Climate Information Communication for Local Adaptations: Policy Dialogue
The exchange of climate information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium, messaged in a practical and useful context contributes to climate communication. This has become increasingly vital in translating science and research, into practice and policy. Timely delivery and access of climate information, and how it is received, becomes important in management of drought, floods, pests, and effects of diseases. Climate information is described as scientific weather and climate forecasts at lead times from daily to seasonal forecasts and climate projections decades ahead. ICT tools such as mobile phones and community radios are considered the most cost-effective tools in the rural communities and offer a new avenue for the dissemination of climate information to a wider reach of people to enhance their livelihoods. This blogpost serves as a formal announcement of an upcoming Webinar on Climate Information Communication for Local Adaptations that will bring these issues into perspective.
Issues of climate change and diminishing energy resources have pushed discussions of renewable energy to the forefront of global energy discourses. Transitions and expansion of infrastructure are key elements of these discussions.
Industry-Academia Collaboration: A Key Driver to the Achievement of the desired Digital Economy
By Leonard Mabele, iLabAfrica Research Centre, Strathmore University
The unveiling of Kenya’s Digital Economy Blueprint in May 2019 promises a great economic transformation driven by a number of factors such as Digital Skills, Infrastructure, Innovation-driven Entrepreneurship, Digital Government among other factors. With the vision of a digitally empowered citizenry living in a digitally enabled society, the Kenyan government stands to nurture an ecosystem that can rapidly grow to bridge the digital divide and create more opportunities for its citizens ahead of other countries within the region. The Big Four Agenda which covers Agriculture, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Housing sectors is emphasised in the preamble of the document even as Kenya strategically moves towards achieving the ambitiously outlined vision 2030. One thing that cuts across all the pillars described in this Blueprint is the strategic adoption and use of technology to deliver valuable returns. Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of ICT, notes that the adoption of new technologies is creating well-paying jobs for professionals of diverse backgrounds translating into improvement in quality of life and increased connectedness.
How public participation can aid the uptake of solar – lessons from Makueni County.
By Morven Macewen
Public participation and community empowerment are fundamental to the success of Sustainable Development Goals; particularly, Goal No.7 that seeks to increase the ‘proportion of the population with access to electricity’, SDG 13 that aims at avoiding anthropogenic climate change, and SDG 5 concerning gender equality. This blog conceptualises this notion based on empirical research done in Makueni County, Kenya, on the uptake of solar power.
Nairobi Disaster Risk Hub signs an MoU with the Nairobi City Government
By Victoria Chengo & Joanes Atela
On 6th May 2019 during the official launch of the ‘Nairobi Disaster Risk Hub’ under the ‘Multi Hazard Urban Disaster Risks Transitions’ project, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Nairobi Risk Hub – hosted at the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) was signed. This was a move critical to the overarching goal of the Nairobi Disaster Risk Hub which is to provide the city with the capacity and policy framework that enables a shift in the focus of hazard management from a crisis response to a more integrated disaster management and planning towards reduction of risks and the achievement of sustainable development in Nairobi. Thus, the MoU established solid grounds for better collaborative engagements between the two parties who are also partners in the Nairobi Hub, in this work and beyond.
How can knowledge systems in East Africa contribute to sustainable development?
Unpacking Knowledge Systems for sustainable development in East Africa: Practical perspectives from Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania
by Joanes Atela, Fiona Marshall, Nora Ndege, Joanna Chataway, Andy Frost and Andy Hall, Knowledge Systems Project
Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) is rising up the agenda in East Africa – and it is being embraced as a way to catalyse the development agenda and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
A number of low- and middle-income countries, in particular those in sub-Saharan Africa, are attempting to strengthen their STI systems with new policies, institutional arrangements and investments. They are further motivated by the desire to speed up Africa’s transition to an innovation-led, knowledge-based economy. Indeed, the African Union’s STI Strategy for Africa 2024 (STISA-2024) and its Agenda 2063, ‘The Africa We Want’, are strongly pushing innovation agendas – including green innovation and business innovation – as catalysts for the continent’s prosperity.
My internship and stay at ACTS is coming to an end, and will therefore l try to recap look back on my time and recap my experience. I am studying Sustainable Energy Planning and Management at Aalborg University in Denmark, and an integral part of the final year is an internship in a relevant organisation or company. Since beginning my studies more than four years ago I have had a strong desire to study or work abroad for a period, to experience the life, culture, and challenges this entails. Kenya as a country is experiencing tremendous growth and many interesting initiatives are taking place, especially in the energy and renewable energy sector, my specific field of interest.
The Next Generation of Low-cost Energy-efficient Products for the Bottom of the Pyramid (known as the LCT project) comes to an end in July 2018. To mark this occasion, the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) organized a dissemination workshop on 17th July 2018 at ICIPE Duduville Campus, Nairobi.
Developing Green Climate Fund proposals: A two week Training on Climate Relevant Innovation-systems Builders (CRIBS) kicks off
By Victoria Chengo & Fiona Imbali
A two week long research capacity building training on the preparation of proposals for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) kicked off at the Elementaita Country Lodge in Naivasha, Kenya. The event organised by the Africa Sustainability Hub (ASH) at the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in collaboration with the University of Sussex in the UK brings together research and policy makers from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania for two weeks.
Energy Development plans in the Kenyan Counties: Highlights from the Transforming Energy Access workshop
By Victoria Chengo – Research Assistant, CRE programme
On 10th – 11th April 2018, the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) stakeholder workshop was held in Kisumu. It was organized by the African centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in collaboration with the UK-based Low Carbon for Development Network (LCEDN), and the National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND)-Kenya. The theme of the workshop was ‘Capacity Building for Energy Governance’ and aimed to assess the challenges and opportunities for capacity building engagements and to inform on energy governance at the county level.
This blog post outlines the progress and the necessary measures required to support the capacities of counties to strengthen their energy development plans for sustainability, guided by the outcomes of the workshop.
Sustainable dairying in Africa: Highlights from the 13th African Dairy Conference
Catherine Kilelu , 3R Kenya Project Coordinator
From 15-17th November 2017, various stakeholders in the Dairy industry in Africa gathered in Johannesburg for the African Dairy conference and Exhibition organised by the East and Southern Africa Dairy Association (ESADA) (https://www.dairyafrica.com/afda). ESADA has convened this annual meeting since 2005. The conference creates a platform for the actors in the region to strategize on how best to drive the development of a sustainable and competitive industry, bolster intra-region trade and contribute to economic development, and food and nutrition security in the continent.
ACTS Ranked among the top think tanks on climate change in the world in 2016
The African Centre for Technology Studies- ACTS has been ranked among the top 3 climate change think tanks globally in the 2016 think tank ranking.
The ranking also shows that ACTS is the top think tank on climate change in Africa.
The 2016 ranking assessed 244 think tanks, specialized in the research fields of climate change and climate policy.
The ranking is based on the authoritative and worldwide known assessment of the most cutting-edge institutions working in the field of climate change economics and policy, by the International Centre for Climate Governance (ICCG) under the “ICCG Climate Think Tank Ranking Initiative.
The ranking is based an analytical data structured around organizational activities, publications and dissemination.
Rethinking transformative pathways to equitable growth in Kenya: key research options for the Kenya’s Newton Utafiti Fund
Dr. Joanes Atela - African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)
Background
Kenya has witnessed a proliferation of research interventions on both international and national fronts. The country is a host to renowned research and development agencies such as the CGIARS, UN bodies plus several regional research, advocacy and policy bodies all of which are working to fix Kenya’s and wider Africa’s sustainability challenges. Through these interventions, efforts have mainly concentrated to unlock technical and economic fixes for transforming livelihoods and economies, whether new agricultural technologies or ‘’robust’’ energy options or even huge infrastructural interventions. While this approach to research has yielded some benefits including new technological solutions to emerging problems of hunger and energy poverty among others, the transformative value of these interventions remain unclear as most parts of Kenya’s population remain poor, food insecure alongside widening inequality gaps. Recently, there has been growing realization that certain underlying social drivers of change, if addressed, could help unlock the transformative potential of economic and technical fixes to pressing sustainability problems facing Kenya and Africa as a whole. The launch of the Newton Utafiti Fund on 6-7th March 2017 in Kenya through marks a great turning point for Kenya to rethink and dig deep into some of the underlying social issues that have historically impeded transformations in priority socioeconomic sectors of Kenya. As such, this blog offers some thoughts around some key areas and opportunities for social research that the Utafiti fund might benefit from.
By Dr Sandeep Napa, Project Manager, Institute for Transformative Technologies (ITT) - Low Cost Technologies Project
My parents brought us up in a home of generosity. While I had always been interested in social change, I didn’t do much until my final year of medical school. After surviving a near fatal car accident with a friend, my outlook on life changed. I realized that the support and choices that we had, were not available to most patients at our hospital. Moved by the inequality in health and the needless loss of life, I decided to begin volunteering at the blood bank of our hospital and conduct health camps with the Red Cross.
Application of low-energy battery driven technologies in 500 Watt Clinics
By Ruth Njuguna, Head of Clinical Operations, Institute for Transformative Technologies - Low Cost Technologies Project
“Excuse me Daktari, please tell me if my baby is OK”, The woman in the queue said desperately. This woman, 27-year-old Nancy was in second trimester of her pregnancy and had noted decreased fetal movements in the last two days and mild swelling of her feet. Being keen on her health she had gone to a local dispensary in Lower Subukia but the nurse there had challenges listening to the fetal heart rate using the manual fetoscope.
Mainstreaming NDCs in SDGs: the role of national innovation systems
By Dr. Joanes Atela
Acknowledgement: This blog was written with the aid of a grant from the International Development Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada
The 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which took place on 7th-22nd November 2016 came on the back of a series of climate negotiations over the last two decades. COP 22 was a landmark event because it represented the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving to negotiate on the implementation of the Paris Agreement – the second climate change agreement after the Kyoto protocol. The Paris Agreement in itself presents a paradigm shift in global climate action especially because it includes developing countries in the efforts to reduce emission and achieve sustainable growth through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). As highlighted in the Marrakech Action Proclamation for Our Climate and Sustainable Development, this collective contribution towards - implementing commitments under the NDCs is central to the implementation agenda.
By Prof Berhanu Abegaz, Executive Director, The African Academy of Sciences(AAS), Nairobi, Kenya and Hailemichael Teshome Demissie, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Nairobi, Kenya.
Additive manufacturing, popularly known by the colloquial ‘3D printing’, is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created.
Ranging from bionic ears to hand guns, from car parts to prosthetics, from printed houses to printed drones, there is now an inexhaustible list of artefacts that are now 3D printed. 3D Printing is becoming increasingly popular around the globe and is expanding at an incredibly fast rate. Although it is still to take off fully in Africa, the continent needs to be prepared for the policy and legal implications that it might create. Some of the uses of the technology will re-introduce previous regulatory conundrums that dominated the debate on the international IP regimes. Africa was subjected to the harsh consequences of the international IP regime and emerged out of it as a victim rather than a beneficiary.
By Prof Henry Thairu Chair of the Commission for University Education, and Director of Consultancy Services, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.
Early this year, the BBC ran a headline story by the Director of the OECD’s Directorate of Education and Skills, Andreas Schleicher, titled ‘China opens a new university every week’. At this rate China is set to overtake the total number of graduates in the Western world and perhaps in the rest of the world.
This change is not only in the numbers but also in the type and quality of education. The preferred subjects are STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects with 40% of the graduates in 2013 having completed their studies in STEM subjects. Recent years have witnessed nearly a million PhDs in STEM being awarded each year in China. The bar is higher for the new graduates as new thresholds are awaiting them in the world of innovation and technological advancement. The graduates are trained for high value, high earning jobs requiring high skills and are required to equip themselves with the new skills the future market wants them to have.
Africa’s influence in climate change negotiations is weak!! Insights from new research
Joanes Atela, Claire Quinn, Albert Arhin, Lalisa Duguma and Kennedy Mbeva
Africa is mentioned in almost every climate change research and policy as the most vulnerable, the most exposed and the most affected continent by climate change. Global solutions being proposed to tackle climate change whether though adaptation, mitigation, capacity building, financial support are strongly justified around addressing Africa’s vulnerabilities such as hunger, disasters and diseases among others. Because these solutions are expected to work within existing socioeconomic and policy circumstances of African countries, recognising the role of Africa in informing the solutions is very important. A recently published paper on the Journal of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Economics and Law, provides some interesting insights into how Africa contributes to the development of climate change policies at the global level and associated implications on implementing proposed solutions within Africa. The article applies the case of the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) which is emerging as a key global policy to mitigate climate change. The article was authored by researchers drawn from the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), the Sustainability Research Institute at the University of Leeds, the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins of the World Agroforestry Centre and the Department of Geography at Cambridge University.
From policy to implementation discourse: Transformations required to achieve clean and sustainable energy in Africa
Dr. Joanes Atela, ACTS
Background
This week from 23rd-27th May, 2016, delegates drawn from across the world are gathered at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi to participate in the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2) to deliberate on the overarching theme ‘ ‘Delivering on the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’’. I was privileged to speak as a panelist on one of the side events entitled, “Sustainable Energy and Technology”. The event was co-organized by UNEP and ACTS, and drew over 150 participants. I was asked to speak about the required institutional transformations needed to move to a low carbon economy, and the role that African policy and research institutions can and should play in promoting a low-carbon transition. Despite the strong policy discourse perpetuated by the international community on the need for clean and sustainable energy for all, Africa has not achieved meaningful transformation to clean and sustainable energy, as evidenced by the continent’s dismal performance in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), compared to other developing regions.
POLITICAL WILL - THE TAKE HOME FOR AFRICA FROM OBAMA’S ENDORSEMENT OF 3D PRINTING
Dr Cosmas Ochieng, Executive Director, ACTS and Dr. Hailemichael Teshome Demissie, Senior Research Fellow, ACTS
It is common tradition that every nation wants to make and preserve their leaders’ portraitures in the best way possible commissioning the best artists, sculptors and photographers. 3D Printing technology is now providing the most precise portraiture ever. Obama’s 3D printed bust will be unique not only for the way it was made but also for being the closest likeness of the President himself. Unlike the other
3D PRINTING AND AFRICA’S MANUFACTURING RENAISSANCE
By Dr Bitange Ndemo, Associate professor, University of Nairobi
“3D Printing has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything.”
President Barack Obama
Did you know that in 1990 a novel project to manufacture motor vehicles in Kenya was abandoned due to the high cost of building five prototypes? Today new technologies such as 3D printing are making it possible to not only develop prototypes at a fraction of what it cost a few years ago but also provide us with the capacity to create more complex products than ever before.
By Hailemichael Teshome Demissie, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)
A common perception about emerging technologies in the context of developing countries can be captured by the ‘sour grapes’ argument – that such technologies are beneficial but unaffordable – a thinking represented in Aesop’s fable of the hungry fox who cannot jump high enough to reach the hanging grapes and has to give itself the pretext that they are probably sour.
Some in developing countries often resort to the same reasoning that emerging technologies though revolutionary and beneficial as they may be are unaffordable for them and have to wait for years before they can adopt them. This line of thinking needs to be challenged as the reality suggests otherwise.
Technology is evolving rapidly and it is influencing consumers' behaviors, their daily lifestyle, marketing, and business activities. User acceptance of technology is a critical key factor to determine its success. I am involved in a project that is studying technology development to ensure it affects consumers’ lives in an inclusive manner but also uses innovative technology. Recently these came together when ACTS had a chance to use the Poimapper software (a mobile data collection application) to study consumer choices relating to energy efficient appliances in Kenya.
BIOTECHNOLOGY: THE TOOL AFRICA CANNOT AFFORD TO IGNORE
By: Prof. Torbjörn Fagerström, Dr. Roy B. Mugiira and Prof. Lisa Sennerby Forsse a) Värtavägen 39, SE 115 29 Stockholm, Sweden, b) Directorate of Research Management and Development, State Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Nairobi, Republic of Kenya, c) Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Box 7070, Uppsala, S-750 07 Sweden.
Our vision
Research in life sciences will have equal importance for society in the 21st century as research in physics, chemistry and electronics had in the 20th. We will introduce biological production systems, which are ultimately driven by the sun. These will give us not only fuel and food, but also a multitude of novel products including a sustainable flow of raw materials to many industrial processes. This will be achieved by putting science and technology in its rightful place, in order to reach its full potential. We share this vision with the US President Barak Obama, who in his inauguration speech said “We’ll restore science to its rightful place ... We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories”.
Heaps of garbage and polybags scattered as far as the eye can see are regrettably a common sight in most urban and peri-urban centers across the country. It is disheartening, when you drive across a centre made up of less than a dozen shops yet there is so much plastic littered all over, you can barely spot a patch of green – or brown. There is this particular centre Nkoilale on your way to Maasai Mara. The abhorrent site sneaks up on you without warning. The Savanna plains that would be characteristic of this place have been replaced by a sea of plastics as far as the eye can see. I can feel an itch coming on every time I drive past this place. I wonder how this is ok for everyone involved- the locals, the governing bodies, the tourism sector seeing as Maasai Mara is Africa’s 3rd greatest tourist attraction, you, me- how is this ok?
CHINA’S CONTRIBUTION TO SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
By Dr. Sajitha Bashir, World Bank
The scale of China’s engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa is impressive and is expected to grow substantially if future projections of Chinese investments materialize. By 2013, China accounted for a quarter of all SSA trade. Estimates of the stock of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) vary from the official estimate of $ 24 billion to $ 61 billion. (The China Global Investment Tracker estimated the stock of FDI to be $ 61 billion in 2013 and the value of Chinese contracts, a proxy for committed investment flows, to be US$82 billion in the same year - Pigato and Tang, 2015).
HARNESSING TRADE FOR ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
THINK MOBILITY
By Prof. L Alan Winters - Professor of Economics, University of Sussex, also of CEPR, IZA and GDN
Mobility would seem to be the very essence of trade: if things don’t move, there is no trade. This is true, and it informs the parts of this article that talk about efforts to reduce the costs of doing international trade, including trade facilitation and aid for trade. But there are three other aspects of mobility that I want to stress: mobility between sectors – notably structural transformation - and mobility between areas – internal migration and urbanization. Third, I shall argue that mobility lies not only at the heart of generating more output and income, but also at the heart of sharing that income in a more equitable and sustainable ways. In a sense the last is about social mobility and I recognize this as one of the most important elements of achieving a sustainable society; however, as an economist I do not have the skills to move beyond the analysis of incomes, so I will concentrate on that.
A combination of robust economic performance and an uptick in scientific and technological indicators over the last two decades has given rise to exuberant assessments of Africa’s development prospects in the 21st century. Loose parallels are being drawn between development in Africa today and economic development in East Asia (i.e. the ‘East Asian tigers’) and the rise of ‘Silicon Valley’. This article argues that Africa’s economic and techno-scientific progress is being lionized prematurely, to the detriment of its long term development. The ‘Africa rising’ narrative masks a poverty of development strategies: lack of coherent development policies and capacity for strategic thinking necessary to consolidate recent gains and to harness future global mega trends.
By Prof. Michael Lofchie, Department of Political Science, UCLA
A VEHICLE FOR PROGRESSIVE CHANGE OR MORE OF THE SAME?
History offers sobering lessons for those concerned with the prospects of broad based development in Africa. Entrenched political oligarchies do not willingly surrender their power and privilege out of a benevolent concern for the wellbeing of the many because they fear that, if they do, they might erode the basis of their dominance. Africa’s incumbent oligarchies share the political anxiety of oligarchs everywhere; if they widen the circle of citizen engagement and distribute wealth more widely, this would empower those who wish to contest their hold on power. Their determination to retain power helps explain the scarcity of development policies that share the benefits of Africa’s growing wealth with poorer Africans.
Public-private partnership (PPP) has become a central driver of climate change actions- both in negotiations and implementation. Whether on clean energy, sustainable forest management or even climate smart agriculture, PPP has been emphasised as the panacea of hope for a climate resilient world. Amidst this hope, however, policy makers, donors and scientists alike have paid little attention to the diagnosis of this concept and whether the form in which it is currently framed carry any premise for the desired climate resilient world. From a layman’s perspective, the PPP Knowledge Lab defines PPP as “a long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service…’’ The definition entails two key components: contractual/institutional and resources/monetary resources for delivering the contract. In most policy and scientific debates, the latter part of the concept ‘monetary resources’ appears to have taken precedence perhaps because it provides ‘direct fix’’ to climate problems and in the words of a Bonn-based expert I interviewed during my PhD research ‘PPP critically avails resources for climate action because without money, you can do nothing’.
‘You have been negotiating all my life’ lamented a Youth NGO’s Constituency (YOUNGO) representative while making an intervention at a UNFCCC COP 17 session in Durban, South Africa in 2011. Four years on, the world is rife with anticipation that the UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris will at long last deliver on a global climate deal applicable to all, which is fair, ambitious, and legally binding. Whatever this will translate to in real terms - and how a cocktail with all these ingredients can be made - remains to be seen.
Energy poverty is one of the major challenges holding back Africa’s transformation agenda, as clearly articulated in the African Union’s Agenda 2063[1]. About 70% of the African population is not connected to the electricity grid, yet the AU 2063 agenda emphasises that energy is the backbone of economic transformation. Lack of clean, affordable energy is thus a critical challenge in Africa, and one that has recently started getting the publicity that it deserves.
Sustainable development (SD) remains a landmark policy and global development agenda since the 1992 Convention on Environment and Development. Anchored on the Brutland Commission report ‘Our Common Future’, sustainable development articulates the urge to harmonise the temporal and spatial redistribution of development with a natural resource base – in the words of Bruntland, ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.
This self-justifying definition has been enthusiastically accepted by many across the globe – providing a platform for North-South political and socioeconomic bargaining, a strong operating ground for international development agencies, and – most importantly – a novel space for setting international research and development agendas.
“In our world in which the generation of new knowledge and its application to change the human condition is the engine which moves human society further away from barbarism, do we not have need to recall Africa’s hundreds of thousands of intellectuals back from their places of emigration in Western Europe and North America, to rejoin those who remain still within our shores! I dream of the day when these, the African mathematicians and computer specialists in Washington and New York, the African physicists, engineers, doctors, business managers and economists, will return from London and Manchester and Paris and Brussels to add to the African pool of brain power, to enquire into and find solutions to Africa’s problems and challenges, to open the African door to the world of knowledge, to elevate Africa’s place within the universe of research the information of new knowledge, education and information”.
