Academy on the Green Economy

Miss Rahinatu Sidiki Alare, Technical Officer of ASSAR Ghana Project at the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS) of the University of Ghana participates in this year’s Green Economy Academy aimed at training and building the needed human capacities in the delivery of an inclusive green economy.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the 3rd to 14th October, 2016, hosted the Green Economy Academy at its International Training Centre (ITC) in Turin, Italy. The Workshop was organized within the framework of the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) as a follow up to the successful implementation of its first edition in 2014. Building on the results achieved through national and regional activities of PAGE over the past two years, this second edition aimed at solidifying current knowledge and fostering exchange of practices to support the environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive economies’ transitioning process. The Academy increased the capacity of participants to formulate and implement green economy policies and strategies at the national level and in key economic sectors, keeping up with new orientations of markets, government policies and social aspirations.

The issues discussed include but not limited to:

• The concepts of green job and green economy and links to the SDGs.
• The future of work in the transition to inclusive green economies.
• PAGE Exchange-Country experiences.
• Agenda 2030: Green economy as a mean for poverty reduction and social inclusion (Watch video here).
• Climate change: Global agreement and national actions (Watch video here).
• Stakeholder engagement and national policy frameworks (Watch video here).
• Implementing SDGs through poverty-environment mainstreaming and social inclusions.
• Principles and methods for effective adult learning in support of inclusive green economies (This included trainers developing potential project proposal to embark on. A proposal was made to introduce a course on green economy at IESS).
• Fiscal policies for an inclusive green economy.
• Sustainable tourism in rural areas and short agricultural supply chains
• Governance and just transition towards sustainable development
• Decent work in waste management

Notable speakers included Guy Ryder (ILO Director-General, listen to speech here), Erik Solheim (UNEP Executive Director, listen to speech here), Senator Dr. the Hon. Esther Byer Suckoo (Minister of Labour, Social Security and Human Resource Development, Barbados), Amrei Horstbrink (Specialist, Green Development and Climate Programme, UNITAR), Anabella Rosemberg (Policy Advisor, International Trade Union Confederation), Isabel Kempf (Co-director, UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative) and Mustapha Kamal Gueye (Green Jobs Specialist).

The Academy was attended by technical experts from the PAGE partners and countries, as well as collaborating networks and institutions, such as the Green Economy Coalition (GEC), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP).

Background: The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change propelled sustainability in its three dimensions at the fore of the international development agenda, laying the foundations for systemic changes in the way economies and societies function. Therefore, the new global policy landscape and the initiatives by countries to shape their national strategies needs to be facilitated by a strong and up-to-date knowledge base for greener and low-carbon economies in the wake of the Sustainable Development Goals. From these perspectives, the academy seeks to achieve the following objectives;

• To increase the capacity of participants to identify and build opportunities for the promotion of a socially inclusive green economy.
• To gain in-depth understanding of suitable approaches, tested tools and best practices for intervention in key economic sectors that will contribute to achieving long term impacts in the framework of national sustainable development strategies.
• A training of trainer’s element in order to develop a community of practitioners that can support national and regional learning actions.