An EADI webinar shows that a genuinely green economy in rural Africa depends on three things working together: locally affordable climate-smart practices for smallholders, coherent national and regional policies that connect research with practice, and climate finance that explicitly supports a just transition with strong community agency. It highlights how programmes like the Great Green Wall and Africa RISING can improve livelihoods and ecosystems, but also how limited reach, elite capture and underfunded adaptation threaten impact. Overall, the message is that rural people, especially women and youth, need to be at the centre of decision-making, technology choices and financial flows if green transitions are to reduce vulnerability rather than deepen existing inequalities.
EADI Virtual Dialogues | Webinar summary
How can climate resilience, economic development and social justice be brought together in African contexts The EADI webinar “Green Economy and Rural Livelihoods in Africa: Policies and Implementation Pathways” explored this question with contributions from researchers and practitioners working in Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa and the international agricultural research community.
Context: Climate change hits rural areas first
Rural communities across Africa carry a heavy dual responsibility. They are central to food production, biodiversity and natural resource management, yet they are also on the frontline of climate impacts including droughts, floods and the advance of deserts. In 22 African countries along the Sahel, desertification is steadily eating into farmland. In Nigeria alone 11 states are affected by land degradation, with estimated damage costs of more than 20 million US dollars. Under these conditions, a “green” transition is not a luxury project, but a matter of survival for rural livelihoods and national food security.
Talk 1: Green technologies and the Great Green Wall in Nigeria
Dr Cecy Balogun (University of Johannesburg) presented field research from the Nigerian states of Gombe, Kebbi and Sokoto, where the National Agency for the Great Green Wall is active. The programme combines capacity building in farm and nonfarm livelihoods with practical measures such as solar-powered boreholes, energy-saving cookstoves for women, tree planting and climate-smart agriculture.
Her findings are encouraging and sobering at the same time. Households that benefited from the interventions were able to strengthen all forms of livelihood capital, from physical and financial assets to social networks. Non-beneficiaries however saw their livelihood capital decline further under the combined pressure of climate impacts and resource conflicts. A core structural weakness is limited reach: in communities of several thousand people, the programme often supports only around five individuals per intervention. Decision-making power also tends to sit with a small local elite, while women and youth are involved but rarely hold real influence over final decisions.
Talk 2: Policy coherence for an inclusive green economy (Africa RISING)
Dr Carlo Azzarri (IFPRI) discussed the Africa RISING programme, which trialled sustainable agricultural intensification in Ethiopia, Mali, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Rather than promoting single technologies in isolation, Africa RISING worked with integrated packages of practices such as intercropping, crop rotation and conservation agriculture, and actively sought to link field-level innovation with policy processes.
In Malawi the programme recorded simultaneous improvements in yields, household income, dietary diversity and soil conservation, and reached around one million people through scaling partnerships. Concrete policy uptake included the official release of a new bean variety, localised fertiliser recommendations for highland areas in Tanzania and a legume blend to improve soil fertility. Azzarri underlined that even excellent research has little impact without strategic communication and engagement with decision makers: without this, results remain “on the bookshelf” instead of shaping real-world practice.
Talk 3: Affordable green technologies for smallholders
Dr Jama Mashele Mohale (Centre of Ecological Intelligence, University of Johannesburg) focused on what an effective green transition looks like for smallholders farming between zero and five hectares. Her starting point was clear: many rural households simply cannot afford high-tech solutions, so sustainable options must be low-cost, locally available and easy to maintain.
She highlighted a toolbox of practical measures. These include rainwater harvesting using tanks, mulching to reduce water loss, composting instead of chemical fertiliser, small-scale biogas from organic waste and simple drip irrigation systems using recycled plastic bottles. A shift towards climate-resilient and often indigenous crops such as sorghum and cassava can also reduce climate risk while improving nutrition. Above all, she argued for diversified farm systems that combine different crops, small livestock and simple agro-processing to reduce post-harvest losses and strengthen resilience against market and climate shocks.
Talk 4: Climate finance and a just transition in South Africa
Mr Devandran Pillay from South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission set the discussion in the wider context of unemployment, poverty and decarbonisation. Of the roughly 43 billion US dollars of climate finance flowing to Africa, about 87 per cent comes from international partners, with 43 per cent channelled through multilateral development finance institutions. Around 46 per cent of this funding goes to mitigation, 32 per cent to adaptation and 21 per cent to projects with dual benefits, revealing a significant adaptation gap.
In South Africa climate finance is dominated by domestic sources, especially private sector debt and equity, and heavily focused on mitigation in the energy sector. Nevertheless, the country expects a net gain of 600,000 to 1.4 million jobs over five to seven years in areas such as critical minerals, green steel, hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel if the transition is managed well. The Presidential Climate Commission frames this as a “Just Transition”, grounded in procedural, distributive and restorative justice and in strong community agency over local energy projects and value chains.
Cross-cutting messages from the discussion
In the discussion it became clear that the challenge is not only to design good projects, but to move from islands of success to system-wide change. Programmes that reach just a handful of people per community, even if effective for them, will struggle to shift overall vulnerability patterns. Long-term sustainability beyond the funding cycle depends on genuine local ownership, viable business models and institutions that can manage land, water and finance fairly. Moderator Dr Olayinka Ajala (Leeds Beckett University) pointed to farmer cooperatives in West Africa as an example of how collective organisation can help communities negotiate better terms and share knowledge more effectively.
Implications for international cooperation
For international development actors the webinar offers concrete lessons that travel well beyond the African continent. A green economy that works for rural people requires coherent policies across agriculture, climate, energy and rural development, backed by climate finance that is accessible at community level and does not systematically favour mitigation over adaptation. Equally important are participatory governance arrangements that move women and young people from the margins into positions of real influence, while limiting elite capture and ensuring fair benefit-sharing. The experiences presented suggest that when these elements come together, green transitions can strengthen rural livelihoods, safeguard ecosystems and contribute to a more just global response to the climate crisis.
Disclaimer: The author in member of EADI, but did not interact in this event. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and cannot be attributed to any affiliated organizations. Portions of the text and images were supported by artificial intelligence.
