While East Africa’s promising growth rates are good news, they remain based upon limited diversification in the region’s economies, writes Darryll Kilian, partner and principal ESG consultant and Wouter Jordaan, partner and principal ESG scientist at SRK Consulting.
This is the first in a series of two articles in which the authors highlight why environmental, social and governance considerations are vital to building more resilience into East African economies.
While East Africa’s promising growth rates are good news, they remain based upon limited diversification in the region’s economies. This makes them vulnerable to external shocks, not least of which will emanate from climate change; changing rainfall patterns, for instance, will affect agricultural performance – a regional mainstay.
Diversification into secondary industries, however, will bring its own environmental risks. These need to be anticipated and well managed, so that more inclusive growth can be sustained for future generations.
It is well understood that bald statistics on gross domestic product (GDP) give little insight into how these change the daily life of average citizens. So it is with East Africa, where promising growth levels belie the stubborn levels of poverty that development aims to eradicate.
Read the full article in Why Africa
