Table Of ContentSustainable Development Goals Series
Partnerships for the Goals
Maano Ramutsindela
David Mickler Editors
Africa and the
Sustainable
Development
Goals
Sustainable Development Goals Series
Series Editors
R. B. Singh, Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics,
University of Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi, India
Suraj Mal, Department of Geography, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College,
University of Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi, India
Michael E. Meadows, EGS, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch,
Western Cape, South Africa
WorldleadersadoptedSustainableDevelopmentGoals(SDGs)aspartofthe
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Providing in-depth knowledge,
this series fosters comprehensive research on these global targets to end
poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change.
Thesustainabilityofourplanetiscurrentlyamajorconcernfortheglobal
community and has been a central theme for a number of major global
initiatives in recent years. Perceiving a dire need for concrete benchmarks
toward sustainable development, the United Nations and world leaders
formulated the targets that make up the seventeen goals. The SDGs call for
action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting Earth and its
lifesupportsystems.ThisseriesontheSustainableDevelopmentGoalsaims
to provide a comprehensive platform for scientific, teaching and research
communities working on various global issues in the field of geography,
earth sciences, environmental science, social sciences, engineering, policy,
planning, and human geosciences in order to contribute knowledge towards
achieving the current 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
This Series is organized into eighteen subseries: one based around each
of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, and an eighteenth
subseries, “Connecting the Goals,” which serves as a home for volumes
addressingmultiplegoalsorstudyingtheSDGsasawhole.Eachsubseriesis
guided by an expert Subseries Advisor.
Contributions are welcome from scientists, policy makers and researchers
working in fields related to any of the SDGs. If you are interested in
contributing to the series, please contact the Publisher: Zachary Romano
[[email protected]].
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15486
Maano Ramutsindela
(cid:129)
David Mickler
Editors
Africa
and the Sustainable
Development Goals
123
Editors
MaanoRamutsindela DavidMickler
EnvironmentalandGeographicalScience Schoolof Social Sciences
University of Cape Town University of Western Australia
Cape Town,SouthAfrica Perth, WA,Australia
ISSN 2523-3084 ISSN 2523-3092 (electronic)
Sustainable Development GoalsSeries
ISBN978-3-030-14856-0 ISBN978-3-030-14857-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14857-7
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Foreword
Africa’s development aspirations are embedded in the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063—the
blueprint for the continent’s transformation covering the period 2013–2063.
These aligned Agendas offer a unique opportunity for Africa to achieve
inclusive, transformative and sustainable development. They call for all
segmentsofAfricansocietytoworktogethertobuildaprosperous,peaceful
and united Africa, the ‘Africa We Want’, where ‘no one is left behind’.
Given the comprehensive and integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda for
sustainable development, its effective implementation requires an
‘all-hands-on-deck’approach,includingtheinvolvementofawidespectrum
of stakeholders such as the Member States, the United Nations System,
African regional organisations, private sector, civil society organisations,
local governments as well as academia and think tanks.
This book, Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals, is a perfect
example of collaboration between African and non-African academics
coming together in the true spirit espoused in SDG 17, highlighting the role
of collaborative research in realising the SDGs. It brings evidence-based
research to the forefront of implementing the SDGs, covering various key
topics ranging from analysis of the best development approaches, industri-
alization, natural resources governance and public finance to health,
employment and the role of women and young people. It touches on crucial
aspects such as the need for quality data to draw policymakers’ attention to
critical areas likely to yield positive outcomes in achieving the goals of the
SDGs.
Thebook’sreleasecouldn’tbetimelierespeciallywiththeapproachofthe
first 5-year mark of implementing the SDGs. It identifies opportunities and
constraints to the implementation of the SDGs, including the nature of the
global capitalist economy, governance of natural resources and the structure
of global governance highlighting the potential limits they impose on
Africa’sdevelopment. It shouldbe highlighted that there isa high degree of
convergence between the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 since Africa
significantly contributed to the formulation of the SDGs through the Com-
mon African Position on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. African
countries themselves recognise the imperative of pursuing a coherent and
integrated approach to implementing the SDGs and the African Union’s
Agenda2063includingthroughanintegratedframeworkformonitoringand
v
vi Foreword
evaluation. Through their participation in the Africa Regional Forum on
SustainableDevelopmentandtheglobalHigh-LevelPoliticalForum(HLPF)
on Sustainable Development, they continue to review progress and chal-
lengesandidentifylessonsonbestpracticesforanintegratedimplementation
ofthetwoagendas.Thisbookmakesasignificantcontributiontothisprocess
and I hope many readers, including African policymakers, development
partners, United Nations officials, private sector actors and civil society
organisations will find its insight invaluable in informing their own policy-
making processes on the implementation of the SDGs.
I will conclude by expressing my sincere gratitude for Worldwide
University Network’s initiative to bring in African voices and for this wide
reachingcollaboration.Itismysincerehopethatthenetworkwillcontinueto
undertake further policy research work on critical areas of SDGs to help
inform on approaches that work best for the effective and successful
implementation of the goals in Africa. I particularly encourage African
academics, especially young postgraduate and early career academics to
further contribute to the advancement and achievement of the SDGs by
bringing in their African perspectives, thus ensuring practical policies that
positively influence the day-to-day lives of all Africans.
New York, USA Bience Gawanas
Under-Secretary-General and Special
Adviser on Africa to the United Nations
Secretary-General
Preface
Thisvolumeistheproductofasetof‘Global-Africa’researchandeducation
collaborations forged over several years through the Global Africa Group
(GAG) of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). As a 23-university-
memberinternationalresearchnetwork,WUNfostersresearchcollaborations
across continents focusing on four global challenges: Global higher educa-
tionandresearch,Publichealth(non-communicabledisease),Respondingto
climate change, and Understanding cultures. Since 2015, the Network has
worked to directly engage these research programmes with the United
Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The WUN Global
Africa Group, established in late 2015 and launched at the University of
Ghana in 2017, is a cross-cutting and regionally-focused mechanism that
enables the wider Network to develop ‘Global-Africa’ collaborations. These
are defined as collaborations that have relevance for Africa’s research and
development agendas, are linked to international debates and scholarship,
and involve dynamic and equal partnerships between the 3 African and 20
non-African university members of the Network in the setting of research
prioritiesandinco-designingandco-producingresearchprojects.Indeed,the
GAG’sstrategyconcentratestheGroup’sworkonfosteringAfrican‘regional
research hubs’ centred upon the Network’s three African member universi-
ties: the University of Ghana (West Africa), the University of Nairobi (East
Africa) and the University of Cape Town (Southern Africa). In turn, other
nationalandregionaluniversitiesandinstitutionsareinvitedintoprojectsand
activities through these regional hubs to enhance the Group’s inclusiveness
as well as its collective impact on science, society and policy.
Assuch,thisvolumecanbeunderstood,throughonelens,asarticulating
withSustainableDevelopmentGoal17,whichisto‘strengthenthemeansof
implementation and revitalise the global partnership for development’. In
particular,thevolumecouldbereadtocontributetotarget17.16,whichisto
‘enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented
by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilise and share knowledge,
expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement
ofthesustainabledevelopmentgoalsinallcountries,particularlydeveloping
countries’. The Group therefore recognises the inequitable nature of the
global system, including in the higher education and research sector, and
works to counter structural conditions that inhibit the production of a more
level playing field when it comes to research on sustainable development.
vii
viii Preface
Going further, the Group seeks to work at the intersection of African and
global development debates and agendas, and indeed to be a sustainable
platform for engaging in critical thinking on such questions that shape
‘Global-Africa’ discourses, debates and policies.
Themethodologyforthecollaborativeresearchprojectthatproducedthis
volume reflects the principles to which the Global Africa Group subscribes.
One of the principles relates to co-authorship. Each chapter was required to
beco-conceivedandco-authoredwithatleastoneoftheco-authorsbasedat
a university on the African continent. This was an attempt to ensure the
inclusion of Africa-based ideas, priorities and scholarship. The co-editors
also sought and promoted gender balance as well as the inclusion of post-
graduateandearlycareeracademics.Theotherprinciplewasthatatleastone
co-author for each chapter must be based at a WUN member university to
reflect the Global Africa Group’s leadership of the project.
Beyondtheseprinciplesforco-authorship,theco-editorsopenlycalledfor
contributions that addressed one or more aspects of the SDGs as they relate
toAfrica butthat also, insome way, speak to atleast one ofthe three broad
themes that are now represented in the book’s parts: (i) Africa’s Sustainable
Development: Approaches, Institutions, Agendas; (ii) Scientific Evidence
andCritical ThinkingontheSDGs inAfrica,and(iii) Africa andtheSDGs:
The Role of Collaborative Research. The result is a set of chapters that cut
across numerous SDGs and regions of Africa, with a heavier focus on
Eastern,WesternandSouthernAfrica,reflectingtheregionalhubsmodel.By
usingthisbottom-upmethodology,wehaveavolumethatarticulatesthecore
ideasandresearchprioritiesonAfrica’ssustainabledevelopmentbyAfrican
and non-African academics and practitioners working collaboratively
through our international network.
Thevolumerepresentsamajorsetofresearchcollaborations,totalling26
chaptersco-authoredby81individualcontributorsacrossfivecontinentsand
with a Foreword by Ms. Bience Gawanas, Special Adviser on Africa to the
United Nations Secretary-General and former African Union Commissioner
forSocialAffairs. Indicatingthe‘Global-Africa’natureofthevolume,these
contributors are from, respectively, WUN member universities in South
Africa (Cape Town), Kenya (Nairobi), Ghana (Ghana), the Netherlands
(Maastricht), Australia (Western Australia), the United Kingdom (Bristol,
Leeds,Sheffield,York),Norway(Bergen),HongKong(ChineseUniversity)
as well as from non-WUN-member universities in South Africa (Stellen-
bosch, KwaZulu-Natal,WesternCape,Pretoria, Fort Hare,Rhodes),Nigeria
(Taraba State, American), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Malawi (Mzuzu), Tan-
zania (Muhumbili), Mauritius (Mauritius), Australia (Queensland), the
United Kingdom (Aberdeen, Hertfordshire, King’s College London), the
United States (Columbia), Canada (Saskatchewan) and Denmark (Aarhus).
Alsoincluded arecontributors fromothertypesofinstitutions,includingthe
Association of African Universities, East African Community, Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (Ghana), Institute for Occupational
Medicine (UK), Maendeleo Group (South Africa), Ecorys International
Development Unit (Netherlands) and National Museums Kenya.
Preface ix
The book project and its themes were discussed by participants at the
workshopsoftheGlobalAfricaGroupheldattheUniversityofGhana(June
2017),theUniversityofCapeTown(December2017)andtheUniversityof
Nairobi (November 2018), as well as through a WUN public forum on
‘Africa and Sustainable Development Agendas’ held at the University of
WesternAustraliaonAfricaDay,25May2018.Withthisbook,wehopeto
draw attention to Africa’s development priorities, needs and aspirations as
African governments and the international community seek to urgently
implement the SDGs as a global agenda.
Cape Town, South Africa Maano Ramutsindela
Perth, Australia David Mickler
November 2018
