Multi-level funding approach to ecological e-commerce strategies in Africa

Together with our partner CEFE International, we worked on a plan with recommendations to GIZ Germany and stakeholders in Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya to develop a multi-level funding approach towards green e-commerce on macro, meso and micro level. For each country, issues and barriers to e-commerce were identified and solutions were formulated, whilst integrating green practices to each of the ecommerce value chain steps.

The recommendations are based on an analytical framework, desk & primary research, including coordination with EU-based and local experts to gather existing studies in their countries. Next to the research, CEFE also conducted two events in Ghana and Rwanda to validate the research findings with local stakeholders. The overall aim is to be able to control the growing e-commerce sector nationwide in such a way that environmental aspects are taken into account right from the start and the consumption of resources and CO² production are kept as low as possible.

Activities

For this project, we:

• Developed a model to analyse and provide recommendations to improve the e-commerce framework in Ghana, Rwanda, and Kenya
• Managed the project, including kick-off and weekly meetings with the expert team and coordination meetings with CEFE
• Conducted desk research, making use of existing e-commerce research papers of e.g. ITC, OECD and UNCTAD
• Hosted a concept discussion in Bonn
• Co-created a concept paper

Results

Both GIZ and local stakeholders confirmed that the model is practical, valuable, and useful. GIZ aims to fund bilateral/regional development cooperation measures now the project has been completed.