Climate change, health, and sustainable development

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Climate change, health, and sustainable development in Africa

Mbih Jerome Tosam & Richard Achia Mbih

Environment, Development and Sustainability A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development ISSN 1387-585X Volume 17 Number 4 Environ Dev Sustain (2015) 17:787-800 DOI 10.1007/s10668-014-9575-0

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Author's personal copy Environ Dev Sustain (2015) 17:787–800 DOI 10.1007/s10668-014-9575-0

Climate change, health, and sustainable development in Africa Mbih Jerome Tosam · Richard Achia Mbih

Received: 28 June 2014 / Accepted: 14 August 2014 / Published online: 24 August 2014 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract This paper critically examines the effects of climate change on the African continent and suggests ways in which the negative effects of climate change can be effectively combatted to ensure sustainable development. Although responsible for a small share of global climate change, Africa is the most vulnerable region of the world to climate change, which destroys the people’s source of food, medication, shelter, and income, leading to poor nutrition and exposure to infectious diseases, more hospitalizations, less working hours, and heavy financial losses. Apart from global environmental deterioration, Africa is one of the regions of the world experiencing the severest droughts and water scarcity. The impact of all this on Africa’s already fragile socio-economic and political structures is grave. Climate change threatens the political stability of the continent. In this paper we argue that the effects of climate change on the continent have been amplified by human choices and political ineptitude of the ruling elites in Africa. We maintain that good governance, the promotion of African traditional values that encourage the protection of the environment, paying attention to rural development and the emancipation of women economically and politically, and investing in alternative and renewable energy are the necessary pre-conditions for effectively mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring sustainable development in Africa. Keywords Climate change · Health · Sustainable development · Good governance · Environmental health

M. J. Tosam Department of Philosophy, Higher Teacher Training College (HTTC) Bambili, The University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon e-mail: [email protected] R. A. Mbih (&) Department of Geosciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA e-mail: [email protected]

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M. J. Tosam, R. A. Mbih

1 Introduction Is Africa doomed? Anyone who takes a cursory reading of African political, economic and social history may easily conclude that the continent is doomed. African history is characterized by such horrible experiences as slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, the abuse of power, political instability, poverty, diseases, natural disasters, the negative effects of globalization, and today, climate change. The North’s three centuries of unrestrained and imprudent industrialization and the burning of fossil fuels with the accompanying greenhouse gas emissions has been the principal cause of global warming, Africa is the hardest hit by the awful effects of global warming. All these unfavorable human-induced environmental hazards have created a situation of extreme vulnerability in Africa. In this situation, any calamity that strikes the world always affects the continent of Africa with severe intensity. It is with this picture in mind that the authors of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) argued that “Africa is the most vulnerable region to climate change, due to the extreme poverty of many Africans, frequent natural disasters such as droughts and floods, and agricultural systems heavily dependent on rainfall” (IPCC 2001). The effects of global climate change include increased temperatures, rising sea levels, increased air pollution, the spread of infectious diseases, increased food and water-borne diseases, and regularity and ruthlessness of natural disasters. All of these are having devastating effects on human health and on the economic and political (stability) development of the continent. In this paper we argue that there is a close link between climate change, environmental health (environmental degradation), human health, poverty and underdevelopment. Global warming is endangering the health of the environment, affecting human health, intensifying poverty, dependence, and underdevelopment. This calls for a holistic approach to the quest for development in Africa engaging concerns for human and environmental survival —the love of life and living things as a whole, if such development is to be sustainable. Moreover, the effect of climate change, especially food shortages coupled with bad governance in most African countries create a fertile ground for civil strife which is one of the greatest obstacles to African development. For development to be sustainable, African states must pay proper attention to human, scientific and technological progress, as well as cultural and environmental wellbeing. Africa’s underdevelopment is caused by variegated factors. We maintain that Africa is not doomed. Although Africa’s problems have been largely caused by factors beyond her will or control, the problems have been aggravated by human choices and the political incompetence and unwillingness of the ruling elites in Africa to take responsibility. Furthermore, Africa’s quest for development has so far been reductionist, focusing solely on the economic, measurable (Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) and material aspects, neglecting the political, social, cultural, moral and intellectual aspects. Development is a holistic and encompassing concept that cannot only be determined by GDP. There are always human—moral, intellectual, cultural—elements involved as well. What is sustainable development? This is one of the key concepts in the paper. The Brundtland commission defines sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), Our Common Human Future 1987, p. 8). What this definition highlights is the idea of intergenerational justice. Development must not only consider interests and wellbeing of the living, but must also consider interests and good of the yet-to-be-born. This means that sustainable

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development must involve measures that ensure the survival or continuation of the future. Hence, any development that threatens the continuance of future generations is unsustainable. In seeking to develop or enhance the welfare of our present generation, we must not do so by reducing the capacity of future generations to provide for their “own wants and needs.” “The sustainability concept” also “recognizes that life is a complex bundle of values, objectives and activities, with ethical, environmental, economic and social dimensions” (Ibid.).

2 The effect of climate change on environmental and human health In this section, we intend to show the connection between global climate change and human health and how it may alter human vulnerability to disease, especially in Africa. Global climate change is caused by a variety of factors, namely “greenhouse emissions from fossil fuel-based power generation and transport and from the agriculture and mining sectors” that “increase heat-retaining capacity of the lower atmosphere….” (McMichael 2013). Moreover, the destruction of rainforest and “ocean saturation have added to greenhouse warming by reducing the capacity of terrestrial and marine environments to absorb extra carbon dioxide… from the atmosphere. Also contributing to such warming are any ongoing natural variations in climate caused by cosmologic and geologic influences” (McMichael 2013). Furthermore, scientific research shows that “most of the global warming since 1950 (an increase of 0.7 °C) has been the result of human activity” (McMichael 2013). If there is no concerted international effort to reduce greenhouse emissions, scientists maintain, “average global temperatures… are likely to rise by 1–2 °C by 2050 and by 3–4 °C by 2100” (McMichael 2013), exposing the environment and its occupants to further danger. In most African states there is excessive dependence on, and unsustainable exploitation of forest resources which place much pressure on the environment resulting in environmental degradation (affecting the ecosystem, natural resources, and biodiversity) and heightening global warming with attendant effects—storms, fires, and severe droughts and floods, which interrupt the supply of safe drinking water, food, health services and economic activities. In essence, increased temperatures and air pollution are increasing the rate of food, water-borne and respiratory infections. The effect of this is a vicious cycle of the intensification of poverty, dependency and underdevelopment. Climate change destroys the people’s source of food, medication, shelter, and income, leading to poor nutrition and exposure to infectious diseases, more hospitalizations and less working hours, and heavy financial losses. The impact of all these on African countries, which already have fragile socio-economic structures, is grave. Scientific research shows that rising global temperatures are increasing the possibility of ice melting and the rise of sea levels. The resulting flooding of low-lying areas may cause severe shortage of irrigation water and clean drinking water as well as, an increased likelihood of cholera, schistosomiasis, typhoid, hepatitis-A, malaria, and other water-borne illnesses in the short-term. In addition, standing water may increase the incidence of malaria and dengue fever. And, in the long-term, such flooding may destroy farmlands and crops causing undernourishment and starvation (Gross 2002). When there is scarcity of water, this affects hygiene as preference is given to cooking water and little is left for washing and cleaning. With poverty and poor hygienic conditions due to shortage of water, this may facilitate the spread of infectious diseases.

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It is also projected that with global warming, rainfall pattern will change, with rainfall increasing in some regions and seasons, and decreasing in others. This will have positive and negative effects on the affected regions of the world. On the positive side, it may make some cold regions of the world warmer and favorable for the growth of certain plant and animal species. At the same time, on the negative side, it may cause the disappearance of these species in other parts of the world leading to biodiversity impoverishment. Moreover, extreme temperatures during the dry season are also a good habitat for the bacteria that cause meningitis (meningococcal meningitis). In Cameroon, for example, the three northern regions, the Adamawa, North and the Far North Regions, which are threatened by desertification, usually experience extreme temperatures in the dry season and meningitis is very common in the region during these months (November to February). In addition to this, flood has been an annual occurrence in the area since the 1970s (Molua and Lambi 2006) during the months of July, August and September. Combined with poor hygiene, especially in the area of toilet facilities (in some localities in these parts of the country, there are no toilets at all), floods contaminate drinking water resulting in cholera and all sorts of water-borne diseases, the destruction of food crops and the displacement of communities. The 1996/1997 incidence of cholera epidemic in the Babungo village in Northwest Cameroon, for example, was attributed to polluted waters from toxic chemicals used upstream by herders to bathe cattle against ecto-parasites such as ticks (Kometa and Ebot, 2012, p.78). Apart from diseases that may result from global warming, is the impact of climate change on food production. Frequent floods and droughts are affecting agricultural productivity in some parts of West, East, Central and North Africa like Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Floods cause erosion and the impoverishment of agricultural land. The invasion of the Sahara Desert around Central Africa, for instance, has caused the almost complete drying up of Lake Chad and the total evaporation of Lake Fianga in some harsh dry periods of the year as in December 1984 (Molua and Lambi 2006). This has affected the countries and peoples (Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Niger and the Central African Republic) around the Lake Chad and Lake Fianga basins who depended on them for their livelihood and well-being. Furthermore, physical hazards like floods and landslides also cause the destruction of infrastructure, dislocation of lowland communities, creating environmental refugees, heightening the already large number of refugees from wars and violent conflicts across Africa. Such disruptions also contribute to the destruction of ecosystems and soil fertility, injuries, deaths, loss of property, post event traumatic stress and disease susceptibility (McMichael 2013).

3 The effects of climate change on development in Africa Climate change threatens to intensify extreme poverty and diseases in Africa and thwart development efforts on the continent. In many sub-Saharan African countries, climatic changes result in recurrent drought and floods, water shortage and increased health hazards like under-nutrition. The logic here is that global warming impoverishes the environment, which compels poor people to put more pressure on the existing resources, thereby deepening poverty. Some observers argue that “these new challenges will not only make achieving the Millennium Development Goals more difficult, but also could threaten some of the progress already made in fighting extreme poverty and disease” (http://www.one. org/c/international/issue/947/).

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Global changes in seasonal patterns, weather events, and temperature ranges are threatening the health of the ecosystem and biodiversity. In parts of Africa, climatic changes are causing species range shifts and changes in plant productivity, adding more pressure on forest ecosystems and on biodiversity that have served as a source of food and medicines for centuries. Studies show that only 1 % of the approximately 400,000 plant species on earth have been tested for their medicinal content (Cavalliere 2009). If accurate, they imply that climate change may deprive humanity not only of tested existing medicinal plants, but also of those whose medicinal values are yet to be discovered. Moreover, the life cycles of plants follow seasonal changes, thus, alterations in the timing of such cycles, where some seasons extend far beyond their normal periods, provide some of the most forceful proof that global climate change is affecting species and ecosystems (Cavalliere 2009). The effect on medicinal plant species and biodiversity loss due global warming will have a serious effect on African Traditional Medicine (ATM) because about 85 % of Africans depend on traditional medicine, which uses tree barks, herbs and other plants whose survival depends on the sustainable management of the environment. Food security is another important area calling for urgent action. With a population of about 1 billion and estimated to reach 2 billion by 2050, Africa, which still largely depends on imported food, in spite of her rich soil, may become more vulnerable than it is today if its states do not take concerted action to invest in agricultural research. Any society that is unable to feed itself is very exposed to the caprices and exploitation of those they depend on for food. Food insecurity in Africa will be a very important cause for political instability and violent conflicts that Western arms dealers will exploit, as they have always done in the past, to sell their weapons. Another vicious cycle is produced here where political instability results in the destruction of years of development, thereby taking the underdeveloped country back into economic hardship. The February 2008 hunger riots in Cameroon and similar crises before and after 2008 across Africa were the result of rising of prices of basic commodities, especially food. In Burkina Faso, for example, food prices rose by almost 65 % from 2007 to 2008, while in Senegal the price of rice rose by 112 %, and in Mozambique, the price of maize rose by 87 % during the same period (Amin 2012, p. 21). The political shake-up that took place in the Arab world starting in Tunisia and extending to Libya, Egypt and the Middle East is also attributed to rising prices of basic commodities and declining standards of living and unemployment. The United Nations estimates that the over 7 billion inhabitants of the world today may increase to about 9.3 billion by 2050. This raises questions as to whether we shall be able to pursue “realistic objectives for a healthy climate without curtailing the actual number of humans pressing on the environment” (McMichael 2013). Besides, the growing population may exert unwarranted strain on the environment resulting in “soil exhaustion, water depletion, and loss of various wild animals and plant food species” and also may worsen “various ongoing worldwide environmental and ecologic changes [that will entrench] conditions of poverty and disadvantage” (McMichael 2013).

4 Climate change and political instability There is a close nexus between the adverse effects of climate change, especially on agricultural production, poverty and the impact on the economy and the potential threat to peace and security, and political disorder in most African countries. This is because “… the depletion of natural resources undermines livelihoods, increases vulnerability to disaster

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and puts human security at risk. And again, issues of democratic governance, namely violent conflict, inappropriate or inadequate policy frameworks, and political instability lead to the mismanagement of natural resources and the maladministration of justice” (Adano and Daudi 2012). The way climate change (may) cause political instability in Africa is not as direct as it is in the area of health. However, reduced food yields will cause food shortages and will raise food prices; floods will cause displacements, producing environmental refugees and will increase poverty and stress. The tendency is that nondemocratic and poorly managed countries in Africa are more likely to experience political upheavals when economic situation worsen as a result of climate-change-related hazards. Food insecurity is an issue that may provoke political instability in most African countries. Climate change may worsen an already bad situation. Research shows that between 1964 and 1984, food production in Africa dropped from 100 to 88 tons (Adano and Daudi 2012). This means that the region must still depend on imported food. Like Jean-Emmanuel Pondi argues: “…It is becoming more and more evident that” in Africa today “it is socio-economic insecurity; food insecurity, cultural and environmental insecurity that generate military insecurity, and certainly not the other way round” (Pondi 2013, p. 91). Another issue that has not been fully examined is the intensification of migration (brain drain as well) of Africans to Europe and other parts of the world where economic conditions are favorable. With climate change, some areas of Europe and America with very harsh climatic conditions may become favorable for human settlement and for Africans in particular. We are not claiming, however, that harsh climatic conditions in some of these regions of the world have discouraged African immigration in the past.

5 The pre-requisites for sustainable development in Africa Here we shall examine five main factors we consider to be important for development in Africa. These include: good governance; revival of some African traditional beliefs and practices that favored environmental protection and sustainable development; focus on rural development; attention to the gender aspects of development; investment in alternative, nature-friendly and renewable energy; and the need to review educational systems in Africa. Can there be development in Africa without the emission of greenhouse gases or without putting pressure on the environment as has been the case in other parts of the industrialized world? Climate change, population growth, the economic and political situation, as well as the adverse effects of globalization directly impact human and environmental health in the world and Africa in particular. 5.1 Good governance Climate change may cause many health hazards, cause poor yields and food crisis in Africa, but may not deepen poverty and suffering like the choices and decisions politicians make on how to use our environment and resources. Genuine democratic structures (where there is the rule of law, freedom of expression, equality, protection of individual and minority rights, majority rule, separation of powers between the various arms of government, and where power changes hands through honest elections) are a safe haven for human inventiveness and development. Human development is largely the result of human

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agency (choices and decisions) than a matter of chance. Hence, environmental factors, among other causative factors like bad governance, mismanagement of crises caused by climate change, discrimination against minority groups, tribalism, and corruption, may combine to provoke violent conflicts that will put more pressure on the environment and retard development in Africa. In his book, The Trouble with Nigeria, the Nigerian novelist and social philosopher Chinua Achebe makes a sagacious diagnosis of the principal cause of Nigeria’s underdevelopment, which may fit aptly with any other country in Africa. He writes: The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership (Achebe 1983, p. 1). The effect of bad governance in the management of the environment may cause far greater harm on the economies of African states than any other factor. Good governance may also encourage the return of African intellectuals and experts in different areas, especially in the domain of science and technology, who may not only use their savoir-faire, but also invest their social capital for the much-needed development of the continent. Suffice it to state that the diaspora and subsequent return of educated, skilled individuals have been very instrumental in the development of emerging economies in Asia like those of China, India, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Moreover, most of Europe and America and even Asia are not as resource endowed as Africa, yet these regions have made important strides in development. Although Japan, for example, benefited from a limited exposure to colonialism (Mudimbe 1989, p. 3), it is also a country located in the most earthquake-prone region of the world. But, because it is politically stable with a commitment, on the part of her leaders, to development, Japan today has the third largest national economy of the world. Political stability and democratic management of environmental resources may help avoid violent conflicts which are some of the main causes of environmental degradation, displacement of people and refugee crisis, and the disruption of social and economic activities (Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). In Cameroon, for example, the outbreak of cholera, especially in the northern part of the country due to flooding, has been a yearly phenomenon since the 1970s (Molua and Lambi 2006) and with each occurrence, the government and the public health system act as if it is happening for the first time. In recent years, floods and cholera have also been recurrent in other parts of the country including Douala, Yaounde´, Buea, and Ebolowa, causing many deaths. This is partly due to poor governance and poor hygienic conditions. The cholera is compounded by a weak public health protection system that is unable to monitor, predict, and forestall the outbreak of diseases caused by climatic changes through early warnings, education, public health campaigns, and preventive measures. Excessive and indiscriminate logging, poorly regulated (sometimes there are no regulations at all) extraction of resources like gold, diamond, among others, by foreign companies in connivance with some corrupt politicians, also cause serious environmental damage in most African countries (Standing 2007). A genuine democratic state would invest more in human, moral and intellectual development, as well as in food, cultural and environmental security and not so much in military security (Pondi 2013, p. 3). Most African states are governed by kleptocrats who

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came to power through undemocratic means and use very unconstitutional methods to stay in power. For this reason, they invest in their personal security by using a huge chunk of state funds, which could have been used for health, agriculture, education and scientific and technological development, to purchase weapons to terrorize their citizens so as to intimidate any democratic opposition. Good governance would enable genuine development. One of the problems with the quest for development in Africa since independence is that post-independence African countries have always taken development as their main priority, but most of these states have not established the socio-political and economic framework for real development to follow. Some critics have described this situation of choosing an aim but balking “at the only means necessary for achieving” it as “either not to have chosen the end with conviction or simply to exercise bad faith” (Tangwa 2011). For these critics, “the main reasons for development failures of African countries must be looked for in their democratic failures….Democratization is… the horse, as it were, that must be placed before the cart of African development, prosperity and wellbeing” (Tangwa 2011). Amatya Sen (1999 p. 3) puts it more aptly: “Development requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of repressive states.” Democracy ensures the respect and protection of individual rights and freedoms that give room for public debates. In the same way, it is only in a genuine democratic society that the governed can choose without the barrel of the gun to change an incompetent and predatory regime. One of the factors that have deepened the breadth and depth of climate change in some African countries, as stated above, has been violent conflicts, most of which erupt because some political leaders want to maintain, unconstitutionally, their stay in power. Most of these conflicts make use of heavy and expensive weapons from the West, which cause the extensive destruction or degradation of the environment. 5.2 African traditional values, environmental ethics and sustainable development Although the decolonization process in Africa seems to be over, the process of mental decolonization is just beginning. Decolonization is not really over in the sense that the colonialists have stayed behind in subtle and indirect ways through proxies—African leaders and other agents. However, the debasing part of colonialism has been the intellectual or mental colonization of the African. By mentally colonizing Africa, the colonialists superimposed (through Western education) Western constructs or categories of thought on Africans, where everything African was considered inferior, irrational, primitive and barbaric as opposed to everything Western, considered as advanced, civilized, and superior. According to this view, difference in skin colour and culture was considered as a mark of inferiority. This has left a lasting inferiority complex and low self-esteem of the African. As a result, with their contact with the West, Africans were forced to abandon certain traditional beliefs, values, and practices with regard to environmental protection and sustainable development. With this Western outlook, development or modernization meant the subversion of traditional values, beliefs, and practices. In short, development meant Westernization. Development therefore meant a complete departure from the past, from African values. In African traditional thought, human beings were not regarded as special; they were simply considered co-occupants of a God-created environment and made up part of nature like the plants, animal and other creatures around them and were closely connected in a sort of spiritual relation such that the wellbeing of humans depended on the wellbeing of

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the environment and vice versa. This belief promoted the conservation of certain parts of the environment like the forest for religious purposes—rituals and other practices. The forests, for example, were considered as the “abode of ancestral guardian spirits” (Ikeke 2013). In traditional Kom society, and in many other African communities, there were special parts of the village forest preserved purposely for medicine and as heritage shrines. In Kom, such a forest was known as akua mɨfɨ (forest for medicines) or sacred forests, which are being destroyed today through unsustainable exploitation. In many parts of Africa, there were different types of forests and places conserved for different traditional practices. Hunting, the fetching of wood, water was forbidden in such places. Today with the wanton and irrational destruction of these forests, many species of plants and medicines and animals have become extinct. Some of the forests were treated with great reverence. This African worldview has been described as “eco-bio-communitarian” where there is a symbiotic relationship between humans and the rest of nature, “recognition and acceptance of interdependence and peaceful co-existence between earth, plants, animals, and humans” (Tangwa 2004). If these values and practices have permitted Africans to survive on the continent for centuries, then it would be absurd to think that there are no positive values in traditional African cultures which could help Africans to develop economically, culturally, and politically. Like B. Bujo pointedly argues: The dramatic consequences of modern technology should encourage Africans not to abandon their cultural heritage too hastily. Problems emanating from the transfer of technology from the West should be considered constantly. Euro-American and Japanese technology should not be imported uncritically. The motive behind accepting foreign technology should not be profit but what it has to offer human persons, in their most holistic dimension, and the cosmos (Bujo 2009). These values can only be respected if there is a democratic government to promote and protect them. Africans must begin to look inward, into themselves and their culture, to search for an African solution to underdevelopment and to indigenize foreign ideas and values. For more than 50 years, the solutions proposed by the Britton Woods institutions have proven deficient; sometimes the solutions proposed by the so called experts have been rather poisonous to development because they have instead deepened poverty and caused the loss of human lives. The reason is that these policies, superimposed Eurocentric approaches, ignore African perspectives on development. For more than half a century of Western experiment on African development, it is more than evident that the panacea for African development will not come from the West but from Africans themselves. 5.3 Focus on rural development Since independence the search for development has focused on cities and has disregarded rural areas. If there is going to be any true development in Africa, the rural masses have to be fully involved in the process. Since independence, development in Africa has been understood to mean the construction of skyscrapers, the acquisition of modern sophisticated technological equipment, washing machines and not the “scientific and technological transformation of the society….” (Kwaa Prah 2011). The vast inequality between the ruling elite and the masses is getting larger everyday as predator elites siphon funds meant for development for their own personal benefit. This situation sharply contrasts with that in emerging states in Asia. For example, one of the “striking features of developing Asia is that the development and transformation of Asian societies are noticeable, first and

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foremost, at the village level” (Kwaa Prah 2011). So long as development is focused only in the urban centers, it will affect only a few; but if it begins in the rural area, it would positively affect the whole country. We cannot talk about rural development without discussing the invaluable role of women. 5.4 Empowering of women An important factor that is linked to rural development is the need to empower women. In Africa women are the most directly connected with land use/misuse. Educating women for sustainable land use may seriously improve the quality of the environment. In most African countries, women constitute more than half of the population and it is likely that women make up more than half of Africa’s current population. Solutions to climate change cannot be effectively sought without their contribution. But, in spite of their majority status, there are socio-cultural beliefs, customs and practices that promote socio-economic and political discrimination against women. This has resulted in the feminization of poverty in most of Africa (Nana-Fabu 2009, p. 66). In the situation of generalized poverty, “women are, usually ‘the poorest of the poor’” (Nana-Fabu 2009, p. 17). The United Nations Report on Human Development (2007–2008) in Africa states: “Poverty has a female face.” The removal of these obstacles that deprive women of the freedom to express their potential may also go a long way to enhance development in Africa because women take care of both children and men, and are also the first educators of children by virtue of their mothering role. In all human societies, in spite of the refusal to acknowledge this in some cultures, women are “active agents of change: the dynamic promoters of social transformations” that improve the lives of all members of the community (Sen 1999, p. 189). Historically, women have always played a focal role in the economic development of African countries, especially in the domain of agriculture. With a predominantly subsistent system of agriculture, women are the main actors and have a direct link with the environment and can either contribute to climate change or mitigate its negative effects. Education is an important tool needed for the empowerment of women. “Women’s education strengthens women’s agency and also tends to make it more informed and skilled. The ownership of property can also make women more powerful in family decisions-making” (Sen 1999, p. 189). Empowered women are more economically, socially and even politically independent, educated and skilled to take informed decisions concerning their lives (health, food, and general well-being) and that of their families (Sen 1999, p. 189). An empowered woman is freer to reproduce when she wants and the number of children she desires. Fertility rates, child mortality rates and maternal mortality rates are linked to women’s level of education, freedom and emancipation. From this perspective, therefore, women play a vital role in African development and may play a far greater role if the factors that obstruct and deprive them from attaining their full potentials are completely removed. Hence, the education of the African woman about environmental preservation and sustainable farming may help in the search for sustainable development in Africa. 5.5 The need for complete economic independence One of the reasons for the economic stagnation of Africa compared to other parts of the world, especially the West, is the fact that most African countries have never truly been politically independent, not to mention economically independent. Neo-colonialism is not

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new to any observer of Africa’s relation with her former colonizers. As Olusegun Oladipo tellingly proffers: …Africa’s independence is still largely a compromised independence. No sphere of life reflects this unfortunate reality better than the economic sphere. In this sphere, the pattern of relationship with the industrialized countries of the West remains basically the same as it was in colonial times. This is the pattern of unequal exchange, largely arising from Africa’s lack of capacity for self-directed action in economic matters. This has bred a culture of dependency, which has denied African countries one of the key ingredients of genuine liberation—namely, the right “to be treated as equals”, to be allowed to function as nations that are in no way inferior to others (Oladipo 2009, p. 7). Without genuine political and economic independence, the quest for development in Africa will remain an illusion and mere rhetoric. 5.6 Invest in alternative and renewable energy African growth may be attained only through a sustainable development approach that addresses the rapid population and urban growth rates, environmental degradation and global climate change. Apart from global environmental deterioration, Africa is one of the world’s regions experiencing the highest rates of droughts and water scarcity. Some of the reasons include the southward drift of the Sahara desert and the over-cultivation of land and over-grazing of animals (Molua and Lambi 2006; Koppen 2003). Desertification gives more room for wind erosion, less infiltration during rainfall causing more surface runoff and soil erosion, and if combined with increased deforestation for timber, agricultural activities and urban growth, the effects of climate change and human activities on our environment becomes very dangerous for mankind. An important move towards development in Africa will be to transform the abundant solar and wind resources in the region into alternatives sources of cheap and clean energy. These renewable sources of energy will promote growth not only because it will be cheaper and affordable to communities and households and provide energy efficiency, but also because it will enable re-afforestation and move towards a successful environmental protection, reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and providing a healthy environment for all. Long-term economic growth in Africa will depend on alternative and renewable sources of energy (wind and solar) alongside sustainable agricultural development, infrastructural development and clean drinking water. There is a great need for natural gas in Africa. More than 90 % of African population relies on fuel wood for cooking, heating and construction, and this has a negative effect on the tropical forest and the environment. Wind and solar powers will be very important in Africa to provide energy efficiency and improve air and environmental quality as well as sustainability in natural resources. A healthy environment will produce healthy food products for healthy living. 5.7 The urgent need for educational reforms There is no gainsaying that one of the major causes of Africa’s stubbornness to all development experiments is ignorance affecting a large part of its populations. Ignorance has amplified such enemies to development as poverty, ill health, and a lack of adequate infrastructure. No country can experience any serious development without reviewing its

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educational system. In most African countries, the annual budget for education and scientific research is usually very low. The educational systems in most post-independent African states have largely remained unchanged more than 50 years after independence from the colonial system, which was geared to producing entry workers for the lower levels of the colonial administration. There is the urgent need to invest in professional and industrial education. This may, in tandem with the enabling environment that good governance provides, help to reduce the pressure on the government to provide employment for all its citizens. Such persons would be able to employ themselves and even provide employment for others. It is this kind of educational system that will produce the kind of intellectuals capable of critical thinking and self-questioning which will permit us to, as P. Hountondji puts it: Reach beyond the ready-made solutions proposed by international experts and look into the problems of society ourselves. I insist, therefore, on the role of the intellectuals and the elite or, more precisely, on their responsibility, I insist on the collective appropriation of existing knowledge, a high-level internal debate on social, economic and political options, and also on their pros and cons (Hountondji 2011). It is this critical mass of African intellectuals and technocrats who can propose and bring any meaningful development in Africa and not the ‘experts’ of the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose main interest is to foster Western capitalist interests in Africa. Also, we need to use African languages in the development of science and technology. Applying African culture in development should pay attention to these languages. Most societies that are said to be developed today have done so by using their own languages. Japan, China, Korea are some important examples. This has to do with the appropriation or indigenization of science and technology in African languages. It is through their language that a people can easily utilize foreign knowledge and also open ways to expand indigenous knowledge. It is through language that we can completely and effectively liberate Africa from mental colonization for any sustainable development to follow. Because, “so long as the African mind is bogged down by Western representation, no development policy, however thoroughly contrived and however skillfully planned, can initiate a sustained process of development” (Kebede 2011). Prah contends that “it is in these languages that the creative aptitude and inventive instinct of the people are articulated. It is also in these languages that any attempt to introduce ideas on a mass scale can be achieved. It is almost farcical to assume that by working in the socially very narrowly based languages of colonialism, it will be possible to effectively achieve transformation of African societies” (Kwaa Prah 2011). In addition to this, developing a common (pan) African language used across the continent may encourage more integration between the peoples and cultures of the continent and eliminate the barrier sometimes created by the colonial languages.

6 Conclusion Africa is not doomed. Africa’s problem is human and not natural. There are many factors —political, economic and social—that act in conjunction with global climate change to impact on development. For any reflection on the impact of climate and development in Africa to be complete, it must adopt this holistic approach. Although African countries contribute the least to global warming, they are the most vulnerable to its negative effects because of lack of knowledge and financial means to manage and anticipate some of its

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effect, coupled with corruption and bad governance of the state in the management of human and natural resources. The causes of climate change may be natural, although science has shown that it has been largely caused by human activity, but its solution must be human, if it is to be sustainable. Africa is not doomed; it is a continent full of unexploited potentials. When these potentials will be properly harnessed and exploited, the continent may be the America or Europe (or even better) of the future. Acknowledgments We thank Dr. Steven Driever of the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Department of Geosciences for his helpful suggestions.

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