Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

this temptation of going for quick fixes and should be able to balance efforts of solving
acute and local ills with strategically important future plans and policies.
7.4.3 Enhancing Stability
Many African countries are rendered instable due to internal conflicts and/or conflict with
their neighbouring countries. Other countries, no matter how stable internally they are,
are affected by their mere position in an instable neighbourhood. These all affect the
economic and social development of these affected countries. Hence, mechanisms that
take root on local and indigenous initiatives should be developed to bring about and
enhance stability in these countries.
8 Conclusion
Leapfrogging to SCP is both desirable and possible in Africa. The major opportunities for
leapfrogging in Africa are the rich natural resource endowment of the continent; its
currently low level of technological development; infrastructural expansion; and
corporate establishment.
The core benefit of leapfrogging to SCP is the possibility to pull millions of Africans out
of poverty through meeting basic needs and setting a sustainable economic growth
without incurring severe local and global environmental damages.
To enable leapfrogging to SCP in Africa, required policies and actions can be categorized
into four clusters namely; political and institutional; infrastructural; development context
and cooperation, and the instrumental cluster.
Setting the Perspective
Economy-wide changes rather than projects and singular product lines are required. Such
systems-level leapfrogging provides a feasible way for Africa to seek more sustainable
forms of development by increasing the overall eco-efficiency of economic systems.
It is beneficial to go beyond the search for a single remedy to all ills, and instead seek
feasible combinations of solutions.
There should be a focus as much on the infrastructure that will make leapfrogging
possible as on the specific technologies. The infrastructure can be developed in such a
way that it leads to a society-wide transformation. What matters is the flexibility and
degree of decentralization of the infrastructure so that pre-existing large scale networks
may not be required for specific modular systems to function. This will help create a
strategy to avoid lock-in problems. The focus should thus be on creating conditions to
scale up the transfer of environmentally friendly systems instead of promoting specific
type of technologies.
Once appropriate infrastructure and vehicles that enable leapfrogging to SCP are in place,
a prioritisation of areas that result in grand gains is important. The required changes can
start at parts of the economy that have a strategic role for other consecutive changes.
Economically important areas that have a trans-sectoral propagating effect across the
economy need to get the priority. These areas include ecological farming, energy, solid
waste management, water supply and sanitation, etc.
Pulling African urban and rural households out of the trap of poverty should form the
denominator of all leapfrogging efforts. The efforts should lead to poverty reduction and
eradication through satisfying basic needs in a sustainable way. Initiatives that generate
new jobs thereby increase the purchasing power of households have a higher chance to
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