GREEN JOBS: WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT

October has been a packed month with many colors. From Pink (breast cancer awareness month) to Green (World Mental Health Day to International Food Day). it has been all about healthy living and sustainable development.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at the Agrofusion Summit which was organized by Mastercard Foundation in collaboration with SpringboardRoadShow to celebrate the role of agriculture in national development.?

As a Human Resource Practitioner, writer, and social advocate, occasions like these are significant for me because I have the opportunity to serve a well-blended meal of passion for sustainable development, highlighting the unique role of various stakeholders.

With my message which I titled “FOOD FOR THOUGHT”, I continue to be inspired each day by some of the key nuggets from the session which I’d like to share with you in a few paragraphs.?

First, agriculture should not be a topic on our lips because we visit a marketplace. Agriculture should be the burden of every citizen who understands what makes them who they are. Before its demographic composition, a nation is first a geographical location, a piece of land. Agrofusion is a wake-up call for climate action, clean environment, good food, and business revolution because reducing hunger and alleviating poverty work together.

Secondly, everyone is a player in the field of climate change because, through our daily lives (as employees, employers, in general simply by our mere existence on earth), we are either destroying or building our nation by how we treat our environment.

Last year, I delivered the opening poetry for the The World Bank Group Environment, Natural Resources, and the Blue Economy (EBN) division retreat streaming Washington DC, and being part of the Sigma summit in Portugal in November, I have had the first-hand experience of hearing the heartbeat of sustainability issues from multiple perspectives from policy advisors to entrepreneurs.

At Sigma Squared Society Summit 2023 hosted at Nova School of Business and Economics in Cascais, it was exciting to see how entrepreneurs can facilitate the green economy which is fast becoming expedient to address the long-standing problems of climate change.

I firmly believe that green jobs do not exist in isolation, every job under the face of the earth must eventually apply green skills to build a green (environmentally friendly) economy. Our land is the source of our food. If the output of our land is not maximally used for optimal production, we lose. If our land is taken away by destruction, what shall the righteous do? No matter how we love it at heart, we will have no place on the map. If you are not green, you might be dead because, outside our environment, we have no place to survive.

According to the World Economic Forum, jobs needing green skills are growing at double the rate of the workers equipped for them. In the next five years, 23% of global jobs will change due to industry transformation, including through artificial intelligence with more than 600 million people worldwide set to be reached by the World Economic Forum’s Reskilling Revolution programme.

Lastly, I believe that for far too long we have been colour blind. We have called our land blue and black hard and black and yellow broke. The real colour of every land that has been irrigated with ideas, nurtured with love, and plowed with radical innovation, is green.

This is me saying, it’s time to fully embrace the GREEN ECONOMY - an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, for sustainable development without degrading the environment. It’s not in the hands of farmers, agribusiness entrepreneurs, or policymakers. It’s in your hands - find the “green responsibilities of your job”. Hone your green skills.

To this, I say cheers to what young people like Abdallah Salia of Farmitecture who is to changing this narrative by bringing creatives and storytellers into the picture.

#GoGreen #YestoAgriculture #YestoGoodFood #YestoSustainableDevelopment #greenhr #greenjobs #greeneconomy #africaingoodhealth #greenskills #Areyougreen?