Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

Figure 9: Threatened and endangered animal species in Africa Source 22 .
In a nut shell, the foregoing section can be summarized as follows.
The prevailing pattern of production of products and service in Africa both in size and
content is not capable of adding value to the level that is required to addresses social and
economic needs of Africa within an ecologically sustainable framework. The big
challenge in terms of consumption is to break-up from the circle of poverty.
The section has outlined the areas of concern in a two-pronged fashion that cover
complex and interlinked aspects. The first one is the production and infrastructural
challenge. This includes agricultural productivity, energy supply, urbanization, solid
waste, and water and sanitation. The second one is health and environmental challenges
covering diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids and environmental
problems including climate change, desertification, and biodiversity depletion.
It is important to take the specific context of Africa into account in order to succeed in
shifting to a sustainable consumption and production system within the regional reality.
22 UNEP/GRID-Arendal (2002)
21