The Marrakech Task Force on Cooperation with Africa

 

The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 underlines that fundamental changes in the way societies produce and consume are indispensable for achieving global sustainable development. It therefore calls for the promotion and development of a 10-year framework of programmes (10YFP), now referred to as the “Marrakech Process”, to accelerate the shift towards sustainable patterns of consumption and production (SCP). Among the seven Marrakech Task Forces (MTF), one is dedicated to promote SCP in Africa. The Marrakech Task Force on Cooperation with Africa was established by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and is chaired together with the African Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARSCP).

 

 

1.    Supporting African countries in the integration of SCP into existing programmes through the development and implementation of national and regional action plans in two pilot countries, Mauritius and Tanzania and two pilot cities, Cairo (Egypt) and Maputo (Mozambique).

 

 

2.    Developing linkages between the Task Force on Cooperation with Africa and other Task Forces on activities to be implemented in Africa.

 

 

Project achievements

The project has given place to a knowledge-sharing and networking process, which was marked by two main workshops, one held in Nairobi, August 2008 and another one held in Berlin, October 2009. Both meetings gathered the project partners, development agencies, experts and different governmental representatives of European and African countries. The following three publications are stemming from this multilateral process.

 

 

1.    Supporting the implementation of national and regional action plans on SCP in Africa. Mauritius and Tanzania, Cairo (Egypt) and Maputo (Mozambique) had already developed their SCP programme in 2008 and CSCP has been providing support for their respective implementation. The following documents, designed to support their implementation process will be published very soon:

 

• “Making SCP Happen – Implementation Plan for SCP programmes in Africa”, the document is the result of researches on effective principles and instruments for implementing governmental or municipal SCP incentives. It puts a particular emphasis on the living character of an implementation plan, which should be revised regularly to assure that the stated aims are fulfilled in the fieldwork. It focuses on the importance of involving a lot of different actors in the implementation process, which is particularly relevant in the case of SCP, because of its crosscutting nature.

 

•  A Booklet on “National and Regional Action Plans on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Africa was produced to answer the need of making the pilot countries/cities SCP programmes more visible, favour the creation of partnerships between the pilot countries and cities and other relevant organisations and speed up the action plans implementation.

 

2.    Building partnership activities in Africa with other Marrakech Task Forces. Though the Marrakech Task Force on Cooperation with Africa is region specific, its activities encompasses all main SCP issues, in which other Marrakech Task Forces are specialised. Developing linkages with other Task Forces has therefore been defined as a priority. CSCP has facilitated the development of specific partnership activities to be implemented in Africa. A Brief Book was prepared as part of this partnership activity in cooperation with the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Building and Construction lead by Finland.

 

•  This Brief Book on Sustainable Building and Construction in Africa will be published by BMU very soon. It clarifies the concept of Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) in Africa. It is based on primarily African research and building projects implemented in different parts of the region.

 

 

Project Partners

• Marrakech Task Force on Cooperation with Africa lead by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• African Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARSCP)
• National Cleaner Production Centre of Egypt (ENCPC)
• National Cleaner Production Centre of Mozambique (CNPML)
• National Cleaner Production Centre of Tanzania (CPCT)
• Mauritius Ministry of Environment and National Development Unit (MoE and NDU).

 

Duration of the project: 2007-2009

 

Publications to be soon published:

• Making SCP Happen – Implementation Plan for SCP Programmes in Africa
• Brochure Booklet – National and Regional Action Plans on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Africa
• Brief book on Sustainable Buildings and Construction in Africa