The report recommends that African countries, latecomers to industrialization, set strategies for a form of economic progress that is less dependent on natural resource use and exports, thus avoiding the "grow now, clean up later" approach that has been employed elsewhere in the world.
The Economic Development in Africa Report 2012, subtitled Structural Transformation and Sustainable Development in Africa, was released today. It focuses on the dilemma of accomplishing much-needed economic growth while protecting the environment.
While the rest of the world is flocking to the continent for resources that are increasingly scarce elsewhere, the report notes that Africa, with its abundant supplies, had a per capita domestic material consumption of 5.3 tons in 2008 - about half the global average. The 13.4 per cent of the world's population living in Africa in 2008 used only about 5.5 per cent of globally consumed resources. As domestic material consumption on the continent inevitably increases, the report says, careful domestic planning and enhanced international financial support and technology transfer will be required for what it terms "sustainable structural transformation".
The challenge is to modernize the continent's economies - including expanding industrial capacity - through the efficient use and consumption of domestic natural resources, thereby avoiding the mistakes made by early industrializers elsewhere. Past experience has shown that industrialization and structural transformation - that is, the shift in economic production towards higher-value goods and goods of greater variety and complexity - was often achieved at the expense of the environment and through intensive use of natural resources, the report says.
The fact that intensive energy and material consumption on the continent has not yet occurred provides an opportunity, the study contends. Given current levels of technology and know-how, and given that the world's advanced economies also must make the difficult shift to "green" production, it should be possible, and it will be best, if African countries start the process that way.
The report urges African Governments to shift from traditional to modern, less polluting energy sources, by increasingly powering their economies by renewable energy such as wind, solar and hydro power, wherever these energy sources are economically and environmentally viable. In addition, it says that expanding the use of organic agriculture has proved to be an environmentally sustainable way of increasing harvests, bringing higher prices to farmers, and keeping rural populations engaged in farming rather than joining the vast migrations of population to Africa's cities.
For Africa to successfully transform its economies in a sustainable way, it will need to build capacities to obtain, use, and adapt existing environmentally sound technologies to local conditions, the report says. Indigenous technological innovation will be critical, as such ideas and adaptations work best for local conditions.
