Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

Executive Summary
The industrial sector in Africa in general is not well developed. Except for few countries
like South Africa that boast well developed manufacturing industries, for most of the
African countries the lions share of their economic turnover comes from agriculture.
Given that 45% of the population is below poverty line, over-consumption is not yet a
problem in Africa in general. This will not, however, be the case in the long term even
with a business-as-usual trajectory. There is an opportunity in discussing consumption in
terms of meeting universally accepted basic needs for the ever increasing population of
Africa.
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 address social and
economic needs of Africa within an ecologically sustainable framework. The big
challenge in terms of consumption is to break the vicious cycle of poverty.
Africa faces two-pronged challenge constituting of a number of complex and interlinked
aspects. The first one is the production and infrastructural challenge. This includes
agricultural productivity, energy supply, urbanization, solid waste, and water supply and
sanitation. The second one is health and environmental challenge 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 (SCP) system within the regional
reality. SCP is all about contributing to environmental quality through efficient
production and use of natural resources, minimization of wastes, and optimization of
supply of products and services. It involves business, government, communities and
households.
One interesting area in less developed areas such as many countries in Africa is the case
of leapfrogging into sustainability without the need to pass through intermediate stages of
development. Leapfrogging in Africa has a potential to help speed up the process of
development using advanced systems. It can do so by avoiding intermediate steps taken
in countries in the North. Carrying out leapfrogging in the right context can save on
infrastructure development costs by creating a shortcut to clean, safe and efficient
technologies. Africa can learn from the experience of more advanced countries regarding
the how-to of providing the social benefits to a significant portion of its population while
avoiding at the same time any negative environmental side effects. It can also enhance its
opportunity to become competitive in applying advanced systems early on.
There are cases in Africa and worldwide where countries and villages have leapfrogged
from scratch to efficient and modern technologies such as solar power. Many of the
leapfrogging discussions and literatures on successful cases and suggestions for the
future, specifically targeting Africa, focus on the ITC sector. In addition to this
indispensable role of ICT in the economic and social development, there is an obvious
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