanda’s Green Fund that manages the country’s environmental projects.

Italy was eager to partner with Rwanda on the ground-breaking project said Francesco La Camera of the Italian Ministry of Environment Land & Sea.

“We want to facilitate all the goals the Rwandan government has for sustainable green growth,” said La Camera during the Forum.

Rwanda has ambitious goals to be a 100 percent carbon emission free country in the coming decades.

GGGI has been working with Rwanda to help ensure that its major  consulting the projects comply with green growth standards said Okechuku Daniel Ogbonnaya, GGGI’s Acting Country Representative.

Green growth involves the creation green jobs, the reduction of green house gas emissions, increased access to clean affordable energy, sustainable public transport, improved sanitation, and sustainable waste management. It also means improved air quality, adequate supply of ecosystem services and enhanced adaptation to climate change.

“We have been helping the Rwandan and Italian Governments build the concept and fund the Nyandungu project,” Ogbonnaya said. “The idea is to find projects that show that green growth has a positive impact.”

Rwanda is known for taking risks and has already introduced drastic new measures in bid to fight against environment deterioration. These include a decade-old law banning plastic bags; the new Bugesera airport, the first green airport in Africa; Enviroserve Rwanda, an e-waste recycling plant; among others. GGGI has been a part of much of this in terms advice and planning.

“I think for Rwanda and other countries, there should be a goal of 100 percent renewable energy or even going to net or zero emission,” said Frank Rijsberman, GGGI Director General. “Countries should move towards 100 percent electric transportation which soon be the cheapest form of transport.”

Yet the missing element is that environmental aspects are not mainstreamed into the planning approaches by governments, according to Donovan Storey, Deputy Director and Urban Lead at GGGI.

However, other GGGI experts feel this is not the case with partner countries Rwanda, Ethiopia, Senegal and Mozambique, something Rwanda’s Minister of Environment Dr. Vincent Biruta strongly agrees with.

“By incorporating green growth into your business model, you can be more efficient in your operations, increase productivity and have a positive impact on the environment. Put simply, green growth is good for business.” Minister Biruta said.

However, Rwanda still needs about $400 to 600 million dollars to implement its Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy. That will include the implementation of green cities and green agriculture which will result in creating green jobs among others.

The week-long African Green Growth Forum which was held for the first time will convene again in 2020. It is hoped that this Forum will go a long way in addressing not only climate change but set the continent on unprecedented path to sustainable growth.

The post Rwanda to Build Ecotourism Park in Kigali appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI, Dec 1 2018 (IPS)

Barely five months into the start of Sneha’s year at a government school in Bhilwara, a town in India’s desert state of Rajasthan, the bubbly 15-year-old was pulled out by her parents. They wanted her to stay at home instead, to look after her four younger siblings and to cook and clean for the family as her parents worked on their farm.

Sneha’s  parents, however, are no different from thousands of others in rural Rajasthan who believe it is pointless to educate daughters as they ultimately get married and leave their parents’ homes to manage their own households and raise kids.

Many opt to train their daughters in housekeeping and child rearing from a young age, using their skills to provide free care and services to their families instead.

Sneha’s story, however, had a different ending. Her school principal and Educate Girls (EG), a non-profit that empowers communities to facilitate girls’ education in rural India, intervened. They spoke to Sneha’s parents about the importance of education and how receiving an education could become life-changing for the young girl and her family.

“After we were counselled, we realised that we had erred in depriving our daughter of an education,” Kishan Ram, 48, Sneha’s father, told IPS. “And that if  we educate her, she will be able to make informed life choices that will not only help her earn a livelihood but also improve the future of an entire generation.”

Sneha’ is not the only young girl in India who was able to return to school thanks to intervention from EG.

Since 2007, the multiple award-winning organisation has been working to empower and educate underprivileged communities to make young girls employable, join the country’s formal workforce and lift their families out of poverty.

EG has grown from a 500-school pilot project, to serve a network of over 25,000 schools across 16 districts in Rajasthan as well as the central India state of Madhya Pradesh. It aims to leverage existing community and government resources to augment access and quality of education for around 2.5 million children across 27,500 schools by the end of 2018.

In 2015 EG became part of a unique experiment. It implemented the Development Impact Bond (DIB), a mechanism which capitalises on private risk capital so that a third party, such as a donor agency or foundation, can finance the achievement of agreed-upon outcomes.

“This type of outcome-based funding can be a great catalyst for driving quality and improving learning outcomes in the education sector,” Dr. Suresh Pant, an educationist and former associate Professor from the Delhi University, told IPS.

According to one of the stakeholders in the project, UBS Optimus Foundation, DIBs are more result-oriented compared to traditional funding as they transfer the risk to investors who put in the working capital for the implementing organisations on the ground. Predefined targets are regularly measured and this enables the implementing organisation to adapt quickly for any course correction where necessary. The implementing organisation has an increased motivation to deliver results.

“Patriarchy and gender-based discrimination systematically exclude girls from school thus denying them the advantages of autonomy, mobility and economic independence that boys enjoy,” EG’s Founder and London School of Economics alumnus, Safeena Husain, told IPS. “Education opens doors for girls giving them the potential for equal opportunity. Our organisation alleviates these girls’ life and future by bringing them into a formal education system.”

Though India has achieved a 99 percent enrolment rate of school children at primary level, the quality of learning has remained abysmal. An Indian student, say surveys, lags at least two grades behind the level that is expected for their age. Rajasthan reports some of the worst education indicators in the country.

Working in synergy with the government, EG taps into a network of 12,000 community volunteers, called Team Balika, to ensure higher enrolment and attendance for girls as well as improved learning outcomes for all children.

Experts say this approach to education is a huge boon for Indian villages where one in 10 girls aged 10 to 14 are kept out of school to help contribute to the family income or care for siblings.

Dr. Shamika Ravi, Research Director at Brookings India, opines that the DIB model has immense implications for education policy and innovative financing instruments.

“Impact Bonds are a new, complementary source of funding developmental interventions. Private sector firms undertake the initial investment by providing the upfront working capital to service providers to deliver programmes on the ground. Outcome payers — governments or development agencies — are obligated to repay the private firms’ investment alongside a fixed return if, and only if, pre-determined performance indicators are met. The bonds’ stakeholders can collectively impact the delivery of social services, and how small-scale interventions can create benchmarks and common frameworks for scale and sector-wide impact,” he writes in his column in The Hindu newspaper.

EG students’ learning is measured using the Annual Status of  Education Report, an annual survey that provides reliable estimates of children’s enrolment and basic learning levels for each district and state in India. The test measures three proficiencies: Hindi, English and Mathematics. Student enrolment is defined by the percentage of out-of-school girls (between the ages of seven and 14) enrolled in school by the end of the third year.

According to EG’s annual report released this August, in it’s third year the DIB surpassed both its target outcomes by achieving 160 percent of its learning target and 116 percent of its enrolment target.

“Progress was measured against agreed targets for the number of out-of-school girls enrolled into primary and upper primary schools as well as the progress of girls and boys in English, Hindi and Math. The outcome-based funding model, with its constant feedback and analysis of data from the field teams, has allowed the organisation to identify challenges and craft customised  solutions,” says the report.

The organisation’s biggest success was enrolment—which reached 92 percent—and accounted for 20 percent of the outcome payment. The programme had also surpassed the target, enrolling 768 girls, accounting for a 116 percent increase. Learning outcomes, which made up 80 percent of the outcome payment, saw an upward spiral of 8,940 more learning levels than the comparison group against a targeted predefined metric of 5,592, equivalent to a 160 percent achievement against target, says the report.

Participation in the DIB, explains Husain has led to EG becoming more target-driven and develop precise frameworks, processes and capabilities to measure and monitor the outcomes achieved. “The success of the DIB model has proven we’re on the right path,” she concludes.

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The post The Bond that is Educating Girls Across India appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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