a strategic approach and business model for scaling up ecosystems-based adaption for sustainable...

A STRATEGIC APPROACH AND BUSINESS MODEL FOR SCALING UP ECOSYSTEM-BASED ADAPTATION FOR

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

“Did you know that when spiders unite they can tie down a lion?”

SUPPLEMENTING ADAPTATION COSTS

Lion of climate Change

Food Insecurity

Poverty

Ecological depletion

Unemployment

Imagine with me for a moment, the perils in the Sahel, where as we speak, 12 million of our brothers and sisters are starving from droughts projected to only escalate. Children starving to

death & mothers inconsolably grieving for them.

THE TWO FACES OF AFRICA

agro-value chain projected to be worth an estimated USD

1trillion

Africa holds 65% of world’s arable land & 10 % inland fresh water

Unemployed youth who account to 60% of the population

1300GW

0.3% of sunlight

Energy Potential

AFRICA LOSSES & EXPENDITURE

Malnutrition is killing over 50% of children before their 5th birthday.

240 million go to bed hungry and malnutrition is currently affecting about 200 million

The continent is spending $35 billionannually to import food, and losses along the entire agro-value $48 billion worth of food.

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

On degraded ecosystems, as much as 6.6 million tonnes of potential grain harvest are lost annually due to agro-ecosystem degradation31million people missing their calorific

requirements

CUMULATIVELY LAND & ECOSYSTEMS DEGRADATION

It is noteworthy that healthy ecosystems are the foundation of long term productivity underpinning food production through ecosystems goods and services such as water, soils, pollinators etc. For instance, insect pollination by bees is an ecosystem service that is necessary for 75% of all crops used as human food. Increasing the quantity and variety of pollinating insects can increase crop

yields by over 20%.

Ecosystems degradation costs sub-Saharan Africa an estimated $68bn annually

For instance, insect pollination by bees is an ecosystem service that is necessary for 75% of all crops used as human food

Worse of all is climate change which is already defining the contours of the continent more dramatically than any other in this century -representing an ever increasing

threat, projected to impact agro-productivity in ways that we have never seen before.

The majority of Africa’s population is youthful and up to 60% of them are unemployed. By 2035, the number of Africans reaching working age will

exceed the rest of the world combined..

Percentage of unemployed youth

Already, frustrated by the lack of opportunities, many youth are risking their lives on perilous journeys in search of a better life in other continents. Looking for practical solutions that can remedy poverty will also help realize the aspirations enshrined in

the AU Agenda 2063.

Meaning a total paradigm shift is what is needed. A break from the traditional silos that have stifled productivity to innovative, integrated approaches that tag agricultural productivity to

developments in relevant sectors for complementarity

STARTING 1ST JAN 2016, THE ARCHITECTURE OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT CHANGED

2015 was the year of connecting dots

AGRICULTURE DOCUMENTED TO BE AT LEAST TWO TO FOUR TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE AT REDUCING POVERTY

Agriculture has been documented to be at least two to four times more effective at reducing poverty than any other sector (and to have the potential to catalyze achievement of all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and many of the Malabo Declaration goals Agricultural growth also stimulates productivity in other sectors

Malabo Declaration

OPTIMIZING THE AGRO-VALUE CHAIN TO UNLEASH FOOD AND LIVELIHOOD OPPORTUNITIES

Builds climate resilience while simultaneously conserving and enhancing the capacity of the very ecosystems that are the foundation

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SEA-LEVEL RISE

If we want to achieve food security we must ensure that we look after the vital ecosystems that allow us to produce our food

ECOSYSTEMS BASED ADAPTATION APPROACHES (EBA) ARE A SUREFIRE WAY.

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SEA-LEVEL RISE

This means looking after the bees and insect pollinators- an ecosystem service that is necessary for the growth of 75 per cent of all our crops used as human food including

in Africa


20% increase in yields

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SEA-LEVEL RISE

This means, regardless of how vibrant our seeds are, or how much fertilizer we apply, if we destroy biodiversity and loose the pollinators, there will be no bumper harvest


AGRICULTURE IN AFRICATHE BENEFITS OF AN ECOSYSTEM-BASED ADAPTATION APPROACH

If we can do this – if we can optimize food production by embracing an ecosystem-based adaptation approach to agriculture – we can boost yields by up to 128% and accompanying farmer income increases and could potentially create as many as 17 million jobs annually for our youth and catalyze an agro-sector $1 trillion by 2030

17 million jobs

annually for youth


“a roaring lion kills no game”

MOVING FROM TALK TO ACTION– THE ECOSYSTEMS BASED ADAPTATION FOR FOOD SECURITY ASSEMBLY (EBAFOSA)

What is needed for impact across the continent are policy and non-policy incentives and investments to upscale this paradigm. But for this to happen we must connect the dots. Connecting the dots can only happen within an inclusive framework that brings everyone together and this is

what resulted in the establishment of the Ecosystems Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA) an inclusive pan-African policy framework and implementation platform.

Connecting the dots

THE PREMISE OF EBAFOSA IS ERECTED ON SELFLESSNESS AND ANCHORED ON COLLECTIVISM

The premise of EBAFOSA is erected on selflessness and anchored on collectivism tailored to turn potential into reality for the collective benefit of all. Premised on a very simple idea - tapping into every skill, networks, partnerships, resources among

others and directing them to a very specific objective to ensure what we produce in our farms use approaches that work with nature.

Innovative volunteerism is not blind optimism. It is already on the move, demonstrating that the strength of this paradigm can be channeled through voluntary,

state-driven partnerships. The spirit of innovative volunteerism is mobilizing youth groups through EBAFOSA in countries across Africa


FIVE KEY EBAFOSA PILLARS

ICT

Clean energy Amalgamation

POLICY HARMONIZATION

STANDARDIZATIONINNOVATIVE FINANCING

Climate change which will hit agriculture with up to 40% yield declines

For example in the northwestern part of Cameroon’s Jakiri municipality, EBAFOSA is catalyzing partnerships at policy and ground level towards directly linking off-grid small-hydro to power cassava and Irish potato processing into varied product lines, and linking

these to markets and supply chains using ICT mobile apps. .

AFRICA INTER-REGION ACCESIBILITY

Over 500 women have received training to reduce their post-harvest losses in Cassava, corn, Irish potatoes and Sorghum in the 10 pilot areas. This included also training on clean energy

solutions, to reduce health problem of children and women in rural area due to indoor pollution.


In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a group of graduate youthful "agripreneurs" have channeled their skills, networks and capital to optimize the cassava value chain.

These young people process cassava into flour, package it, standardize it and sell to bakers. For this integration, the youth generate up to $4,000 as weekly income, translating to

$16,000 monthly and $196,000 annual income..

POCKETS OF SUCCESS AND MOVE FROM TALK TO ACTION

Industrialization

ON POLICY HARMONIZATION TO MAXIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY

EnvironmentLands

Transport AgricultureEnergy

EBAFOSA is achieving this through ministerial-level collaboration across ministries of agriculture, environment, energy, industrialization and others that are forming interagency

policy task forces. These policymakers are further joined by stakeholders from private sector and the development community to share knowledge and experiences in aligning policy – all

achieved through innovative volunteerism.

ON POLICY HARMONIZATION

A key focus for the Sierra Leone task force is tax concession policies for agro-based industries in rural areas.

EBAFOSA Sierra Leone task force has started building on some 4 ongoing policy initiatives for harmonization towards maximizing productivity of the catalytic areas.

STANDARDIZATION

It is set to be applied universally across all the 40 EBAFOSA countries and enforced by National Standards regulators in each country. By implication, certified products

automatically qualify to access a continental market. Gaining access to consumers in all the 40 EBAFOSA countries. This is the start of consolidating the continental food market valued

at over $150 billion dollars.

INNOVATIVE FINANCING

For example, in Kenya, through the frame work of EBAFOSA we are working with the Kenya county governments to leverage county climate change funds for additional private sector resources. In the pioneering Makueni County, the fund is setting aside 50 percent of the

portfolio so it can securitize up to 10 times the amount in private banks.

THE STATE OF TRANSPORT IN AFRICA

The EBAFOSA ICT –driven app EdenSys is expanding beyond the above operational aspects, to introduce a new layer covering strategic level data needs for policy &

non policy investment decisions makers. EdenSys will utilize big data and its efficient, effective and seamless dissemination to a wide variety of stakeholders at

policy & operational level, to inform optimal decisions on physical & policy investments towards establishment of the agro-industrial zones.

EDENSYS

Strategic Level data

Policy & Non-policy Level data

Investment decision makers

To work in complementarity in charting a new roadway that will banish to obscurity, the starvation, death and misery meted upon our people by the glaring productivity gaps. The silo approaches we have fostered haven not availed much. Let these be the lessons that

usher us to complementary actions.

“By crawling, a child learns to stand”


Insufficient food Sleeping hungry

Lack of clean energy

Unemployed youth

EBAFOSA THE SOLUTIONto African

socio-economic challenges

‘PAY-FORWARD’ SYSTEM

Let us March forward in the Spirit of Innovative Volunteerism and seize the moment!

A STRATEGIC APPROACH AND BUSINESS MODEL FOR SCALING UP ECOSYSTEM-BASED ADAPTATION FOR

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Thank You!

@RichardMunang

[email protected]

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