Daljeet Kaur | 31 Oct, 2015
India and Africa are crucial players in meeting the 169 global targets
set out under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this is
warranted by their huge geographic expanse and large proportion of
people living below poverty line. The recently concluded India Africa
Forum Summit (IAFS), therefore came at a strategic time and provided
both sides with a great opportunity to formalise partnership agreements
to collectively meet global goals set out in Agenda 2063, post-2015
Agenda (SDGs recently adopted by India and Africa) and the upcoming
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21).
The previous
two India-Africa Forum Summits, held in New Delhi (2008) and Addis Ababa
(2011) saw intensification of development cooperation between India and
15 participating African countries. The first Summit of April 2008
resulted in the "Africa-India Framework for Cooperation" where seven
main areas of cooperation were identified, which were also reiterated
and enhanced at the Second Africa-India Summit. The framework emphasised
on economic development by foreseeing cooperation in a number of
economic areas, especially tourism and infrastructure.
In
his opening remarks at the third summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
acknowledged the importance of India’s partnership with Africa. He
stated that our relationship is "beyond strategic consideration" as it
is "driven by the aim of empowerment, capacity building, human resource
development, access to Indian market, and support for Indian investments
in Africa." During his address, the prime minister highlighted the
following focus areas - human resource development, institution
building, infrastructure, clean energy, climate change adaptation,
agriculture, health, education and skill development where India and
the African nations will continue to work together.
Climate
change, which has become a global challenge, is one area where
developing countries can join hands and approach global goals with local
actions. During the summit, the delegates unanimously agreed to
collaboratively address common issues in mitigating and adapting to
climate change. India recently committed to a 33 percent cut in its
emissions by 2030. Achieving this ambitious target will only be possible
by shared R&D for cleaner technologies. At the same time, ensuring
cleaner practices in all investment projects led by Indian companies
operating in Africa will also help African nations in meeting their own
emission targets.
Climate change acts as a stress multiplier for
issues like extreme poverty, rainfall dependent agriculture, and natural
disasters such as droughts and floods, which in themselves are some
common problems faced by both India and Africa. In addition, Africa
faces constraints in technological options, limited infrastructure,
skills, information and links to markets which has increased its
vulnerability to climate stresses.
Collaborating on overcoming
agricultural vulnerabilities posed by the rapidly changing climate can
help both sides in developing their respective disaster resistant and
resilient strategies to ensure global food security.
Agriculture
plays a vital role in the economies of both India and Africa. Over 60
percent of the rural households in India and 70 percent in Africa depend
on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood. India, over the
years and after the Green Revolution has made remarkable advancement in
using technological interventions to improve agricultural outputs. We
are now proactively developing solutions towards building a climate
resilient agricultural practice across the country. Indian experience in
the agriculture sector will be of relevance to the African countries
which like us are highly vulnerable to climatic variabilities.
Under,
the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), the Indian Renewable
Energy Programme has received increased recognition internationally in
recent years, where many countries evinced interest in cooperation with
India for promoting new and renewable energy. The ministry is currently
honouring two bilateral cooperation frameworks with Africa, established
through an MoU, the first on India-Rwanda Renewable Energy Cooperation
and the second on India-Egypt Renewable Energy Cooperation. More such
collaborations through knowledge-based interventions will encourage and
promote effective public, public-private, and civil society
partnerships.
There is merit in partnering for
development as also indicated by the prime minister, who said: "When I
look at Africa’s vision for itself, captured so eloquently in Agenda
2063 document, (a transformative 50-year development agenda which was
initiated in 2013) I believe that our development goals and
international aspirations are closely aligned."
India and Africa have had similar development path post colonisation and we surely can together build a sustainable future.
(In
arrangement with IPE Global Limited, an international development
consulting group where Daljeet Kaur is associate vice president,
Knowledge Management. The views expressed are those of IPE Global. She
can be reached at dkaur@ipeglobal.com)