Abstract
Achieving sustainability could be perceived as a utopia for Africa. With a complex socio-political and economic context, numerous African people find it challenging to implement the Western concept of sustainability. However, highly vulnerable to climate change, it is urgent for the continent to embark on the sustainable development journey. This trip requires adapting sustainability to Africa. Historically collectivist, African culture preserves a balanced relationship between humans and nature. This balance, a sustainable practice, has now been challenged by the Western way of implementing sustainability. Respectful with their Ubuntu values, Africans care about their communities. Hence, local and international companies realise the importance of investing in people and partner with their clients to develop CSR strategies. In addition, facing corruption and dealing with weak institutions, Africa requires committed leaders to take the continent to the next level of sustainability. Governments can get inspired by many good practices described in this volume and already implemented in Africa.
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Notes
- 1.
DRC: Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo-Kinshasa).
- 2.
Ubuntu: A collection of values and practices that people of Southern Africa or of Southern African origin view as making people authentic human beings. While the nuances of these values and practices vary across different ethnic groups, they all point to one thing—an authentic individual human being is part of a larger and more significant relational, communal, societal, environmental, and spiritual world (The African Journal of Social Work).
- 3.
Half-Earth proposes to devote half the surface of the Earth to nature in order to save the biosphere (Wilson, 2016).
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Burgal, V. (2022). An African Conception of Sustainability. In: Ogunyemi, K., Atanya, O., Burgal, V. (eds) Management and Leadership for a Sustainable Africa, Volume 1. Palgrave Studies in African Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04911-8_1
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