POST COVID-19 LOW-CARBON TRANSITION
PROGRAM RATIONALE
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis pose enormous challenges to economies and societies across Africa, but it must not derail efforts by African countries to limit warming to well-below 2°C. The pandemic is also set to curtail Africa’s efforts to build a climate-smart and resilient future. The crisis has claimed over 100,000 African lives and nearly 4 million cases have been recorded so far (UNDP 2021). The effects of the crisis on production and exports is already hindering growth. Real GDP in Africa contracted by 2.1 percent in 2020 (AfDB 2021).
Addressing the health crisis and providing relief to the affected population, businesses and workers are the immediate priorities. However, the post-crisis recovery programmes present an opportunity to many African countries to closely align public policies with climate objectives and limit the risk of pursuing carbon-intensive development (OECD 2020).
Recovering from the COVID-19 crisis will entail among others a training of diverse state and non-state actors on how to build back and build forward better and promote the creation of green economies and jobs so as to address worsening challenge of poverty, unemployment and climate change vulnerability. The new skills are necessary to ensure that COVID-19 recovery programmes can be designed to orientate investments towards sectors and technologies that can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient future in Africa.
Against the above background and to respond to member States request, IDEP and MGD are looking for a senior expert in climate change, natural resource management, economics, development studies, or related discipline.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To provide background on global and African development agendas and the contestations thereof, including matters surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sendai Framework, Paris Agreement, New Urban Agenda, Africa Agenda 2063, among others.
- To provide insights into Global and African Union institutional arrangements and global policy addenda setting processes.
- To build knowledge regarding the linkages between COVID-19 and climate change.
- To understand the concepts and policies on low-carbon, just and sustainability transition in the context of COVID-19 and climate change, as well as explore the (dis)advantages thereof for African economies.
- To build capacity for low-carbon and climate negotiations with the view to promote sustainable African growth that is inclusive of the blue (ocean) economy.
- To prepare the African continent and key stakeholders for the global transition to NetZero by 2050.
- To open up avenues for mobilising means of implementation towards low-carbon and climate-resilient African economies.
- To build capacity to analyse, monitor an devaluate low-carbon development pathways and trajectories.