Pursuing Sustainable Development in Africa. The Role of Engineering and Policy Frameworks

Essay in the subject Economy - Environment economics, , language: English, abstract: This paper addresses some key issues towards sustainable engineering within Africa. One of the most debatable and relevant issues in contemporary times, Sustainable Development is becoming the need of the hour. Selfishly pursuing modernization, humans have frequently compromised with the requirements of a more sustainable environment. As a result, the increased environmental depletion is evident with the prevalence of deforestation, pollution, greenhouse gases, climate change etc. The major question that is asked is, how can a continent with over 1.2 billion people pursue development without degrading the environment? Answering this question requires that the ability to create a truly sustainable economic development within these African continents requires a true engineering mindset within policy frameworks as well as strategy development and execution within Africa. Unfortunately, the practice of engineering in Africa has often acted in contrast with the requirement of sustainable engineering practice in African society creating a doubt on our ability to achieve the green engineering initiative.