DECEMBER 2021

THE EAST AFRICAN SUSWATCH E-BULLETIN

A Monthly from the East African Sustainability Watch Network founded by Uganda Coalition for Sustainable
Development (UCSD), Tanzania Coalition for Sustainable Development (TCSD) and SusWatch Kenya

Catalogue of Local Sustainable Solutions Ready Online and Print, Seeks More Cases
From Across East Africa
The Catalogue for Local Sustainable Solutions for East Africa is a collection of most
successful local sustainable solutions available in East Africa for addressing challenges
related to energy poverty (for cooking and lighting), water scarcity, transportation and
food insecurity.

With less than 10 years to go, an ambitious global effort is underway to deliver the 2030
promise—by mobilizing more governments, civil society, businesses and calling on all
people to make the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) their own despite the
impact of COVID 19. The Catalogue of Local Sustainable Solutions for East Africa is
Print version of the timely in contributing to increased citizens’ and change agents’ actions on delivery of
Catalogue. affordable and clean energy; reduced inequalities; zero hunger; gender inequalities and
climate change among others.
The existing huge information gap on what citizens and their leaders can do at their own level to act on the
increasing challenge of climate change remains largely unaddressed across East Africa. As Mr Emilian Nyanda
from the Tanzania Ministry of Energy noted at the formal launch of this Catalogue in Dar es Salaam (February
2021), ’inadequate awareness of some decision makers, local financial institutions and public as a whole on
benefits of renewable energy is one of the barriers hindering development of renewable energy and energy
efficiency’.

It is hence no surprise that citizens, citizen groups and leaders in all walks of life increasingly ask themselves
what they can do at their respective levels to help offset climate change impacts, the rapid loss of biological
diversity, energy poverty and other unsustainable human induced challenges. This has been complicated by the
COVID19 pandemic and other public health encounters that have been felt far and wide across the globe. For
example, maize, a staple food crop in East Africa is sensitive to even a few days of high temperatures, as a rise of
one degree may reduce productivity and crop yields. Indeed, USAID (2007) notes that this may affect food
security, as maize accounts for a significant proportion of daily calories in East Africa.

This Catalogue is a result of a collective hands-on documentation process portraying some of the most successful
local solutions in East Africa. It is jointly made by TaTEDO, SusWatch Kenya, Uganda Coalition for Sustainable
Development and Joint Energy and Environment programme of Uganda, International Network for Sustainable
Energy (INFORSE), East Africa INFORSE and Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy of Denmark as part of
the East African Civil Society for Sustainable Energy and Climate Action (EASE-CA) Project, with financial
support from CISU-Denmark. Years of collaborative effort have produced practical modifications and
constructions that clearly can improve local as well as regional energy and water supplies, contribute to reducing
carbon emissions, and effectively build community resilience to climate change in East Africa. Most solutions
that are presented are low-cost or at least often affordable.
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 Set foot into 2022: Remember that it is Nine Years to Restore the Planet!

#GenerationRestoration: UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration calls for actions at all levels to counter further human
induced forms of degradation (Logo: United Nations & Photos: UCSD)

Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet - and its people.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on
every continent and in every ocean. It can help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass
extinction. It will only succeed if everyone plays a part.

Many fronts are open for this action in East Africa that should involve as many communities as possible as this is
a sure way to sustain this effort in future. These include reversing deforestation, forest degradation and loss;
empowering communities as front line stewards of the natural resources under stress; addressing plastic pollution;
and taking action on climate change impacts.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, energy poverty and COVID19 have also crept in as we set foot in 2022. We
therefore need to critically examine the extent to which current restorative solutions are up speed, in addressing
the challenges to freshwater degradation for example. It is our view (and concern) that in the run up to 2030,
biomass fuel demand in East Africa mainly by the household sector, stands out too high to ignore.

The East African SusWatch Ebulletin (May 2021) highlighted ‘How energy gardens can close the biomass gap
while restocking degraded lands in Uganda’, which can equally be the case for the rest of East Africa and Africa
at large. According to Botanic Gardens Conservation International BGCI), energy gardens are those that grow
plants for energy production. Fuel wood is one garden product, and new technologies enable biomass to be burnt
more efficiently. Plants can also be converted into biofuel or gas. The underlying concept is to grow fuel in situ
using indigenous plants. Harnessing the sun’s energy in this way side steps all the problems, and brings direct
benefits to the people who need it most.

In the East African region, climatic change directly affects livelihoods due to the high dependence of
households on rain-fed agriculture. Pastoral livestock production systems in mostly northern Kenya and South
Sudan are generally viewed to be the most vulnerable to climate change impacts. Analysis of climate-related
impacts on staple crops such as; maize, beans, rice, cassava, sorghum, millet, and bananas, as well as the cash
crops like tea, coffee and cotton show a reduction in production and productivity of up to 30-50% across the
continent, and will need some kind of adaptation plan

Simple domesticated energy gardens could solve part of this dilemma and come with a range of benefits that
include: reducing on deforestation and environmental degradation by making households energy secure;
improving food and energy security among households; facilitate income diversification; increase farm and
household resilience to climate change. On a wider scale they cumulatively restore degraded catchments that
could potentially provide huge benefits to fast growing (urban) populations in many parts of East Africa. The
Ficus natalensis energy garden is one such example that makes the household energy-secure; increases farm
resilience; reduces deforestation while providing fodder and additional income to the farmer.

Read more about the UN Decade on Energy Restoration (2021 -2030) including actions that can slow and halt the
degradation of ecosystems and foster their recovery: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/
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 UN Food and Agriculture Report Calls for Integration of Small-Scale Producers in
Supply Chains
The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report for 2021 (SOFA 2021) entitled
“Making agrifood systems more resilient to shocks and stresses” was released by the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) late last year. It provides an assessment of the
ability of national agrifood systems to respond to or recover readily from shocks and
stressors. It also offers guidance to governments on how they can improve resilience.

Today there are approximately 3 billion people who cannot afford a healthy diet. The
SOFA 2021 report estimates that an additional 1 billion people would join their ranks if a
shock reduced incomes by one-third. Moreover, food costs could increase for up to 845
million people if a disruption to critical transport links were to occur.

Agrifood production and supply chains have historically been vulnerable to shocks – from droughts and floods to
armed conflict and food price hikes – and are under growing pressure from longer-term stresses, including the
climate crisis and environmental degradation. But the COVID-19 pandemic is exceptional in that it has shown
how a shock of global proportions can occur suddenly, spread rapidly and compromise the food security, nutrition
status and livelihoods of billions of people to an unprecedented degree and over a long period

Among others, the SOFI 2021 Report recommends that to stay competitive and protect their livelihoods, small-
scale agricultural producers need to be well integrated in supply chains for food, inputs and services. One means
of achieving this integration is producer associations and cooperatives, which reinforce livelihoods by allowing
the pooling of resources to achieve scale, facilitating access to productive resources such as machinery, equipment
and credit, and enhancing marketing power. Coordination with other actors in the food supply chain is also key to
managing market risks. Mutual benefits can be achieved, for example, through forward contracts: farmers receive
guaranteed prices for their outputs regardless of market conditions, while processors and distributors receive
products of a desired quality.

Another resilience-enhancing strategy that small-scale farming households use increasingly is the adoption of
more sustainable production practices. One option is agroecology, an approach that applies ecological and social
principles to the design and management of agrifood systems. An important element of agroecology is food and
agricultural biodiversity, which boosts resilience to shocks and stresses, facilitates adaptation, maintains stability
and supports recovery from disturbances.

Another option is climate-smart agriculture, which enhances food security and healthy livelihoods while
promoting climate change adaptation and mitigation. These concepts recognize that conventional mainstream
agriculture cannot feed the growing world population sustainably because it degrades the natural resource base.

The December 15, 2021 Report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), a leading provider
of early warning and analysis on food insecurity, warns that severe food insecurity in the East Africa region is
anticipated to persist well into 2022, due to impacts of conflict, multi-season drought, floods, and economic
shocks on household food and income sources. Worse outcomes are expected across much of the region, with the
most severe outcomes anticipated in conflict-affected areas of northern Ethiopia, conflict- and flood-affected areas
of South Sudan, and drought-affected areas of southern Ethiopia and south-central Somalia. Other areas of high
concern include Yemen and Sudan, where on-going conflict and civil unrest continue to fuel protracted economic
crises, and drought-affected areas of Kenya. Many of those affected by the above humanitarian emergencies are
recently or protractedly displaced, including an estimated 16 million internally displaced people located across
East Africa and Yemen and approximately 4.7 million refugees hosted within the region.

Read the State of Food and Agriculture 2021(SOFI 2021) from: https://www.fao.org/3/cb4476en/cb4476en.pdf
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