Shaping the future of sustainable industrialisation: Launch of African-led Green Industrial Development Expert Panel (GIDEP)

The African Climate Foundation (ACF) and the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town, are excited to announce the establishment of the Green Industrial Development Expert Panel (GIDEP).

The GIDEP will convene leading strategic African thinkers on greening industrialisation and will also draw more broadly on experts on greening industrialisation in the Global South. The GIDEP will support the formulation of African-led policy positions to ensure the continent’s interests are effectively represented in key international fora and negotiation processes, such as the Africa-hosted G20 and COP30 in Brazil.

Furthermore, the GIDEP experts will provide strategic thinking to support African countries’ ambitions in advancing climate-compatible industrialisation and developing implementable green industrialisation plans at the national and regional levels. With a clear focus on green industrialisation on the continent, it is critical that policies and plans are locally owned and driven. As an African initiative, the GIDEP will work towards realising this objective.

Executive Director of the African Climate Foundation, Saliem Fakir, explains that at this critical juncture “the GIDEP offers a unique opportunity for African nations to lead in shaping the future of sustainable industrialisation. It is essential that we centre our approach on social, environmental, and economic justice to unlock the full potential of Africa’s green industrialisation, ensuring equitable development and addressing profound inequalities faced by many communities across the continent.”

To this end, the GIDEP aims to develop a network of green industrialisation experts, to support the capacity of senior African officials to craft effective green industrialisation strategies and policies, as well as providing much-needed technical support to African countries in developing and implementing their green industrialisation plans. The researcher’s network will help to address key knowledge gaps and incorporate lessons from the experiences of other developing countries.

Professor Faizel Ismail, Director of the Nelson Mandela School, states the GIDEP “is a natural extension of expertise the Nelson Mandela School has been developing on building green value chains, including adding value to critical green minerals and scaling the capacity of African development banks to finance green structural transformation.”

Ismail noted that the GIDEP will build on the support that the Nelson Mandela School has provided to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Industrial Development Advisory Council. He further stated that there is no more urgent issue for African countries than addressing the negative impacts of climate change, through mitigation, adaptation and resilience, while at the same time driving a process of climate resilient developmental regionalism with sustainable industrialisation at its core.

Dr Nimrod Zalk, Chief Research Officer of Climate and Economic Development at the Nelson Mandela School and responsible for the operationalisation of the GIDEP, emphasised the importance of drawing on expertise rooted in the experience of African countries. He explained that, “as eminent Ethiopian policy maker and scholar Arkebe Oqubay emphasises neither a fossil fuel-based nor a ‘grow now, clean up later’ industrialisation path is optimal for African countries”.

In conclusion, Zalk said African countries need to seize the opportunities and engage with the complexities of a green industrialisation path now or “run the risk of becoming stuck in dead-end industries”.

More information on the GIDEP will become available in the coming month.