Implications of the emerging green policy of the Obama administration for Africa’s sustainable development

Abstract

Advanced economies responded to recent global financial meltdown and economic recession by
implementing “green” economic stimulus packages concentrating on environmentally-friendly and
sustainable technologies. We examined this emerging paradigm against Sub-Saharan Africa’s underdevelopment (prolonged poverty, economic stagnation/decline, weak structures, processes, institutions
and attitudes required for accelerating economic growth; practice of electoralism: power derivation
through elections without democratic ingredients), exclusion of stakeholders including civil society
from policy, thereby depriving society innovations and resources contributed by civil society elsewhere
to socio-economic development. We used desk research and descriptive methods to analyze secondary
data based on increasing civil society involvement in development processes under emerging
paradigm of partnership, governance, climate change, global financial crisis. We showed that past
actions: unbridled pursuit of anthropocentric policy that ignored ecocentric measures led to crises
(environmental-climate degradation, and recently global financial meltdown and economic recession),
thereby worsening existing challenges. We recommend that African nations adopt the emerging green
policy thereby increasing their chances of benefiting from the assistance of Governments. The
promotion of green development policy in Africa is of urgent need and imperative.