The Sustainability Learning Forum

Renewed Energy for Women’s Empowerment

Ernest Harsch, Africa Renewal

Nomcebo Manzini is a busy woman. As the regional director for southern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands of the UN’s recently created Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – officially known as UN Women – she is constantly on the road from one country to another, addressing public gatherings, attending conferences, and strategizing with government officials and women activists alike. Africa Renewal’s managing editor, Ernest Harsch, was fortunate to catch Ms. Manzini at her home in Johannesburg, South Africa, in late March 2011, during a brief stopover in her travels. more[...]

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The UN Global Compact in Africa

Editorial Team

Different activities regarding the UN Global Compact are described in selected countries, like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. The main topics are renewable energy resources and biodiversity, human rights and anti-corruption. more[...]

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Good Practices

Editorial Team

There are three cases of Good Practices regarding CSR in Africa: Cotton Made in Africa, the World Cocoa Foundation and Sustainable Energy Africa. more[...]

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Africa’s Natural Assets: The Struggle for Sustainability

Fred Nelson, Maliasili Initiatives

During the past decade, African countries have experienced a widespread economic boom, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries have been African, and in eight of the past ten years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia. The rate of foreign investment has soared to almost tenfold in this period. more[...]

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Corporate Governance: The Way to Sustainable Finance

Perihan Abdel Ghaly, Arab African International Bank
Arab African International Bank

Arab African International Bank (AAIB) firmly believes that the road to impactful corporate governance entails values that achieve sustainable businesses as an end goal – AAIB seeks to maintain the balance between economic growth, profitability, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns. more[...]

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UNEP Studies Show Rising Mercury Emissions in Developing Countries

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Communities in developing countries are facing increasing health and environmental risks linked to exposure to mercury, according to new studies by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Parts of Africa, Asia and South America could see increasing emissions of mercury into the environment, due mainly to the use of the toxic element in small-scale gold mining, and through the burning of coal for electricity generation. more[...]

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Mercury: Time to Act

Editorial Team

This report speaks directly to governments involved in the development of the global treaty on mercury. It presents updates from the UNEP Global Mercury Assessment 2013 in short and punchy facts and figures backed by compelling graphics, that provide governments and civil society with the rationale and the imperative to act on this notorious pollutant. more[...]

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Dangerous tales: Dominant narratives on the Congo and their unintended consequences

Prof Séverine Autesserre, Columbia University

Life conditions in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have deteriorated significantly since the end of the transition to peace and democracy in late 2006. Each year, the people of the eastern provinces feel less secure than the year before. [1] There were more people internally displaced in 2010 than at the end of 2006. [2] Armed groups, including the Congolese army, relentlessly commit horrific violations of human rights. The Congo has dropped twenty places (from 167 to 187) in the Index of Human Development, officially becoming the least developed country on earth.[3] Overall, current conditions for the populations of the eastern Congo remain among the worst in Africa. more[...]

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The Trouble with the Congo

The Trouble with the Congo suggests a new explanation for international peacebuilding failures in civil wars. Drawing from more than 330 interviews and a year and a half of field research, it develops a case study of the international intervention during the Democratic Republic of the Congo's unsuccessful transition from war to peace and democracy (2003–2006). Grassroots rivalries over land, resources, and political power motivated widespread violence. However, a dominant peacebuilding culture shaped the intervention strategy in a way that precluded action on local conflicts, ultimately dooming the international efforts to end the deadliest conflict since World War II. Most international actors interpreted continued fighting as the consequence of national and regional tensions alone. UN staff and diplomats viewed intervention at the macro levels as their only legitimate responsibility. The dominant culture constructed local peacebuilding as such an unimportant, unfamiliar, and unmanageable task that neither shocking events nor resistance from select individuals could convince international actors to reevaluate their understanding of violence and intervention. more[...]

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African leaders urged to invest in jobs, infrastructure and protecting development gains

African Development Bank (AfDB)

n unprecedented gathering of experts in Kigali, present and former African Heads of State urged business, community and political leaders to help turn the continent’s impressive growth into economic opportunities for ordinary citizens. more[...]

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Africa’s social diversity: an asset for democracy

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

African leaders, international organizations and civil society representatives will meet in Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, for the next three days to discuss Africa’s diverse social fabric and how it can serve as an asset for democracy and development. more[...] login_required

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Social dialogue needed to prevent further violence in SA mines, says ILO

As an inquiry begins into the fatal August shooting of dozens of striking miners in South Africa, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has called for high-level social dialogue in order to prevent further violence and unrest. more[...] login_required

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Report Slams Failure to Prevent Toxic Waste Dumping in West Africa

Amnesty International

Trafigura, the multinational company behind the 2006 dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, resulting in over 100,000 people seeking medical assistance, must be criminally investigated in the UK, Amnesty International and Greenpeace Netherlands conclude in a major new report released today. more[...]

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FAO releases first status report on urban gardening in Africa

Food and Agriculture Organization

Africa's urban population is growing faster than that of any other region, but many of its cities are not keeping pace with the increasing demand for food that comes with that growth. A new FAO publication says policymakers need to act now to ensure that African cities will be "green" enough to meet their nutrition and income needs in a sustainable way. more[...] login_required

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Renewed Energy for Women’s Empowerment

The UN Global Compact in Africa

Good Practices

Africa’s Natural Assets: The Struggle for Sustainability

Corporate Governance: The Way to Sustainable Finance

UNEP Studies Show Rising Mercury Emissions in Developing Countries

Mercury: Time to Act

Dangerous tales: Dominant narratives on the Congo and their unintended consequences

The Trouble with the Congo

Top 10 Corporate Responsibility Stories of 2012

African leaders urged to invest in jobs, infrastructure and protecting development gains

Africa’s social diversity: an asset for democracy

Social dialogue needed to prevent further violence in SA mines, says ILO

Report Slams Failure to Prevent Toxic Waste Dumping in West Africa

FAO releases first status report on urban gardening in Africa