IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v17y2009i6p400-413.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Achieving environmental sustainability and growth in Africa: the role of science, technology and innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Webersik

    (University of Agder, Centre for Development Studies, Kristiansand, Norway)

  • Clarice Wilson

    (UNEP|Division of Environmental Law and Conventions, Nairobi, Kenya)

Abstract

African economies are closely linked to natural resources and rely heavily on agriculture, largely rain fed. Agricultural development has long being considered of secondary importance in African economic development. As the current food crisis shows, it is important as this article argues to rethink not only agricultural policies, but also agricultural practices, and particularly the role science and innovation can play to address development and sustainability challenges. It is predicted that Africa will be particularly vulnerable to climate change and climate variability associated with biodiversity loss, food insecurity, water scarcity and an increase in drought frequency. This article examines pressing environmental challenges Africa is facing and discusses the role of science and technology solutions in meeting these challenges. An environmental performance country methodology is used to identify areas of best practice in achieving environmental policy targets, such as clean water or biodiversity conservation, as well as areas of action. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Webersik & Clarice Wilson, 2009. "Achieving environmental sustainability and growth in Africa: the role of science, technology and innovation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 400-413.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:17:y:2009:i:6:p:400-413
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.411
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/sd.411
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.411?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2002. "On the Incidence of Civil War in Africa," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(1), pages 13-28, February.
    2. Ibrahim Elbadawi & Nicholas Sambanis, 2002. "How Much War Will we see?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(3), pages 307-334, June.
    3. Fearon, James D. & Laitin, David D., 2003. "Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 97(1), pages 75-90, February.
    4. Juha Auvinen & E. Wayne Nafziger, 1999. "The Sources of Humanitarian Emergencies," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 43(3), pages 267-290, June.
    5. Lee Liu, 2009. "Urban environmental performance in China: a sustainability divide?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 1-18.
    6. Andy Stirling, 2007. "Deliberate futures: precaution and progress in social choice of sustainable technology," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(5), pages 286-295.
    7. Spielman, David J. & von Grebmer, Klaus, 2004. "Public-private partnerships in agricultural research: an analysis of challenges facing industry and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research," EPTD discussion papers 113, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Drechsel, Pay & Gyiele, Lucy & Kunze, Dagmar & Cofie, Olufunke, 2001. "Population density, soil nutrient depletion, and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 251-258, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adetutu, Morakinyo O. & Ajayi, Victor, 2020. "The impact of domestic and foreign R&D on agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    2. Hourieh Masaeli & Alireza Gohari & Marzieh Hasanzadeh Saray & Ali Torabi Haghighi, 2023. "Developing a new water–energy–food‐greenhouse gases nexus tool for sustainable agricultural landscape management," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 877-892, April.
    3. Philip Walsh, 2011. "Creating a “values” chain for sustainable development in developing nations: where Maslow meets Porter," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 789-805, August.
    4. Lisa Biber‐Freudenberger & Candan Ergeneman & Jan Janosch Förster & Thomas Dietz & Jan Börner, 2020. "Bioeconomy futures: Expectation patterns of scientists and practitioners on the sustainability of bio‐based transformation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1220-1235, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert MacCulloch & Silvia Pezzini, 2010. "The Roles of Freedom, Growth, and Religion in the Taste for Revolution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 329-358, May.
    2. Tilman Br�ck & Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp & Andrew Tedesco & Alexandra Avdeenko, 2013. "Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys," HiCN Working Papers 153, Households in Conflict Network.
    3. Barrios, Salvador & Bertinelli, Luisito & Strobl, Eric, 2006. "Climatic change and rural-urban migration: The case of sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 357-371, November.
    4. Magnus Lundgren, 2017. "Which type of international organizations can settle civil wars?," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 613-641, December.
    5. Silve, Arthur & Verdier, Thierry, 2018. "A theory of regional conflict complexes," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 434-447.
    6. Jean-Paul Azam & Kartika Bhatia, 2017. "Provoking insurgency in a federal state: theory and application to India," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 183-210, March.
    7. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2017. "A critical survey of the resource curse literature through the appropriability lens," CEPN Working Papers 2017-14, Centre d'Economie de l'Université de Paris Nord.
    8. James Ron, 2005. "Paradigm in Distress?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(4), pages 443-450, August.
    9. Rigterink, Anouk S., 2012. "New Wars in Numbers. An exploration of various datasets on intra-state violence," MPRA Paper 45264, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Maystadt, Jean-François & Trinh Tan, Jean-François & Breisinger, Clemens, 2014. "Does food security matter for transition in Arab countries?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 106-115.
    11. Alou Adessé Dama, 2021. "Exploring Tilly’s Theory : Violent Conflicts and Tax Revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa," CERDI Working papers hal-03401539, HAL.
    12. Jonathan Goyette & Maroua Smaoui, 2019. "Civil armed conflicts: the impact of the interaction between climate change and agricultural potential," RIEEM Discussion Paper Series 1903, Research Institute for Environmental Economics and Management, Waseda University.
    13. Benedikt Korf, 2006. "Functions of violence revisited: greed, pride and grievance in Sri Lanka’s civil war," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 6(2), pages 109-122, April.
    14. Karen Bodnaruk Jazayeri, 2016. "Identity-based political inequality and protest: The dynamic relationship between political power and protest in the Middle East and North Africa," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(4), pages 400-422, September.
    15. Michael Jetter & Bei Li, 2017. "The Political Economy of Opposition Groups: Peace, Terrorism, or Civil Conflict," CESifo Working Paper Series 6747, CESifo.
    16. Sarsons, Heather, 2015. "Rainfall and conflict: A cautionary tale," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 62-72.
    17. Serhan Cevik & Mohammad Rahmati, 2015. "Breaking the Curse of Sisyphus: An Empirical Analysis of Post-Conflict Economic Transitions," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 57(4), pages 569-597, December.
    18. Carolyn Chisadza & Matthew Clance, 2021. "Conflict heterogeneity in Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 89(4), pages 459-479, December.
    19. Issifou, Ismael, 2017. "Can migration reduce civil conflicts as an antidote to rent-seeking?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 333-353.
    20. Bodea, Cristina & Elbadawi, Ibrahim A., 2008. "Political violence and economic growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4692, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:17:y:2009:i:6:p:400-413. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.