Locating the Policy Space for Inclusive Green Growth within the SADC Extractive Sector

Abstract

The economic lens, through which development has been viewed for over 250 years, has often promoted growth at the expense of the environment. However, today, harm to the environment in the pursuit of economic growth has begun to threaten both growth itself and indicators of social progress (World Bank, 2012). The argument for greener growth in this context thus places a greater focus on maximising the ‘socio-economic’ development synergies alongside minimising pollution, environmental degradation and socio-environmental harms. This focus is of particular importance for sectors of acute economic importance and high growth that serve as catalysts for social, economic or environmental problems. Extractive industries (EIs) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are such a sector (ibid.). (…)