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This article is sponsored by Africa Sustainability Summit
First, there is the challenge
New challenges are as much characteristic of the world as air is indispensable to the human ecosystem. So far as the very human acts of existing, co-existing, and thriving are undertaken, new challenges will inevitably spring forth, demanding timely and effective rectifications – if we desire the human acts of existing and thriving to continue, that is.
And the world, in seeking solutions for these challenges, more often than not finds itself better off – better off for the ingenuity displayed in search of these solutions. Challenges really do make the world go round – this sounds like a cliché because it is true. And it is no different for this 21st century of ours – an age of immense technological and industrial advancements, a highly-globalised age in which challenges and opportunities are imbued with wings, an era where sovereign nations exist interdependently – having one another’s progresses and retrogressions affecting one another directly. And in the midst of this interconnectivity, there is this global issue at hand: human advancements have come at a cost to the globe.
The Industrial Revolution, beginning as far back as the 18th century, and technological innovations that have sprung therefrom, have caused enormous human advancements, culminating in increases in the quality of life for peoples worldwide. Each aspect of human existence has been made better by these advancements – from movement, to feeding, to healthcare, all the way to waste management. Each of these aspects of human life have been positively touched by our strides in industrial and technological advancements. But there is a catch – there is a conundrum ensuing. These very ingredients responsible for spawning these positives have been the very ingredients that have helped spur certain negatives – negatives so far spread, cutting across the environment, our societies, and economies, and being so globally dire in their implications that immediate rectifications are not only recommended; they are expedient.
A whole new world
In pursuit of our economic and societal goals, we humans around the globe have, to our dismay, caused deteriorations to the environment, our societies, and economies even. Suspecting correctly that things risk further deterioration, we, humans spread worldwide, have taken oaths in varying forms, to recoup, rethink, and safeguard the world around us. And these oaths are embodied in this very unassuming word: sustainability.
The World Commission on Environment and Development’s 1987 Brundtland report Our Common Future defined sustainability as it relates to development best when it described it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
This same desire for preservation is felt throughout the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063, specifically its Aspiration 1 in which the continent promises for itself, by the year 2063, “a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”.
The Africa Sustainability Summit: a lesson in expediency
For this journey towards “safeguarding” to be effective, it must be thorough, thought through, and intentionally pursued. And it is towards this end that a conference such as this, the Africa Sustainability Summit, becomes for the continent of Africa a move not only well-placed, but well-paced too.
Spearheaded by Founder, Executive Director and International Media Executive Jonathan Bossaer, and his Founding Partner, Dr. Samuel Ankrah, CEO of the Africa Investment Group, in partnership with the Ministry of Information of Ghana, and organised by Ghana’s leading event organiser, Charterhouse Productions, this distinctive and prestigious corporate gathering will bring together experts and leaders in business, industry, societies, and the government, from Ghana, the rest of the African continent, and the world, to discuss challenges, to proffer solutions, and to offer investment ideas and opportunities to help drive the continent’s economic, environmental, and sociological sustainability agenda.
Topics will span twelve vital sectors of the continent’s economy – from manufacturing to Agriculture and Agro-industries, from Information Technology to Energy, Oil and Gas, Mining, Finance, Education, Construction, Transport, Tourism, Plastics, Recycling and Waste Management, and the Circular Economy.
There is an exciting world fast emerging. A world having the African right there at the inception, partaking in real time in the development of a global development imperative. There is a new global dialogue quickly emerging – one having the enormous potential of spurring such expansive developments like never before witnessed in our world; a development that affects all the vital organs of nations worldwide – the economic, societal, and environmental organs prerequisite for the sustenance of nations and the world at large. And this conversation regards sustainability.
This fast-emerging global imperative and market called “sustainability” has such enormous potential of lending to the realisation of the African dream of exponential growth – one that does not result in the deterioration of the human ecosystem.
The Summit is intended to serve as Africa’s move to secure for itself its own sustainability dialogue and narrative – one which caters to the peculiar needs of this great continent. Being burdened, in equal parts, with the duty of ensuring economic growth, societal advancement, and environmental sustainability, this continent of Africa is in dire need of solutions that cover this wide expanse of developmental imperatives – not ones which see to the furtherance of one imperative to the disadvantage of the other.
And it is in that sense that the conversation surrounding sustainability becomes all the more potent. Because, in this global pursuit for sustainable development, the world has stumbled upon a very revealing truth, and it is this: sustainability is not a battle of the environment against the economy. It is not a bitter ingredient intended to cause deterioration to our economic states of affairs. Rather, it is a sweet element, a unifying factor capable of birthing a virtuous cycle of environmental, societal, and economic sustenance and development.
“And for an emerging market like Africa, a realisation such as this at its very incipient age is indeed valuable. The continent has a rare opportunity of having the developed world serving as beta-tests of a sort, testing out the human journey and repercussions spawned, sieving out good developmental strategies from the bad, and figuring out how to avert the bad altogether. The continent is at a strategic point where it can prevent these environmental, sociological, and economic problems before they can take root,” according to Mr. Jonathan Bossaer.
“To reach this very pan-African end of sustainable growth, all sectors, segments, and categories within various nations must be given the opportunity and wherewithal to play an active part in this journey. All persons – natural or artificial – women, men, the youth, governments, institutions, private businesses, academia, traditional and cultural leaders, etc, must be empowered to participate in real time, in driving this sustainability agenda”, Dr. Samuel Ankrah, one of the continent’s premier investment bankers, development economists and Co-founder of this important Summit, notes.
And in Accra, Ghana in April 2023, these individuals and entities will converge to brainstorm over the continent’s future and undertake oaths and steps that will see to the attainment of true and long-lasting positive impacts for this great continent.
In this highly engaging, enormously impactful, and change-oriented Summit, we will, among many others, find answers to these potent questions:
• What does sustainability mean for Africa?
• What can Africa do for sustainability?
• What will sustainability do for Africa?
For more information on the Africa Sustainability Summit, please visit https://africasustainabilitysummit.com/
