Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

succeed in transforming the role of those at the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” into a higher
level of contribution towards sustaining the overall economic growth. In the absence of
increased purchasing power of households, an undesirable situation of so much to
consume with few affording to do so is created.
Policy issues
It is important to highlight the role of legislative and policy level measures that can pave
the way for leapfrogging. As in the case of the Brazilian ethanol case, for any kind of
technological change that can be characterized as some form of leapfrogging to succeed,
strong government policies and good technological capabilities are both needed in order
to achieve widespread deployment of the technologies.
In this regard, policies that can provide the platform to leapfrog past the environmentally
damaging development path historically taken by the countries in the North are required.
The policies need to be adapted and contextualized to provide support to efforts of
minimizing the dependence on external resources; and reducing harmful impacts while
meeting basic needs and eradicating poverty. The policy planning exercise is better done
if preceded by an attempt to understand the context of the problems and then find
solutions.
Capacity Building
The enforcement of polices and regulations cannot be efficient and effective in the
prevailing lack of human and financial resources. For the same reason, transfer of
technologies from different countries to Africa is unlikely to be implemented or
sustained.
Leadership and operational capacity is of necessity in order to make the shift from the
current focus on short-term economic benefits of development to a strategic and
systematic focus on sustainable development.
At the level of private and public consumers, there is a need to promote environmentally
friendly technologies as well as sustainable products and services. Adequate technical
capabilities and financial resources should be allocated to address the supply side
simultaneously. This approach will change the trend of increasing pollution and energy
consumption that currently outpaces economic growth in Africa.
There is a need to maximize the effort of creating human and institutional capacities in
the region to encourage public participation that can a make soft landing of leapfrogging
technologies a possibility.
Development Partners’ role
Leapfrogging to SCP should be viewed as a continuous systems-level process not as a set
of disorganized small projects with a limited life time. Schemes that can drive such a
systems-level process should be developed as a partnership between Africa and
development partners. If implemented in a consciously planned manner, such schemes
will result in a win-win situation for both Africa and the rest of the world. Facilitating
exchange of experiences and creating access to best practices in selected areas from other
countries are two important areas that development partners can greatly contribute to.
One example of areas under the domain of the role of development partners on which the
Task Force for Cooperation with Africa is working on is ecolabelling of African
products. An ecolabelling scheme supported by a genuine and standardized basis can
positively influence both the production and consumption components of SCP at the
same time. In doing so, it has the potential to motivate and catalyze other leapfrogging
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