Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Photo: Benjamin Westhoff, ©DIE
Among the speakers of the ‚High-level GPI Africa Roundtable‘ on ‚African-European Cooperation on Green Transition & Covid-19 Recovery‘ were German President HE Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Republic of Senegal HE Macky Sall, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet and others. The event can be viewed on YouTube: The Africa Roundtable by GPI.
Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge was invited to contribute to the discussions on the topic ‚African-European Green Transition‘ by posing questions. Based on the work of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) in regard to social cohesion, she pointed out the importance of social security systems in dealing with change in society. She referred to the work of Mariya Aleksandrova and Clara Brandi, both DIE, who show that donor-financed investments in social security systems (i.e., GEF Trust Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and others) are only of limited long-term structural value in the long term, while at the same time programs of global climate financing still hold underutilized potentials.
Prof. Hornidge also pointed out the central role of science policy and science funding in shaping sustainability transformations. The technological, institutional and social innovations needed to transform production systems must be developed in a context-specific manner. Their application requires institutional capacities and societal fit, which must be ensured by means of the simultaneous expansion of science and education systems, which then in turn drive the development of these innovations themselves.
The Roundtable is a key contribution of the Global Perspectives Initiative to shaping AU-EU cooperation formats in the interest of jointly defining and advancing sustainability transformations – in Europe and in Africa.
A podcast with Dr. Christine Hackenesch and Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge provides further insights into the roundtable discussions.
