ABSTRACT
Although nodding in agreement with its content, most governments have failed to act on the Brundtland Report, which is officially known as the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987). The Brundtland report—as well as the twenty years hence Stern Review (2007)—stressed humanity’s ecological interdependence and our common stake in diminishing and ultimately reversing today’s environmental damage, but some regions, nations and demographic groups are clearly more vulnerable than others to the immediate ill effects of climate change and other environmental hazards. The poorest peoples of the world are the most vulnerable and have the greatest impetus to heed the salient advice proffered in the report: “Economics and ecology must be completely integrated in decision making and law making processes not just to protect the environment, but to protect and promote development.” 1 Over the past twenty-plus years since the report’s publication, African governments and NGOs have taken steps to break the nexus of poverty-environmental degradation. However, in light of the increased vulnerability since the report’s publication, the actions taken have obviously been woefully incommensurate with the enormity of the task. This chapter seeks to make the case for a particular multifaceted approach for addressing this nefarious nexus. Specifically, by integrating the migration- or diaspora-development model along with the poverty-environmental degradation nexus work of the African Ministerial Commission on the Environment (AMCEN) and the Environment Initiative of New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), African societies individually and collectively would benefit from their diaspora’s investments and technology transfer back to their homeland. In short, a comprehensive policy framework and specific action plan to integrate environmental initiatives and the migration-development model could help Africa alleviate poverty, elevate Africa’s economies within the global economy and contribute to an aggressively greening global economy for humanity.
