BOULDER, Colorado, Oct. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) released its latest report that describes six core principles of stimulus and recovery that should guide the sub-Saharan Africa responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic crisis. Together, the principles in the paper are a framework for governments, development partners and the local private sector that demonstrates how to build back stronger and more resilient.

Sub-Saharan Africa Stimulus Strategy: A Springboard for Increased Local Resilience and Economic Growth is the final RMI-sponsored report in a series of seven reports that outlines how targeted stimulus and recovery investments by countries around the globe can help to simultaneously address both the pandemic-caused economic crisis and the looming climate crisis.

“It’s exciting to see a myriad of organizations reporting about Africa stimulus packages—however, an aligned and coordinated effort is crucial to unlock and deploy rapidly stimulus funding to provide jobs, improve health and address climate concerns,” said Francis Elisha, principal at RMI and co-author of the paper.

The report advocates for aligning sub-Saharan Africa stimulus packages with existing and emerging priorities in the energy sector and providing sufficient investments and incentives to support resilient clean energy pathways across the continent. Investment in clean energy is an effective tool to transform sub-Saharan African economies and move toward carbon neutrality while generating positive spillover benefits for other sectors.

The six core principles for a green stimulus and recovery in sub-Saharan Africa presented in the paper are:

• Power critical facilities to reignite the economic engine,
• Accelerate electrification efforts,
• Electrify local economies,
• Electrify transportation,
• Unlock energy efficiency,
• Accelerate utilities’ transition toward modern, clean technology.

To download the Africa Green Stimulus Principles paper, visit rmi.org/insight/africa-stimulus/. To learn more about the RMI Africa, Islands and Southeast Asia program, follow @RMI_DevEcon on Twitter.

Media Inquiries please contact:
Alexandria Chin, Media Relations Associate, T: 9732620002 , E: achin@rmi.org