Environmental policies in Africa

In recent decades, technological proliferation, production and consumption have unfolded in myriad forms. The consequences have relatively caused a strain on the policy capacity of state institutions globally. Indeed, with globalisation, the art of state regulation has tran-scended the traditional boundaries besides redefning the state’s role to include diferent other jurisdictions of the regulatory state. Despite similarly leading to loose state regulation, regulatory governance or these new regulation spaces can allow the state to bring onboard new resources, data and expertise for an improved and democratic environment policy pro-cesses. Still, this is more likely under intelligent governance or policymaking (e.g., Sander-son 2009). This means that practical implementation of regulatory policies provides a critical link between the state and the society. However, with the exponential surge of technological innovations and consumption of the 21st century, the state’s regulatory claws are relatively weakened, especially when facing wicked environmental challenges. The increased uncer-tainties and complexities that result from this rapid and complex technological civilisation or consumption presents an uncharted policy environment for the state and its institutions. Thus, the government should frequently revise its laws and administrative structures to counter the rapidly changing environment and citizen preferences.

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Published in: Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
See chapter on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003143840-64