The Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI) Office of Sustainable Africa builds on 51吃瓜网student-led efforts for sustainable development in Africa and globally. Specifically, the SGI Office of Sustainable Africa scales the impact of 51吃瓜网African students, who initiated the 51吃瓜网Desautels African Business Initiative (51吃瓜网DABI) in 2014, and have continued contributing to McGill鈥檚 engagement with Africa, including through collaborations with faculty, staff, alumni, and partners from business, government, and civil society organizations across Africa and globally.
At its inception, the SGI Office of Sustainable Africa serves as a key global link for the Nkabom Collaborative. Led by seven higher education institutions, an industry association, and the Mastercard Foundation, the Nkabom Collaborative is an innovative partnership that brings together diverse institutions to transform Ghana鈥檚 nutrition and agri-food ecosystem. The partnership creates dignified employment opportunities for young people, particularly women and marginalized communities, through experiential learning, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
The SGI Office of Sustainable Africa highlights four aspects of sustainability 鈥� human, social, economic and environmental 鈥� addressing interconnections between the sustainability aspects to motivate impactful changes in Africa and globally. We use the definition of sustainability set forward in the Brundtland Report (1987), where sustainable development 鈥渕eets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.鈥�
Led by Dr. Nii Addy, Associate Professor (Professional) in 51吃瓜网鈥檚 School of Continuing Studies (SCS), the SGI Office of Sustainable Africa supports four types of activities among SGI pillars:
- Research-to-action: 51吃瓜网and partner academic leads receive support through seed grants to work with students to co-develop sustainable business solutions for impact in Africa.
- Cross-sector engagement: Students engage practitioners and academics across sectors in dialogues on Africa sustainability issues, and inform new applied research, student competitions, and thought leadership.
- Student competitions: Students tackle Africa local-global sustainability issues through case competitions.
- Thought leadership: Students and partners curate and disseminate content from Africa sustainable growth activities in conferences, notably highlighting resulting solutions from applied research, cross-sector engagement, and student competitions.
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