The Challenge of Entropic Society and Sustainable Development Governance in Africa

Abstract

Africa is a continent enmeshed in serial entropy the creation of entropic institutions. Although the concrete basis of life is entropic and a finite process, the level of disorder in the continent has eroded the socio-economic and political fabric of the people. Different measures have been put in place to address biophysical problems associated with this negative entropy through institutions of sustainable development governance. However, sustainability regime faces serious challenges not just from without, but from within. The reinvention of neoliberal wheels as sustainable development instead of limiting this developmental shortfall is redefining processes, changing the how, when and what policy makers do to stem damages inflicted on the biosphere. The paper analysis the challenge of sustainable development governance framed within the general approach of political ecology linking environmental change to policies and institutions. We note that there are contradictions and challenges inherent in Africa’s quest of transiting to a post fossil fuel future. Poverty and need are major impediments to Africa’s development as lopsided policy process in an ecologically finite world is bringing the continent to its biophysical limits. For that, Africa faces multiform tension between green economy and sustainability with deleterious consequences for the green development trajectory. We sum that the major challenge Africans are now with is not just how to formulate appropriate policies but how domestic sources of fund for green development can be explored such that their weak economic foundation is not completely eroded.