Listening to the voices of African leaders
A common critique of sustainable development interventions throughout East Africa and the developing world generally, is that too much of their direction lies in the hands of outside actors. The approach of this project was to use the perspectives of in-country leaders as a point of entry. The goals were to synthesize these ideas in order to distil the most daunting challenges and fruitful opportunities, to reflect back to these leaders their collective insights, and to promote their voices in national and international policy discourses on development and environment.
Consultations in early 2007
This study was carried out at the initiative of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, to explore opportunities for sustainable development in the region, building on the Foundation‘s experience and achievements in its population program in Ethiopia. The basis for this report is a series of consultations carried out by the authors in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda between February and April 2007 to gather perspectives from environment and development leaders in these countries on priorities for investment in sustainable development.
Inspiring insights for sustainable development
The results of these consultations are fascinating, and also inspiring. They highlight ways to link new or rapidly-growing economic sectors in East Africa (natural resource-based commodities, agricultural investments, tourism, carbon offset markets) to national agendas for food security, restoration of degraded natural resources, and poverty reduction. They propose ways to build on and strengthen national institutions to guide policy formation under new economic and resource pressures and opportunities. They draw attention to highly successful local initiatives that can be cost-effectively scaled up with more strategic coordination among rural development, environment and economic sectors. While major barriers to implementing these ideas exist, the leaders interviewed had pragmatic ideas for movi
