Continental Action Plan for Circular Economy in Africa (2024-2034) 

The Continental Circular Economy Action Plan for Africa (2024-2034) was developed by Africa Circular and Trinomics B.V. as Circular Economy consultants with funding from the European Delegation (EUD) to the African Union (AU). 

The preparation of this strategic framework was a dedicated, multi-stakeholder process. Key mandates for its development came from the visionary decisions of the Third Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE) in October 2019, and the Seventeenth Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN-17) in November 2019. These mandates called for a holistic shift towards embracing a circular economy beyond just waste management. 

The development process involved: 

• Expert working group on Circular Economy: established in 2020, this group played an instrumental role in shaping the roadmap through tireless efforts. It served as the core technical and advisory body, guiding the process through multiple critical meetings and consultations. 

• Stakeholder engagement: the report benefited from invaluable contributions from more than 30 AU Member States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and development partners, including the European Union Delegation to the African Union. Extensive stakeholder consultations and a validation workshop, involving Member States and RECs, were conducted to ensure broad buy-in and ownership across the continent. Intermediate versions of the action plan were shared with key partners and national/regional government representatives for feedback and validation, through workshops or email. 

• Information gathering (methodology): the plan was developed through a comprehensive approach that merged bottom-up information with high-level regional and continental knowledge. This was based on data and information collected at country and regional levels through:  

• National experts: working with them to source local knowledge, understanding, and experiences, particularly regarding common practices in economic sectors and waste management. 

• Desk research: to complement data and information gaps and explore existing regional and continental initiatives that could be built upon. 

• International sources: data collection from sources like the World Bank to extract comparable and reliable data, supporting national snapshots. 

This information and data were then aggregated at the regional level and then continental level to inform the goals and actions for the priority sectors; horizontal sectors, (1) water, (2) waste and (3) energy, and vertical sectors, (4) agri-food and fisheries, (5) transport and mobility, (6) tourism (7) industry , including a) construction, b) packaging and plastics, c) electronics and d) textiles, and e) mining.  

The Action Plan was launched at the AMCEN  20th Ordinary Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment.  

Read the full report; English version and French version here!