South Africa Archive

South African National Industrial Parks Summit 2023: Unleashing the Potential of Industrial Parks as Pillars of Economic Growth

Written by Francesca Fassbender on 17. May 2023. Posted in Countries, South Africa.

Collective Drive for Industrial Parks Revitalisation

On 20 – 21 April 2023, a landmark event in the South African industrial scene was held: the National Industrial Parks Summit. A dynamic collaboration involving the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic), National Treasury, the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA), and supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH-Natural Resources Stewardship Programme (GIZ-NatuReS) led to the convening of the National Industrial Parks Summit. The two-day summit under the theme “Positioning Industrial Parks as Engines of Growth, Industrialisation and Investments: Through a Reimagined Implementation Framework” served as a vibrant platform for over 150 stakeholders to exchange ideas, expertise and knowledge towards a new approach for the accelerated development of industrial parks in South Africa.

Deputy Minister, **the dtic** Ms Nomalungelo Gina giving opening address ©NCPC-SA

The Impetus for Reimagined Industrial Parks

In recent years, industrial parks have been beset with challenges ranging from vandalism, lack of basic services like water and electricity, infrastructure issues, to governance problems. This has led to significant job losses and a decline in their performance. Despite these hurdles, industrial parks hold tremendous potential as key nodes for large-scale economic development, employment, and as a catalyst for the country’s reindustrialisation agenda.

At the event, Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ms Nomalungelo Gina, emphasised that “it is crucial for establishing a collective path to retain, sustain and grow investments and jobs through a Reimagined Industrial Implementation Framework while addressing critical outcomes such as social development, sustainability and economic growth.”

Strategic Plans for Revitalizing Industrial Parks

The Summit concluded with the adoption of key resolutions, which emerged from six breakaway Commissions. Each Commission focused on different aspects of the industrial park ecosystem. These resolutions include the establishment of a technical task team, comprising of key stakeholders, to develop the New Implementation Framework for the National Programme on Industrial Parks.

Other key resolutions include the establishment of a rapid response team to urgently resolve bottleneck issues in parks, defining incentives for investors, catalysing partnerships and integrating eco-industrial development, resilience approaches and stewardship to provide a more attractive environment for investment.

National Organising Partners of National Summit – representatives from, **the dtic**, National Treasury, CSIR, NCPC-SA, GIZ NatuReS and Swiss Economic Cooperation and Development (SECO)

Building the Future of Industrial Parks

Going forward, the dtic also plans to conduct district roadshows to raise awareness and build capacity on the importance of the industrial parks and their ecosystems to communities and other critical stakeholders. As they are instrumental for South Africa’s development pathway, initiatives like the National Summit offer a unique opportunity for sector stakeholders to collaboratively shape industrial parks into effective enablers for economic growth and job creation.

In essence, the National Industrial Parks Summit marked a significant step in the collective effort to unlock the vast potential of South Africa’s industrial parks. The spirit of collaboration and the shared vision of the event’s contributors have set the stage for a more vibrant, resilient, and sustainable future for South Africa’s industrial landscape.

For further information on the National Summit Resolutions visit the dtic website: click here

Sharing Insights on Stewardship Partnerships at the Climate Smart Agriculture Policy Dialogue in South Africa

Written by Francesca Fassbender on 13. April 2023. Posted in South Africa, Tansania Editor, Uncategorized.

Participants at the Climate Smart Agriculture Policy Dialogue . Copyright: FANRPAN

From 13-15 March 2023, stakeholders from the public sector, representatives of regional economic communities (RECs), academic and research institutions, the scientific community, and civil society gathered to share knowledge, and experience in the “Climate Smart Agriculture Policy Dialogue, transitioning to resilient farming in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).”

At the conference, our NatuReS colleague, Aristarick Mkenda, shared insights from stewardship partnerships in the Pangani Basin in Tanzania. The dialogue was convened by the Transforming Smallholder Irrigation in Southern Africa (TISA) consortium in collaboration with the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) at the University of Pretoria’s Future Africa Campus in Pretoria, South Africa. The conference theme was “Transitioning to Climate-Resilient Farming Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA),” focusing on the next generation of research, smart technology, policy development and best practices.

Plenary session at the Climate Smart Agriculture Policy Dialogue . Copyright: FANRPAN

The Climate Smart Agriculture Policy Dialogue Goals:

The Policy Dialogue aimed to accomplish the following:

Share data demonstrating the value of climate-smart farming in SSA’s transition to resilient farming communities.
Provide suggestions on how to scale up the development of climate-smart and resilient farming systems in SSA.
Networking and encouraging collaborations and action

Social inclusion in the context of agriculture and food systems, water resources use, and climate action, was one of the conference’s important sub-themes. Communities, women and youths crucially contribute to agriculture and SSA catchments as farmers, workers and entrepreneurs. Depending on the regions, these groups face distinct constraints that reduce their productivity and limit their contributions to agricultural production, family livelihoods, and economic growth. As a result, the importance of context-sensitive and inclusive approaches to support them was emphasized.

Stewardship partnerships presentation during the 5^th plenary session. Copyright: FANRPAN

Presentation on: Addressing Water Security through Water Stewardship Partnerships. Experiences from the Pangani Basin in Tanzania

NatuReS colleague Aristarick Mkenda shared perspectives on stewardship partnerships as a possible solution to increase effective stakeholder participation and representation to address shared challenges in water-stressed catchments. Sustainable and participatory water management, thereby, is fundamental to sustainable agriculture. His presentation was based on his co-authored scientific article (Richards et al., 2022) for the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) that analysed the partnership approach as a solution for inclusive participation. The partnerships facilitated by NatuReS in the Pangani River Basin in Tanzania served as empirical data.

Stewardship partnerships answer other IWRM implementation gaps. For example, additional financing from private sector partners can overcome the need for more funds to implement projects.

A productive discussion with the participants followed the presentation, in which challenges and their possible solutions of stewardship partnerships were discussed, such as costs of participation and balanced involvement of the private sector.

Collaboration to Address the Growing Complexity in the Agricultural Sector

In the concluding remarks of the conferences, Prof. Jammie Pittock from Australian National University (ANU) highlighted that the objectives in the agricultural sector have become much more complicated since they have grown from simply producing food to cover diverse societal needs and adapting to climate variability. The complexity of the issues and topics in agriculture is making collaborations and partnerships between individuals and sectors more important now than ever.

We thank the “Climate Smart Agriculture Policy Dialogue” and its inspiring participants for the invitation and the productive conference days and are looking forward to more valuable exchanges.

For more information about addressing water security through water stewardship partnerships, you can access the research article here.

First International Learning Exchange on WASH in Schools in Africa

Written by m.t.eiblmeier on 4. April 2023. Posted in Countries, South Africa, Zambia.

Globally, 2.1 billion people lack access to safe, readily available water, and 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation. This is especially problematic in schools, where many pupils and teachers gather every day, and diseases like Covid-19 can spread easily if water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) provision is lacking.

From 13th to 17th of March 2023, the first ever International Learning Exchange on WASH in Schools (WinS) took place on the African continent. The annual event, which was held before in South- and South-East Asia for 10 years, was hosted in Grand-Bassam in Côte d’Ivoire. The jointly organized event by UNICEF and GIZ brought together 103 participants from 26 different African nations like Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia, as well as Sweden, USA, Germany and the Philippines.

group picture — Group picture of participants at the first WASH in schools learning event hosted in Africa. Copyright: GIZ/Felix Chabala

Partnering for an improved access to WASH in Schools

The learning exchange provided an opportunity to connect Ministries of Education and their key WASH in Schools partners (NGOs, INGOS and development partners), while providing partners with a forum to explore concepts for regional and global collaboration on WASH in Schools and related emerging thematic areas with global experts. The country teams also had the opportunity to present their respective experiences, fostering a stronger exchange between different African countries and other stakeholders. This also enabled them to draw lessons from each other’s experiences and tools to stimulate and facilitate sustainable scaling-up of WASH in School programming in their respective countries.

presentation at wash in schools event — Grace Mwanza from GIZ Zambia moderates the international learning event. Copyright: GIZ/Jonas Kertscher

School visits, discussions and practical lessons

The 5-day event also included school visits to give participants the chance to observe on-the-ground activities and facilities, Monitoring & Evaluation systems, and have discussions with teachers, learners, and the school management staff to draw on their practical lessons.

NatuReS teams from Zambia and South Africa supported the event together with key stakeholders from their respective countries, and shared insights from their work implemented and planned around WASH in Schools.

Experiences from South Africa and Zambia

The country team Zambia comprised of two partners from the NatuReS programme, as well as the School Hygiene and Nutrition (SHN) Director from the Zambian Ministry of Education and the LuWSI Coordinator. The SHN Director presented the current state of monitoring of WASH in relation to the SDGs in Zambia and also shared the successes with regards to budget allocation towards the roll-out of reusable menstrual hygiene pads.

The South African team, which just started a work package around WASH in Schools as part of a DeveloPPP project with Unilever, used the insightful event to connect with key stakeholders and learn more about the WinS approach.

school toilets in Côte d'Ivoire — A frequently vandalized toilet block of a school in an informal settlement in Aboisso is misused for gatherings, including the consumption of alcohol and drugs, making it unusable for pupils. Copyright: GIZ/Jonas Kertscher

Innovations for taking WASH in Schools to the next level

The learning event also brought out several innovations in WinS like the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) currently being applied in teacher training schools for Infection Prevention Control in Malawi. The event was also characterised by exhibits of various innovative products like cost effective group handwashing facility designs, reusable menstrual pads and more. By exchanging experiences and sharing best practices, participants aim at taking WASH in Schools to the next level!

NatuReS virtual participation in UN Water Conference 2023 – Register here!

Written by m.t.eiblmeier on 16. March 2023. Posted in Countries, South Africa.

UN Water Conference 2023 Side Event: Sustainable Industrial Water Use through Eco-Industrial Park Approaches

Addressing the key theme “Water for Sustainable Development”, this side event will explore how Eco-Industrial Parks can be a key lever for the sustainable use of water in industry. Indeed, Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) involve the holistic development of industrial areas towards circular economy, resource-efficiency, sustainability, risk reduction and resilience.

Water management is a key feature of the EIP approach, with criteria ranging from increased re-use of water (industrial effluents and rain water) and requirements to develop physical networks of reuse/ cascading of water. Moreover, a key tenet of an EIP is that they must not negatively impact local water sources or access to water by surrounding communities. Thus, all industrial wastewater must be treated to applicable environmental standards and 25 % of the water is required to be reused or recycled.

Water stewardship for more resilient industrial parks

Organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in partnership with the World Bank Group and GIZ, with the support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), this session will feature presentations on activities promoting sustainable water use in industrial areas followed by concrete examples of the implementation of Eco-Industrial park approaches in Indonesia, Bangladesh and South Africa.

On behalf of NatuReS, Dr. Faith Lawrence, Country Coordinator for NatuReS in South Africa, will present about “Economic Resilience through Water Stewardship”, sharing experiences from implementing sustainable water management in industrial parks from South Africa.

The session will take place on 20 March, 2023 from 08:00-9:30 pm (GMT-5/NY) | 13:00-14:30 CET.

To register, click here!