Part Two: How is the EU Supporting Sustainable Consumption and Production?

DEVCO is supporting work at the intersection of environment, economy and business in its partner countries to avoid the polluting pathway of many industrialised countries and develop green businesses from the outset. It means working at many levels – training entrepreneurs, sharing best practices, effecting large-scale policy change and mobilizing investment.

SWITCH – greening businesses & their enabling environment

At the heart of DEVCO’s approach to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is the Switch to Green initiative which brings under the same umbrella the SWITCH regional programmes in Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean as well as complementary initiatives such as the Partnership for Action on Green Economy and the Green Economy Coalition.

The SWITCH programmes support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to green their business models and become more competitive through capacity development and reducing resource use.

They also recognise that change needs to happen not only within each enterprise, but also in their operating environment.

Each programme has three components: “One is working with businesses on SCP and finding markets for sustainable products; one is designing policies for sustainable consumption and production; and one is a network facility, to ensure information exchange between the other two components and that lessons are learned beyond each project,” said Charles Arden-Clarke, head of the 10YFP and coordinator of UNEP’s participation in SWITCH.

According to Arden-Clarke, the three components have become better integrated with each programme, which were rolled out in Asia in 2008, the Mediterranean in 2013 and Africa in 2014. “You can see the evolution, the lessons being learned.”

SWITCH Africa Green, the latest model, has brought in two new elements: national coordinators, and national technical coordination committees. The former are based in each country, and help to coordinate the activities of all actors in the programmes and across the three components.

The latter are made up of government representatives, NGOs and business people. They meet regularly to share lessons, tools and best practices, and to guide the projects forward. “We need to make sure we build on the expertise of the private sector to improve frameworks, and make sure the frameworks provide SMEs with good conditions to work in,” said Thibaut Portevin, Policy Officer on Green Economy at DEVCO.

Another lesson SWITCH Africa Green learned from earlier incarnations was to focus efforts in key sectors. “Resources are limited; we allocate approximately €3 million per country,” said Portevin. “As good as the projects may be, they won’t change everything if they cover too many sectors. In Africa we’ve tried to focus more on a few key sectors identified and recommended by institutional partners, to make sure we can achieve an impact.”

One example under SWITCH Africa is in Rodrigues, a territory of Mauritius, where plastic bags were banned to protect the island’s environment. Seeing a gap in the market, a group of women came together and started making carrier bags from used juice cartons.

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SWITCH Africa Green in Rodrigues. Credit: Timothy Shitawkwa Mtejah Photography

These proved especially useful for local fishermen. “If they used paper bags, the wet fish would tear them,” said Patrick Mwesigye, Regional Coordinator for SWITCH Africa Green. “Therefore they are using this aluminum foil inside juice packaging, so that those carrier bags are water-proof and can be used to carry fish, after banning plastics.” The women entrepreneurs also recycle roll-up banners from conferences, transforming them into water-proof bags.

The women receive EU grant support through the Commission’s Directorate Generals for Environment and Fisheries. “So you have synergy between a public body and the private sector, involving women, and you have a usable product which can be used by the stakeholders in fishing,” said Mwesigye.

 “The idea of the broader SWITCH initiative is to increase knowledge development, lesson sharing and coordination between programmes and other initiatives that the EU finances,” said Portevin.

To learn about a SWITCH Asia partnership between IKEA, donors and smallholder rattan farmers in Greater Mekong, click here.

Skip to: 0:05 for Thibaut Portevin on what DEVCO is doing to support SCP; 0:36 for Alexander Charalambous on SWITCH to Green regional programmes; 1:19 for Patrick Mwesigye on SWITCH Africa Green’s goals; 2:28 on the macro level and the Partnership for Action on Green Economy with Asad Naqvi; 3:37 for the link with poverty alleviation from Charles Arden-Clarke; and 4:25 for Thibaut Portevin on the challenges ahead.

PAGE – green policy-making

At a macro level, DEVCO supports the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE). A collaboration between five UN agencies, it came about after the Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development in 2012, when there was a call for the UN system to support interested countries transition to an inclusive green economy. “There was a clear realization that no single agency could deliver on that one,” explained Asad Naqvi, Acting Head of the Advisory Services Unit at PAGE. “So a collective UN response was needed.”

When PAGE engages with a country, it is able to mobilize five government ministries. “UNEP has the Ministry of Environment as a counterpart, UNIDO has the Ministry for Industry, ILO has the Ministry for Employment and Labour, UNDP has the planning and poverty [department], and UNITAR has education and capacity building. When they come together on one agenda point, it creates an enabling environment for policy transformations,” said Naqvi.

Although over 30 governments applied to work with PAGE, it only accepted 11. “The selection criteria to become a PAGE country are stringent. You need two or three ministries putting in a joint request, as we want to see commitment across the government.” In addition, PAGE wants to work with countries where the window for policy change is still open – normally in the first year or 18 months of a government cycle. “PAGE shouldn’t come as a source of funding, but a source of change.”

The 11 PAGE pilot countries are a mix of Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, emerging economies and fast-growing economies - five in Africa, three in Asia and three in Latin America. “We are trying to create pilots in all types of economies,” said Naqvi.

“It is often the first time the five government ministries come together, putting sustainability at the centre of the discussion,” said Naqvi. “First, they discuss the opportunities and benefits of moving to a green economy. Then what sectors and opportunities there are for investing, and policy areas with the biggest change. Once identified, the policy reform process starts, and then financing. It’s all led by the national government - we come in as a supporting element.”

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SWITCH Africa Green in Uganda

The EU is involved on two fronts. The first is by supporting PAGE financially and strategically, providing €8 million between 2014-20 as well as input on how the partnership works. The second is with funding to the partner countries. “The EU Delegations come in with complementary programmes which support probably the bigger chunk of fund flows through bilateral aid on prioritized areas agreed by the government,” said Naqvi.

The programmes are designed to give a boost to countries as they enter a new policy phase, and then to exit. “We are not there forever - we think in four years we should have enough policy in place to then support downstream work. At a national level we will have a PAGE trust fund, in which bilateral donors can contribute and support the implementation of identified projects for greening of the economy. Activities will continue, taken over by UN agencies, [donor] partners in the country, and the government.”

Impact on poverty

So how does all this link into reducing poverty, which is DEVCO’s main mission?

“Sustainable consumption and production is about resource efficiency, doing more with less, industrial processes which use less energy and water,” said Arden-Clarke. “Lower input costs equals more profitable. […] It automatically feeds into poverty alleviation. There’s still a question of where the money ends up. But in principal you can export the same products at lower cost, making them more marketable, and generating larger net gains for the people producing those products. That’s the systemic contribution of SCP to poverty eradication.”

With a whole Sustainable Development Goal dedicated to SCP, the outlook for collaboration between governments, businesses and donors is promising. “There is a favorable context for cooperation on green economy and improving awareness among business partners on the benefits of green business practices,” said Portevin. “I think environmental or green practices used to be seen a lot as a constraint and cost, but businesses increasingly understand it’s about improved efficiency, financial savings, and access to markets, at least for some products. So change is taking place.”

Groups

• UNEP - Environment for Development
• Environment, Climate Change and Green Economy
• Public Group on Private Sector Trade & Regional Integration

Further reading

• InfoPoint presentation on SWITCH by Thibaut Portevin
• InfoPoint presentation on PAGE by Asad Naqvi
• SWITCH websites for Asia, the Mediterranean and Africa
• 10YFP
• PAGE