Countries are going green in their quest to generate clean energy and Sub-Saharan Africa must not be
left behind, they are joining an increasing global frenzy to combat climate change by employing
environmental-friendly practices that promising millions of new jobs.
The "green" jobs would be created in coming years as a result of the impact of the emerging
renewable energy economy.
To enhance supply of environmentally friendly and affordable energy to the economy, investment focus will be on the development of renewable energy sources such as geothermal, wind, bio-fuel, biomass and the use of solid waste.
According to a United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report titled Green Jobs: Towards Decent work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon Word, changing patterns of employment and investment due to efforts made to reduce climate change and its effects are already generating new jobs across various sectors of Sub-Saharan economies.
To address deterioration in the forest cover and quality of the urban environment, the governments of Sub-Saharan Africa are initiating education programme for schools.
Children at all levels need to be prepared so that they too may have sufficient information, knowledge and appropriate attitudes towards the environment and other emerging issues especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where erosion and desertification is claiming most for agriculture land.
From this observation, Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) has included Environmental, Water Conservation/Management, School Heath and Peace Education as learning subjects in the current curriculum as emerging subjects to be taught in schools. This will be in addition to earlier subjects (HIV/Aids, Life Skills, Counselling and Guidance) included in the curriculum.
Unfortunately, no organization in the region has undertaken the challenges; to integrate the mentioned subjects into reference books for learners in different levels of education and for communities out of school. As an intervention to these challenges, Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA) in partnership with recognized organizations in environmental matters in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as the Green Belt Movement (lead by the Noble Peace Price winner Prof. Wangari Mathaii), the Kenya Institute of education and others has developed relevant Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials and programmes for schools.
By integrating all the mentioned topics into a single book title for given levels of education, ESSA creates convenience for the users in terms of easy reference and time saving. It also creates sense of cost conscious in time of mass production and the distribution.