Press Release: Green Recovery Dialogue and GE Tracker Launch in Nigeria.
27th May 2022, Abuja, Nigeria — Clean Technology Hub in collaboration with the Green Economy Coalition held a Green Recovery Dialogue Event and launched the Green Economy (GE) Tracker — an engagement tool used to benchmark how nations are transitioning to green and fair economies. It primarily functions as a citizen’s monitoring tool to enable Nigerians and institutions to constructively engage the Nigerian government in dialogue and contribute to improving the Tracker’s assessment of Nigerian green economy progress.
A one-day event, split into multiple panel discussions, was held in Abuja to introduce the tracker and gain feedback from both public and private stakeholders. Guests included government agencies, green investor companies, international donor/development agencies as well as private energy enterprises. The welcome address was given by Innocent Onah, PhD — Climate & Green Growth Expert, African Development Bank (AfDB), who reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s economic recoveries and contributing to achieving both conditional and unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) targets.
Mrs Ibironke Olubamise, National Coordinator, UNDP GEF Small Grants Program, gave opening remarks, where she shared how the UNDP’s program is working with over 130 civil society and community-based organizations in Nigeria to protect the environment while generating sustainable livelihoods for the poor and marginalized. Additionally, special remarks were given by Ms Barbra Ilvein, speaking on behalf of the Managing Director, Rural Electrification Agency (REA). The Director of the Department of Climate Change, Mrs Iniobong Abiola-Awe, represented by Mr Chukwuemeka Okebugwu, gave the keynote address, confirming the government’s approval of the tracker being launched in Nigeria.
The first panel discussion sought out insights and contributions from stakeholders on Accessing Green Economy Policy Adoption In Nigeria. The panelists were Mr Chibuikem Agbaegbu, Country Manager, ACE Technical Assistance Facility; Ms Rose Keffas, Special Assistant, OSSAP-SDGs and Mr Amara Nwanpka, Director, Public Policy Initiative, Shehu Musa Yar’adua Foundation. Chioma Ewurum, PhD, Head of Research at Clean Technology Hub, moderated the dialogue. The speakers agreed on the importance of a tool that allows policymakers to look across the entire green economy spectrum and see where they’re doing badly and where the gaps are and where we need to put in more effort.
After the first panel, Mr Stuart Worsley, Country Programs Director, Green Economy Coalition, took the stakeholders through an in-depth presentation of how the tracker works. The web tool, known as the Green Economy Tracker (GE Tracker) tracks 21 policies under six (6) themes; Governance, Nature, People, Finance, Sectors and Green Covid-19 recovery. Mr Worsley expressed “Among its peers, Nigeria leads the region in its policy work to recover from Covid-19. However, Nigeria remains locked into fossil fuels, with significant brown spending continuing. For Nigeria, the analysis was done on the basis of the National Economic Sustainability Plan, but there is now the new National Development Plan that does more.” He went on to add “The tracker offers the ability for citizens to do this [track policies] and updates the data through curated crowdsourcing. More importantly, it gives citizens and governments a useful basis to hold conversations that bring stakeholders together in pursuit of solutions.”
The second panel discussion was moderated by Wole Hammond, Deputy Manager, Environment and Climate Action, with the topic: Positioning Nigeria for Green Recovery and Sustainable Development. The panelists were Innocent Onah, PhD, Climate & Green Growth Expert, AfDB; Mrs Ibironke Olubamise, National Coordinator, UNDP GEF-SGP and Ms Funto Boroffice, CEO Chanja Datti. The discussion spoke to the reality of the tool’s implementation, especially in last-mile communities, investment pipelines needed for a green transition as well as how to create effective lines of communication at the grassroots level.
Following both dialogue sessions, participants were able to give their feedback through a Q&A segment, covering both the efficacy of the web tool and broader questions about Nigeria’s race towards net-zero on different sub-levels.
About Clean Tech Hub
Clean Tech Hub is a pioneering hybrid hub for the research, development, demonstration and incubation of clean and green ideas and technologies in Africa, and their validation for commercial-stage development. It is an early start-up incubator for inventions and innovations in clean energy, a consultancy for sustainability and energy efficiency solutions and a driver of clean energy investment in Africa.
About Green Economy Coalition
The Green Economy Coalition (GEC) is the world’s largest alliance for green and fair economies. The GEC was founded in 2009 by four leading global environment and development organisations: World Wildlife Fund (WWF); UN Environment Programme (UNEP); International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED); and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Green Economy Coalition exists to accelerate this inclusive and sustainable transition. We work with our partners around the world to give citizens a voice, hold governments to account, and drive real economic change.
