Development of eco‐industrial parks in Ethiopia: The case of Hawassa Industrial Park

Abstract

As win‐win solutions at the park level, eco‐industrial parks (EIPs) have become the mainstream model to realize a sustainable transition of industrial parks in the world. However, few cases have been implemented in Africa, even though Africa is fertile ground for the growth of industrial parks. This study explores the transition process and outcome of a typical African industrial park—Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) in Ethiopia. We adopted the international framework for EIPs and applied the strategic niche management (SNM) framework to uncover the transition performance and process. This study shows that HIP's development is a clear articulation of implementing the sustainable development strategy and the industrial park development corporation's role. However, the analysis also identified limitations such as the impracticability of certain framework criteria and inapplicable indicators. Although HIP is still at the nascent stages of EIP implementation, we have found three critical factors for EIP development in Ethiopia from our preliminary observation. These include the importance of actors, the learning process, and having standards for an indicator system. These indicators are of exceptional value to Ethiopian researchers and practitioners in integrating sustainability into local economic development.

Institutional support for the development of eco-industrial parks in the conditions of the circular economy formation taking into account world experience

“…The practical significance of the research results (Chin et al, 2021) is a proposal for the creation of an eco-industrial park on an industrial site, which will be aimed at solving the problem of reducing the consumption of fresh water or pollutants. The paper (Negesa et al, 2022) is based on a study of the transition process and results of a typical African industrial park, the Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) in Ethiopia. The authors took into account the international framework for eco-industrial parks and applied the framework of strategic management of the niche in order to reveal the efficiency and the transition process.…”