Nine PAGE countries are participating in a new centralized hub for information on planned climate and environmental policies and actions in the context of COVID-19 recovery. Launched in September, the Online Platform for Sustainable and Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 (“ Platform for Redesign 2020 ”) is under the leadership of the Ministry of the Environment Japan with support from the UNFCCC, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES ). The countries participating from PAGE include Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Indonesia, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Thailand and Peru. Country pages include response, recovery, and redesign measures across sectors while a September 3rd Ministerial Meeting offered a platform for live exchange.
Latest News in Burkina Faso:
PAGE Burkina Faso has most recently joined other West African countries, including PAGE-supported Senegal, in a collaborative, shared learning initiative. Jointly led by UN CC: Learn and the Regional Meteorological Center, the Regional Platform on Climate Change Learning is supporting regionally-focused experience sharing between the countries on Climate Change and Inclusive Green Economy (IGE), focusing primarily on three tools - webinars, training and the development of learning materials.
The initiative's first webinar was held in late August with eight countries participating: Benin, Côte-d'Ivoire, Guinea-Conakry, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo alongside Burkina Faso.
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National Coordinator: Albert Campaore
With PAGE since 2017
Location: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
1. What were your main takeaways from the knowledge exchange recently held with your West African neighbors?
The initiative between PAGE and UN CC :Learn was jointly organized with the PAGE Coordinator for Senegal (Seynabou Dioud) and Imelda Etui-Dossou. What you can take away is first the great interest expressed by the participants for such sharing sessions. Second, the webinar revealed that countries in the sub-region are keenly interested and already engaged in IGE. Thirdly, the training institutions in the sub-region have developed training modules on IGE which are of high quality and it was decided to develop an IGE synthesis course adapted to the region, as part of the UN CC : Learn Platform agenda. There is a big challenge ahead: responding to the increasing demand of countries in the sub-region for support to implement an IGE transition.
2. How have you seen trainings, webinars and courses contribute to the advancement of Inclusive Green Economy progress in the country?
The case of Burkina Faso is specific because the country benefited from both PAGE and Switch Africa Green. There is no doubt that the joint contributions of the two initiatives has positively impacted the level of awareness in the country about IGE, more specifically within Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) which received training and coaching for greening their businesses, and Government officials who also received several trainings (sustainable agriculture and green fiscal reform).
3. How have you seen the overall advancement of an Inclusive Green Economy change over the last several years?
Outside of PAGE and Switch Africa Green support, there are plenty of emerging GE initiatives among private associations and even MSEs. Communicating on IGE is key for future development.
PAGE National Coordinator Albert Campaore first trained as a Forester (Ingénieur des Eaux et Forêts), at the University of Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium and also has an MSc in Enterprise and Organisations Management. Campaore served the government of Burkina Faso for 16 years before developing a consultancy firm and taking on several international roles. Finally, today he is leading the efforts of PAGE and Switch Africa Green in Ouagadougou since in October 2017.
A PAGE-facilitated green entrepreneurship training was held to assist business owners in improving ecological standards by fostering the greening of their businesses. The nine entrepreneurs all work within local agriculture and non-timber forest product (NTFP) processing and sustainable trade.
This particular training course falls under an ILO programme, which overall plans to develop a coaching package for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to guide them in greening their businesses. In addition, each enterprise will receive personal coaching in order to identify bottlenecks and opportunities to green their business plan.
The nine participants received certificates from the Maison de l'Entreprise du Burkina Faso (MEB), which delivered the training — an ogranization that works to build a strong and competitive private sector to drive economic development in Burkina Faso. The PAGE National Coordinator, Albert Compaoré and Focal point, Polycarpe Becquet Bationo were also in attendance and provided inputs into the course.
Among the entrepreneurs involved were Félicité Yaméogo, the founder of New Karitis, a company producing shea butter and Ms. Bassonon, Director of Faso Attiéké, a company that produces attiéké, a popular West-African cassava-based dish. The latter received an awarded for producing the best quality attiéké.
Following the training, the project will develop a guide to green jobs creation for SMEs. Supporting this activity, a consultant has been recruited and the study has commenced, with a report expected to be completed September 2020. According to the ILO, the findings of the project could inform a regional project to follow in the area of greening of SMEs.
Burkina Faso has been showing a strong interest for sustainable development. The country has recently started the adoption of its strategy to develop over 2000 ecovillages in the country, called "Strategie Nationale de Creation des Écovillages 2018-2027". The project is part of the government's effort to revamp and structurally transform the country's economy. The "Plan national de développement économique et social" (PNDES) aims to achieve sustainable and resilient economic growth, while increasing the number of jobs and the overall welfare of the Burkinese population.
By transforming its villages into ecovillages, the Burkina Faso's government will address several issues that the country has been facing, such as food insecurity, desertification and poverty. This goes in conformity with the 2030 Agenda and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to which the country has committed itself. To better evaluate the outcomes of the strategy, five strategic goals have been set:
- Strengthening local governance;
- Improving food and nutrition security;
- Preservation of the environment;
- Promotion of local entrepreneurship;
- Improving access to finance.
Burkina Faso, which has been working closely with PAGE since 2014, drew on years of cooperation with PAGE to prepare its national policy on green villages. In addition, the country has been actively engaging with players at both international and regional levels to help find solutions for the impeding challenges of this century, such as climate change. This can be seen in the several treaties and conventions signed and ratified by the country in the past years.
PAGE provided support to the National Green Economy Strategy, which serves as the backbone of the country's PNDES plan. Throughout the years, several macroeconomic and sectoral assessments were carried out to collaborate with this strategy, especially the Green Economy Assessment that identified key sectors for green investments.
1 August 2018, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - A significant milestone has been reached in Burkina Faso’s transition to an inclusive green economy. Last month, the government’s draft National Strategy for Green Economy was validated by national stakeholder groups. The validation workshop took place as part of SWITCH Africa Green’s National Policy Dialogue on the 27th of July 2018 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The workshop brought together representatives from different government institutions and provided them with the opportunity to review the strategy and validate its action plan.
Burkina Faso joined PAGE in 2014, and, since then, PAGE has been supporting the development of the National Green Economy Strategy. The strategy serves as the backbone of the country’s transition to a green economy and will contribute to Burkina Faso’s National Plan for Economic and Social Development (PNDES 2016-2020). Several macroeconomic and sectoral assessments were conducted to inform this Strategy, including the Green Economy Assessment, which identifies sectors for green investments.
The strategy highlights several main axes of operation including action on green jobs, sustainable consumption and production, sustainable trade, green finance, combatting climate change, and national capacity building on green economy.
PAGE has been supporting the process of elaborating and validating this strategy in a number of different ways:
- Conducting research and analysis on the macroeconomic and development context in Burkina Faso, and using this information to provide guidance on low-hanging fruits and areas and sectors with the most potential to deliver economic growth, green jobs, environmental protection, and social inclusion;
- Providing expert feedback on strategy drafts, in consultation with local experts, business leaders, community leaders, academics and civil-society organizations;
- Conducting workshops to improve the capacities of stakeholders to take advantage of upcoming green economy opportunities, and to build in sustainability to existing economic practices.
The draft National Strategy for Green Economy will now move through the process for official adoption.
22 June 2018, Ouagadougou – As part of PAGE’s work in Burkina Faso, a workshop on inclusive green economy learning needs brought together about fifty representatives from ministries, academic institutions and civil society in Burkina Faso.
13 December 2017, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – On 13 December 2017, PAGE organized a planning workshop between three active development initiatives in Burkina Faso, namely the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), the Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) and SWITCH Africa Green (SAG). The workshop took place at the Directorate General of Environment, Green Economy and Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
The workshop took stock of the work done on green economy and sustainable development in the country and, later, laid out each programme’s priority work areas for the year 2018. Based on the priorities, the three initiatives then developed a common workplan that saw opportunities for joint collaboration and synergies relevant to the advancement of the green economy agenda in Burkina Faso.
Over 15 participants took part in the workshop, including representatives from the government who are in charge of monitoring the implementation of the activities, representatives of partner UN agencies together with representatives from the programmes’ beneficiaries.
The Secretary General for Green Economy under the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Sibdou Sina, chaired the meeting and highlighted the government’s unwavering support for ensuring the effectiveness and sustainability of the synergies built across the different programmes.
The meeting concluded with developing a joint workplan that further refined activities and identified specific synergies that will offer the chance for common coordination, co-financing and knowledge sharing. In addition, participants formed a working group on green economy with a mandate to monitor the implementation of the workplan and promote both internal and external communication of set activities relevant to green economy. The working group agreed to meet regularly to seek updates on the implementation of the workplace, while setting a date for the first follow-up meeting by end of March 2018.
For more information, please contact Delphine Clement at delphine.clement@unitar.org or Jamal Srouji at jamal.srouji@un.org
27 -29 November 2017, Dakar, Senegal - PAGE organized a SIYB (ILO Training Tool on Business Creation and Management) Training of Trainers workshop on the ILO Green Business Booklet from 27 to 29 November 2017 at the Fleur de Lys Hotel in Dakar.
26 participants (8 women and 18 men) took part in this training including 17 SIYB trainers of Senegal and 5 SIYB trainers of Burkina Faso, 3 officials from Senegal and one official from Burkina as beneficiaries of the future training activities.
Through this training, PAGE supports Senegal in the framework of the project on the creation of green job opportunities (PACEV) and in Burkina as part of the “Maison de l’entreprise”. Thus the trainers were selected on the basis of the PACEV intervention zones for Senegal and as trainers of the “Maison de l’entreprise” for Burkina Faso.
At the end of the training, participants are able to train entrepreneurs to identify environmental challenges and ways to overcome them, define the green enterprise and understand the benefits of green business.
They are also able to train entrepreneurs to find a green business idea, develop a green business plan and green the production and consumption processes.
The next steps after this training will be to train the entrepreneurs who are beneficiaries of PACEV (Senegal) and the “Maison de l’entreprise” (Burkina Faso) on the green enterprise with the aim of encouraging the creation and development of green enterprises in the sectors such as solid waste management, renewable energies, agroforestry and agriculture.
On March 30th, 2017, PAGE organized a strategic planning meeting on Burkina Faso to assess the country’s progress on inclusive green economy and formulate a plan of action for 2017 to 2018. Bringing together representatives from all five PAGE partner agencies along with the designated government focal point for PAGE, Mr. Lamine Ouedraogo, the General Director of Green Economy and Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment in Burkina Faso, the meeting served as an opportunity to look back at Burkina Faso’s progress over the previous year and to identify opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
As a Sahelian country, Burkina Faso is vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change, which are exacerbated by unsustainable management of energy, water and land resources. Since 2010, the country has embraced a transition towards a green and inclusive economy. This commitment accelerated with the election of President Kaboré in December 2015, whose government has placed inclusive green economy at the heart of its development agenda.
At the meeting, Mr. Ouedraogo highlighted the strong institutional backing for green economy in Burkina Faso at the national level through the National Economic and Social Development Plan 2016-2020 (PNDES) and most recently, the National Strategy for Green Economy (SNEV). The strategy, currently being developed with support from PAGE, aims to improve green economy governance, combat climate change and promote sustainable modes of production and consumption. PAGE is currently supporting the country in the process of finalizing this strategy and submitting it to the government for adoption, which would open up key opportunities to support the transition to green economy in upcoming years.
Mr. Ouedraogo also noted a need to incentivise sectoral reform to align with national green economy priorities and to strengthen individual and institutional green economy capacities. Building on these challenges underlined by Mr. Ouedraogo, representatives from each PAGE agency suggested several initiatives to tackle these needs at the sectoral level:
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) plans to integrate green economy principles within the current industrial policy and with accordance to Burkina Faso’s Green Industry Assessment
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will lead the implementation of thematic reforms on taxation and fiscal policy
- International Labour Organization (ILO) will strengthen green entrepreneurship among youth in the aim of supporting the government on green jobs and promoting social inclusion
- United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) will focus on building individual and institutional capacities for inclusive green economy action through a series of learning needs assessment and follow-up trainings
- United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) will support the government on the National Green Economy Strategy, lead the work on Sustainable Trade and provide tailor made training on green economy modelling techniques
The meeting concluded with the representatives drafting a comprehensive workplan to underpin PAGE’s support in the country for 2017-2018. PAGE will also continue to collaborate with other initiatives in Burkina Faso, including the Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI), Switch Africa Green (SAG), and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in order to exchange information, identify synergies, and create further opportunities for collaboration. Mr. Ouedraogo, PAGE, and its partners look forward to continuing collaboration for the advancement of green economy with the aim of preserving biodiversity, ensuring sustainable urban living conditions, creating jobs and strengthening social equity.
Brussel, 28 February 2017 - European ministers of environment agreed on a common approach to reform the European Trading System (ETS). As Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy states: “(…) today’s agreement demonstrates once more the European Union’s strong commitment to show leadership on climate action and help drive the global transition to clean energy.” With the environmental and economic costs of climate change rising, this reform is an important step towards creating a greener and more resilient planet.
The Paris Climate Agreement signaled to the global community that the time for climate action is now. This reform brings the EU one step closer to achieving the targets of the Paris Agreement, laid out in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The EU committed itself to reduce its emissions by 43% (based on the 2005 emission levels) before 2030, which can be facilitated an increasingly efficient carbon trading system.
The European Trading System is a key component of the EU’s policy to combat climate change. It imposes a cap on carbon emissions and establishes a trading system for over 11,000 installations in the power sector and energy intensive industries. The reform aims to cut greenhouse gases while ensuring the protection of energy-intensive industries. It involves lowering the cap on emissions by 2.2% a year until at least 2024 while gradually reducing the number of allowances. This will incentivize a reduction in carbon emissions and adoption of clean technologies. In order to accelerate the creation and adoption of these clean technologies, the EU is establishing a 12bn fund intended to help companies innovate and invest in clean technology. The highest performing 10% of industries will also receive free allowances.
The European Union is a funding partner of PAGE and supports the Partnership in its mission of helping countries in their transition to inclusive green economy, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. The European Union's support enables targeted action in PAGE partner countries to mitigate climate change.
In Burkina Faso, PAGE developed a Green Industry Assessment in Burkina Faso, which identifies potential green industrial policies, and makes a series of recommendations in order to promote green industrialization in the country. In South Africa, PAGE initiated a Green Economy Trade and Industry Analysis to provide guidance for the development of a resource-efficient, low-carbon and export-oriented industry.
These efforts towards reducing carbon emissions, including reforming industry and trade policies, and mechanisms such as carbon trading schemes, exemplify the innovative and successful efforts towards achieving the Paris Agreement.