Mauritius

In 2020, the government of Mauritius launched its new national programme for 2020-2024: “Toward an Inclusive, High Income and Green Mauritius, Forging Ahead Together”. The programme lays out the government’s vision for the next four years and will be a source of guidance for future policymaking.  The programme contains aspirations that align with  thematic areas PAGE has supported in the country, such as education and skills, industrial waste, tracking public expenditures on environmental and climate change measures,  and poverty and inclusiveness.

In support of national COVID-19 recovery priorities, PAGE first analyzed potential areas for an inclusive green recovery using two analytical tools adopted by PAGE agencies.  Through the national green jobs macroeconomic model, the ILO Green Jobs Programme conducted a rapid assessment of the national budget. Among the findings were potential gains from green policies on jobs, carbon dioxide emissions and distributional effects (referencing gender and income brackets) in organic agriculture production, textile manufacturing and tourism.  

In parallel, UNEP’s Life Cycle Initiative conducted a rapid assessment of the same budget using 2015 data from the Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspot Analysis Tool (SCP-HAT), which was developed to assess national SCP environmental footprints.  The tool illustrated the relative footprints of the key sectors identified in the budget.

Based on the findings from these tools, the agriculture sector, or more systematically the food sector, was identified to deliver on a wide range of inclusive green economy fronts: inclusiveness, jobs, SCP and biodiversity. Consequently, from 2021 PAGE proposed that green recovery funds support this sector, as mentioned above. 

In 2020, a study was conducted on SME access to green finance, informed by consultations and surveys with a variety of national stakeholders, including the Mauritius Bankers’ Association, Business Mauritius, the Development Bank of Mauritius and the Mauritius Commercial Bank. The draft was finalized at the close of 2020 (to be presented in early 2021). The study will aid the implementation of the country’s SME 10-Year Master Plan, launched in 2017. 

In 2020, updates were made to the Green Jobs Assessment model by incorporating impacts on employment stemming from the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). PAGE has worked with a modeler at the University of Mauritius to build capacity for national modelling moving forward. Preliminary results were presented in a webinar on macro-economic implications of COVID-19 on Mauritius, hosted by the UN Resident Coordinator Office and partners, including International Economics Consulting and the World Bank, on 29 October. Building on the updated assessment model, PAGE is completing a study on anticipated skills needs and developing a national Skills for Green Jobs Roadmap.

In 2020, PAGE supported the integration of green economy learning into CSCM’s (the Civil Service College Mauritius) programmes available to civil servants and the broader population. This consisted of three main objectives 1) mainstreaming IGE and SDG aspects into existing courses; 2) broadening the offer of green economy e-learning products by integrating PAGE global training products; and 3) enhancing the knowledge and capacity of high school teachers on integrating green economy learning in the classroom.  

Two capacity-building workshops were held by CSCM in February 2020, one a training of trainers focused on mainstreaming IGE principles into recurrent courses on strategic planning and project management, and another to train secondary school teachers. The training for civil servants using the IGE integrated courses began in March 2020. 

To further raise awareness among secondary school teachers, a full-day workshop on “Integrating Climate Change and Green Economy in the Classroom” was held in October 2020. The event brought together teachers, NGOs and education authorities to consolidate available techniques, approaches and learning materials for integrating climate change and Inclusive Green Economy in the classroom, capture best practice examples and formulate low-cost solutions that can be widely applied to support foundational learning for children. 

In November 2019, PAGE supported a Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) pilot training aimed at optimizing the efficiency, productivity, cleaner production and competitiveness of SMEs through improved workplace cooperation. Building on this, SCORE trainers and representatives of the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) completed follow-up visits to the sample enterprises to provide mentorship and observe how the training principles had been applied. The SCORE training of trainers was completed in 2020 and Mauritius now has 9 SCORE trainers that have completed a full cycle of training.  

PAGE has been working with national counterparts to establish a national sustainability plan, to identify results and maintain achievements on green economy in Mauritius.  The draft Sustainability Plan, developed with engagement from the EC Delegation and UN Resident Coordinator, was approved by The Financial Secretary approved the draft Sustainability Plan in September 2020. To encourage further political will for green economy, an impact video to promote IGE and PAGE’s successes in Mauritius was also released in May 2020.