To mark the world environment day, which is annually celebrated around the world on June 5, Green Growth Africa hosted a virtual workshop for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Non-Governmental Organisations, actors and individuals in the green growth and environmental industry. The workshop themed “Path to Just and Sustainable Africa: Attracting Global Opportunities and Impacting Policy” was aimed at equipping young environmental actors and upcoming CSOs with the skills needed to attract global opportunities and impact policy with their local initiatives. The workshop garnered about 1600 registrations from 50 countries with 594 unique attendees from 25 countries.
Anchored by the Head of Foreign desk from Channels Television, the workshop witnessed active engagements from over 300 youths and civil society organisations across Africa. With a warm welcome address from Zipporah Musyoki (the Coordinator of Education for Sustainable Development for African Region, World Wildlife Fund (WWF, Kenya), the pace for interaction was set. In the spirit of World Environment Day, she urged participants to step “outside” and do something for the environment. Either a clean-up, sensitization or education. She shared some of the work they do at WWF and how Green Growth Africa became a part of WWF youth networks. Zipporah appraised the work that the team at Green Growth Africa is doing and encouraged everyone to be a voice in their community.
The welcome address was closely followed by the keynote address from the German State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action, Jennifer Morgan. The German State Secretary appraised the role Civil Societies play in creating public awareness and pushing politicians and businesses in the right direction, especially towards addressing the triple planetary crisis – Climate, Biodiversity and Pollution Crises. In her words:
“at any stop, at any point, civil societies have been a driver of climate action, environmental action, anti-pollution action, human right action and social justice action and so on.”.
She mentioned the need for civil societies to come up with creative innovative ideas and create value locally. She also talked about the need for a closely knit network of civil society that connects the local level with the global level highlighting the importance of the workshop and the Green Growth DigiHub networking platform designed by Green Growth Africa.
Launching into the workshop session were the insightful sessions from Olumide Idowu and David Munene, the Executive Director of International Climate Change Development Initiative Africa (ICCDI Africa), and Programs manager, CYNESA respectively. Mr Olumide Idowu spoke about the global and policy relevance of local action. He mentioned that collaboration and coordination are needed to drive local action in the context of local issues. He also highlighted the importance of local action in addressing global issues. David Munene gave the second lecture for the workshop titled Human Rights: a tool for ecosystem conservation and restoration. David Munene lectured the participants on human rights, highlighting the nexus between human rights and environmental conservation bringing to call the UN Environmental rights. He also reminded the participants of the solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for our generations and future generations.
Beyond the insightful lectures from industry leaders, the Green Growth Workshop aimed at garnering policy suggestions and messages for policy makers, civil societies and stakeholders in the industry. This was achieved through a breakout session. Participants were distributed across 10 breakout rooms to highlight, discuss and recommend policies around social and economic development and its inter-linkages with sustainable development.
An important highlight of the Green Growth Workshop was the official launching of the Green Growth DigiHub Platform. The first digital networking, convergence and policy platform aimed to support individuals and organisations that are implementing sustainability actions and initiatives. Participants were introduced to and tipped about the Olusegun Obasanjo EcoJustice Fellowship. This novel Fellowship is named in honour of Nigeria’s former President, His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for his contributions sustainable living, green growth and environmental initiatives. The Olusegun Obasanjo EcoJustice Fellowship is instituted to support and train environmental activists, CSO leaders and journalists as “EcoFellows” in both Field and Media. The EcoJustice Fellowship is a program within the EcoJustice Africa Initiative under Green Growth Africa. This initiative seeks to raise a new generation of environmental activists and re-define environmental advocacy. Improving effectiveness towards realising an environmentally-just Africa where citizens are empowered to exercise their environmental rights and have them respected. The Green Growth DigiHub platform and the Olusegun Obasanjo EcoJustice Fellowship are supported by the World Wildlife Funds (WWF).
To draw the curtains on the workshop, the Executive Director of North America Association for Environmental Education, Judy Braus admonished young environmental actors not to relent on their efforts towards environmental education.
The engaging and active participation from the workshop reiterated the need for collective actions towards achieving a just and sustainable environment. To be a part of the Green Growth DigiHub community, download the GreenGrowth DigiHub mobile app.
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