African Voices

WCEF2023 Accelerator Session 

African Voices: Showcasing Circular Economy Ambition in Africa 


Africa’s historical creativity, resilience, indigenous practices and technologies have in recent times contributed to some of the most innovative and socially inclusive circular solutions as an inspiration for the wider global circular development. Three African partners from last year’s World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF2022) have joined forces in this African Voices Accelerator Session to continue discussions on how to formalise, upscale, and globally market these solutions. Three core sectors including green mining and critical raw materials, benign plastics, and resilient food systems will be tackled during this hybrid event.

Hosts


What was the session about?


Last year, the Word Circular Economy Forum (WCEF2022) was hosted for the first time in the Global South on the African continent. In Kigali; Rwanda the WCEF2022 showcased the wide range of emerging CE product-and-service innovations specifically in the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) space. Africa’s crucial role in contributing to the global CE transition and the importance of CE implementation to accelerate the sustainable development of Africa was highlighted. An outcome of the conference – the “Kigali Call to Action” calls on stakeholders to undertake and support the development, advancement and implementation of circular economy policies, strategies and action plans for the sustainable development of African economies. 

To build on the momentum created in Kigali, this year, partners from the African continent came together to jointly host an WCEF2023 Accelerator Session that presents specific efforts from the African continent across 3 core themes namely: Natural resources, Plastics and Food systems. All three chosen topics are highly intertwined and linked to last year’s sessions on climate resilience and nature regeneration as well as the development of localised value chains. The aim of the Accelerator Session was to highlight the role of partnerships and stress the need for close collaboration at national, regional and global levels, on policy dialogue, peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing to enable a just transition to a circular economy. The target audience for these sessions included African policy makers, private sector representatives, development and multilateral agencies, non-regional country partners, academia etc.

Topic One


Circular economy and resource efficiency in Africa’s Mining and Nature-based sectors & Critical Raw Materials 


Topic Lead: African Development Bank (AfDB) 


This event informed on the proposed Africa Green Minerals strategy how to better preserve and secure for Africa critical raw materials and exchange ideas on best practices in the application of circular economy. It further highlighted specific examples of best practices in the application of circular economy for nature-based solutions in Africa. 

Topic Two


Establishing a common approach to standards for plastics design and recycling in Africa – a case for a continental rPET recycling standard 


Topic Lead: African Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA) 


This discussion made a solid case for the development of a continental standard for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) bottles for food-contact applications to attract investments in infrastructure for recycling. Currently, trade restrictions between countries limit the availability of feedstock, making recycling plastics less attractive for investors and manufacturers compared to the use of virgin plastic. This already led to the contribution of the UN resolution adopted to end plastic pollution.

Topic Three


Circular Food systems in Africa 


Topic Lead: African Circular Economy Network (ACEN) 


While there are wide differences, African countries average more than 50% of their GDP from the agricultural sector with around 70% of the population engaged in this sector largely from a subsistence perspective.  Some 40% of crops on average either never get to market or are spoiled before consumption.  Many African countries are net importers of food with most exports limited to unprocessed fresh produce, with little value-addition through agri-processing methods. This inevitably underlines the intertwinement between Africa and other continents’ food supply, as well as its role in the food production value chain. Despite Africa being home to 60% of the world’s arable land, its food systems are highly vulnerable to global warming, becoming extremely fragile over the years as the continent is impacted the most by climate change while contributing the least to the problem. With an exploding population, Africa has a dire need to deploy resilient and more environmentally sustainable food systems. Hence this discussion addressed the importance of creating circular food systems by combining the newest technologies with indigenous knowledge, discuss the need of interregional partnerships as well as finding profitable ways of upscaling some of the most unique and interesting case-studies that the continent offers. 

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