Mindset Change: Winning the War Against Poverty in Africa

Download or read book Mindset Change: Winning the War Against Poverty in Africa written by Dr Richard Munang and published by Dr. Richard Munang. This book was released on 2024-11-06 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The task of saving the planet requires an extraordinary reckoning with ourselves- with our all-too-human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future. We have turned our world into a space of doing just what pleases us, and the effects and impacts are already upon us. Despite alarming signals from every scientific report, we seem not to listen to the urgent call to action. Just in 2023 alone, global losses from climate disasters far exceed $100bn in eye-watering financial losses. Behind the dollar, figures lie millions of stories of human loss and suffering and the death and displacement of people around the world. Be it storms, floods, droughts, or heat waves, to name a few. Most of these impacts affect some of the world’s poorest countries and, more so, Africa. Despite all these, the urgency for climate action has not taken centre stage. We are divided. Though this was short-lived, it took a pandemic to unite us as a global community, but climate change and environmental crisis have not stopped for COVID-19. Instead, COVID exposed some hidden aspects that need to be understood to accelerate global solutions to global challenges, especially for Africa and the global south. Externalizing solutions is a non-starter. For the past 60 years, Africa has not fully weaned from externalizing solutions to its challenges. The COVID-19 emergency has offered us the latest shock therapy that “we cannot live on borrowed salt”. That “we cannot set sail on someone else’s star”. A stark reminder that this model of dependency is a failure. For example, we read multiple rounds of stimulus packages running into the trillions of US dollars extended by developed economies to bail out their countries. It is a blunt demonstration of the urgent need to change tact and embrace the approach of local solutions to contextual challenges because externalizing solutions has repeatedly proven to be a non-starter. Sadly, none of this surprised me. Over the past twelve years, I have spent my career working on the climate change nexus between science, policy, and action. I have been part of crunching the numbers, getting the science to the field to test the waters of environment and climate action solutions and engaging the continent’s populace where their livelihoods are destroyed, putting millions at risk. I have seen first-hand how the generally accepted narrative that environment and climate action are a social undertaking and primarily the government’s responsibility has led to a mindset of dependency and supply-drivenness instead of looking for opportunities. It has made the narrative of climate action an investment opportunity that unlocks opportunities for many a hard sell- hindering the full participation of some stakeholders who are reluctant to embrace a market-driven paradigm. I have seen institutional lethargy where the uptake of environment and climate action from an enterprise and income opportunities lens is a new narrative separate from the traditional approach of taking climate action from the social lens established in most institutions. Such new knowledge tends to face resistance from bureaucracies where new paradigms are shelved and opted for the traditional ones. To surmount this, I have found that we urgently need to address climate change, using a fresh perspective that engages the whole of society to accelerate action to curtail the already dangerous impacts we are suffering. And to work with early adopters within state and non-state actors to spearhead the task of convincing counterparts to pick up new innovative paradigms. We need a mindset change where the continent’s population, especially the youth, starts seeing themselves as solutions providers, not victims of circumstances. But just as “daylight follows a night”, COVID-19 has catalyzed the rise of some very critical lessons that we cannot afford to ignore from now and beyond if we are to take environmental and climate action holistically engaging the entirety of society. And these lessons arise from answering what I consider to be the most fundamental question of our time. And that is - how do we re-imagine, re-organize and re-design transformational environment and climate action solutions that involve us all as we reboot our mindsets? I used the operator “we” deliberately because these lessons are for each of us as individual citizens. And each of us has a role to play in answering this question if we are to embark on driving transformational climate action. To do this entirely, we need transformational thinking. The big question becomes whether we have transformed as a continent and people. Let’s face it: across the globe, almost universally, Africa is a continent that is synonymous with adversity. Today, over 60 years after most countries gained independence, the continent is still in a steep struggle to get the basics of socio-economic progress right. For example, over 257 million people on the continent still go to bed hungry every day. Over 12 million young people – the highest globally - need jobs every year amidst shrinking economies that are up to 20 times less productive than competitors in today’s globalized economies. Up to 620 million people lack access to electricity. Bridging this gap using fossil-based power generators costs three to six times what grid consumers pay globally, a significant impediment to competitive enterprise on the continent. The number of people without access to clean cooking has been rising. Over 700,000 lives, most of them women and children, are lost prematurely every year because of indoor pollution exacerbated by unclean, clean cooking means across Africa. Given these challenges, I have seen through our work across the region that there is still a sense of obliviousness when it comes to ushering ourselves to do that, which can help solve a problem of this magnitude that is accelerating literally every challenge we can think of in Africa. The continent has not been spared of raging global emergencies to add to the above peculiar risks. From the COVID-19 global crisis to climate change, Africa has borne the brunt like the rest of the globe. Africa is the most vulnerable region to the changing climate. It is already heating twice as fast as the rest of the world. The implication is that the economic misery that is already at breaking point and plunging millions into suffering is guaranteed to hurt current generations further and utterly disenfranchise those yet to be born. If you are already worried about climate change and support climate action, then you are on the right path. The onus is on the present generation to draw the proverbial line in the sand and say never again. Just as the globe has come together and developed measures to respond to the COVID-19 emergency, including a vaccine in record time, Africa must urgently get together and put a stop to perennial disproportionate vulnerability. This calls for one thing – transformation. But a transformation that is undertaken on two dimensions- soft and hard. On the “hard transformation”, I am an environment and climate action expert and practitioner who has worked with ground actors. Increasingly, I spend more and more of my time explaining why it matters to engage the continent's most significant non-state actors constituencies- the youth and the informal sector. Why? Because after engaging the continent through our work on climate action solutions and the data we have generated, I’m convinced that the most strategic and vital direction is for Africa to leverage its areas of comparative economic advantage to drive climate action from an enterprising dimension. From the informal sector that currently engages up to 80% of the active population to the youth who form over 60% of the people, coupled with the continent’s inclusive, climate-derivative economic sectors – its agro-value chains and clean energy. The combination of these aspects urgently needs to be super-charged and turbo-charged to become the main thrust of competitive economic growth on the continent. It is the “brick-and-mortar” foundation of climate action entrepreneurship or what I called in short “ClimatePreneurship” that offers the continent the quickest route to achieving the much-needed global competitiveness that is simply irreplaceable. But the above is not possible without the “soft transformation”. So, what is soft transformation? According to wealth measures globally, a skilled person capable of turning challenges into enterprise opportunities is 4times the value of produced capital and 15 times the value of natural capital. A World Bank Analysis shows that spending just one additional year enhancing skills raises earnings by an average of 10% annually. This is higher than any alternative investment an individual could make. Buying a physical asset would give you 7.4%; a savings account would give you 4.7%; and a house 3.8%. Nothing beats enhancing your skills. This then means that the primary, sovereign capital that we need to mobilize in Africa and the world towards driving climate action from a socio-economic lens is one – human capital. How we can get people to invest in climate action implementation from an enterprise lens, leveraging on what is already accessible to them, is the new perspective we urgently need to bring into climate implementation in addition to the hard transformation. The continent urgently needs a “skills revolution” where every citizen and resident pre-occupies themselves with one duty – how to use their skills, talents, aptitudes, and ongoing work to turn the continent’s myriad of challenges into enterprise opportunities that touch many lives. Doing this calls for a change in narrative and attitude to reboot the mind where individual citizens see themselves as the sources of climate action solutions and make themselves valuable in devising these solutions that Africa needs, not always expecting that these solutions will come from elsewhere alone. Why are people not taking these actions and making themselves the solutions providers? The answer is that many have not been made to self-belief and see themselves as the drivers of solutions. The mainstream narrative for the past years has instead focused and peddled the wrong narrative on problems for problems instead of solutions to problems. We must move from this knee-jerk style of a problem-for-problem narrative to solutions to problem conversations. This means the continent must reject the “pencil test” definition where contextual understanding does not spearhead the definition of the continent’s narrative, solutions, progress, predicament, and even existence. For example, sometime ten years ago, Africa was described in the mainstream in flowery terms as a “rising continent” – simply because of the so-called “natural resources boom” that is always fickle and transient. In a few short years, the continent became a “limping continent” when the resources “boom” became “bust”. This is a “pencil test”, a “moving target” definition, where the continent’s identity is erased and changed not based on contextual fundamentals but the convenience of everybody else but the over 1.4 billion citizens eking out a living under the hot sun. Changing this perspective is part of the urgently needed “soft transformation”. But how can we drive this by engaging the whole of society to transform for real? I’m asked this question nearly every time. The continent’s institutions must urgently embrace the need to give more chances to more people who know the importance of human capital. Take financial systems, for instance – the traditional model is always to extend credit based on an individual or entity’s physical assets and transaction records. This “safe bet” approach has proven its inability to foster real progress, as we already know over the many years it has been applied. But what do we do in a continent where up to 90% exist outside of formal banking systems? Transform. An estimated $300 billion in lending opportunities remain untapped in the continent’s vast informal sector that engages up to 80% of the continent’s working population, the majority being formally unbanked. Institutions must transform and consider “soft capital” as a basis for extending credit and tap into the intrinsic of developmental capital – human abilities. An individual’s track record in terms of passion for turning challenges into opportunities needs to be the new currency, not the nature of their “balance sheet” alone. We have developed an approach called the Innovative Volunteerism approach, an incubation approach and model of transformational development, leveraging people as the sovereign capital, unlocking a new breed of climate action entrepreneurs who were given a chance on nothing but their passion for solutions. It is essential to understand what is happening to the continent and use it as a strength to drive transformational environmental and climate action solutions. “ClimatePreneurship” is about looking beyond the turmoil of risks and focusing on selflessly devising solutions, using what is accessible to us. It is about retooling our skills, despite our educational and social background, with a clear goal in the mindset of turning climate change-induced challenges into opportunities. Here’s the good news already happening across Africa, where passions are turned into profits. Through Innovative Volunteerism, young people across Africa are retooling their skills and finding purpose in devising enterprises that deliver relatably accessible solutions to the climate crisis. They are delivering these solutions to their communities as their primary market. They continuously research, leveraging the online space as a repository of knowledge and valuable ideas to perfect these solutions continually. And in the process, they are creating income and socio-economic opportunities for themselves and entire communities. From clean cooking to clean energy-powered agro-value addition- these young people are combining the “soft” and “hard” aspects of transformation by leveraging their skills, talents, and passion for working symbiotically with informal sector actors and delivering climate action solutions. In this book, I want to show you how transformation is possible using what we already have now, not what we may hope to get. This is the transformation we urgently need in Africa. As you read on, may you be inspired to develop an eagle’s vision, the discipline of an ox, and understand your territory like a lion. And unlock wisdom to become a climate action solutions provider who leverages on ClimatePreneurship and make this inoculation against the perennial climate crisis a reality for all in Africa and the world. Because climate change connects to the things we all care about- the health of our families, the economic strength of our communities and the stability of Africa and our world. Fixing it isn’t only good for the planet; it is also good for all of us. The bottom line is this. To do something about climate action, you need to play your part with what you have, regardless of where you come from, how you look or your background. As someone who came from a very humble background devoid of opportunity or affluence like most Africans but who is penning this book today, I can tell you this is possible because I was once like you. Believe it! Have Faith and Act Now!