A pan-African research institute, the West Africa Green Economic Development Institute (WAGEDI), Gregory University Uturu (GUU), Abia State in Nigeria, appears to be on the verge making history by producing frontier knowledge in green and blue economies paradigm.
It was founded by the trio of Prof. Magnus Onuoha, Dr Emeka Okengwu and Chancellor/ Founder GUU Prof Greg Ibe.
The research team, comprising renowned scientists and researchers across Africa and beyond, is led by Onuoha, an Associate Professor of Economics. According to Prof. Onuoha, it is set to launch a Framework for the Development of Green and Blue Economies Implementation Indices and Monitoring/Tracking Tools.
Operating an online research platform, the WAGEDI-GUU has identified five circles that ensure enduring and sustainable research outcomes.
The research team also observed that green and blue economies paradigm is an interdisciplinary and cross cutting subject matter.
Therefore, for sustainability of the nascent ideas into a coherent and enduring body of knowledge, the WAGEDI-GUU developed six Building Blocks (or thematic areas) of green and blue economies. They are listed to include Ecological and Economic Issues (EEI); Intellectual and Reality Issues (IRI); Governance and Institutional Issues (GII); Morality and Poverty Issues (MPI); Finance and Business Issues (FBI); and Blue Economy Issues (BEI).
These Building Blocks are to guide and assist in the production of frontier knowledge, networking, scientific validation and quality assurance, said Onuoha.
Already, each member of the WAGEDI-GUU research team has identified and signed up to a minimum of two Building Blocks. Robust discussions are on-going among members guided by the various research questions generated for the Building Blocks, and also taking into consideration the Mitigation, Adaptation, Finance, Technology and Research/Industry Partnership of the subject matter.
The WAGEDI-GUU 13-man Technical Work Group (TWG) set up to harness and flesh out details of these discussions for an enduring framework has Prof Emmanuel Oladipo from Nigeria as the Team Leader, Prof Mahmoud Sakr from Egypt as the Deputy Team Leader, while Dr Michael Makokha Odera from Kenya is the Secretary.
The launch of the Framework is expected to take place during the WAGEDI-GUU two-day Inaugural Retreat and International Summit tentatively scheduled to hold from March 27 to 28, 2020 at Gregory University.
