Africalix Exclusive Interview
Dr. Leonard Chirenje, Assistant Professor of Sustainability Sciences, Zayed University
As Africa stands at the intersection of unprecedented youth demographics, vast natural resources, and urgent climate imperatives, the question of how the continent will navigate its sustainable development trajectory has never been more critical.
Dr. Leonard Chirenje, an Assistant Professor of Sustainability Sciences at Zayed University with a Ph.D. in Sustainability Science from the United Nations University in Japan, brings a unique perspective shaped by years of research on the water-energy-food nexus, sustainable livelihoods, and climate change adaptation in African contexts.
In this exclusive interview with Africalix, Dr. Chirenje discusses the transformative potential of responsible management education, the urgent need to decolonize African curricula, and how the continent can leverage its resources and youth to leapfrog outdated development models while avoiding the pitfalls of extractive partnerships.
From Technical Solutions to Systemic Transformation
Dr. Chirenje’s research focuses on the water-energy-food nexus, sustainable livelihoods in developing countries, climate change adaptation, and the circular economy, with particular emphasis on rural communities in Africa and development-oriented policy solutions. His academic journey has been shaped not by pursuing sustainability as a career path but by a deep passion that led him to the field.
“My academic journey revealed that Africa’s sustainable development challenges, such as those I witnessed in Zimbabwe regarding resource governance, gender inequality, and limited stakeholder participation, cannot be solved by technical solutions alone but require strong policy frameworks, inclusive governance structures, and community-centered management approaches,” he explains.
This understanding has driven his research to bridge academic insights with practical policy interventions that empower marginalized voices and create meaningful change at the community level, recognizing that sustainability challenges are fundamentally about power, participation, and governance rather than merely technical capacity.
Mindset Transformation as Africa’s Critical Resource
At the PRME Middle East Forum focused on responsible management education, Dr. Chirenje identified what he considers Africa’s most vital resource for achieving sustainability: a transformative shift in mindset.
“While financial support is undoubtedly important, communities can effectively leverage indigenous knowledge to manage their natural resources sustainably,” he notes.
“It is essential that educational initiatives promote a deep understanding of sustainability, enabling stakeholders to move beyond merely minimizing environmental harm and toward actively enhancing the planet’s well-being.”
A session on sustainability and immersive learning revealed a critical gap between Africa’s traditional, lecture-based educational approaches and the hands-on, transdisciplinary methods needed to address real-world sustainability challenges.
This inspired Dr. Chirenje to identify concrete opportunities for African universities to become catalysts for change by establishing living laboratories, innovation hubs, and reformed curricula that integrate systems thinking and participatory methods.
The goal is to produce graduates equipped not only with theoretical knowledge but with collaborative skills to drive policy reforms, governance improvements, and community-level interventions that Africa urgently needs, including addressing gender inequalities and stakeholder participation gaps.
The Impactful Five Framework for Regional Collaboration
Looking toward future collaboration between the PRME community in the Middle East and Africa, Dr. Chirenje envisions structuring cooperation around the Impactful Five (i5) Framework, developed by PRME, The LEGO Foundation, and Project Zero, which emphasizes Meaningful, Iterative, Joyful, Actively Engaging, and Social learning.
“This approach should guide joint curriculum development that connects sustainability to students’ real-world contexts.
It involves iterative research partnerships addressing shared challenges, such as the water-energy-food nexus, joyful innovation hubs fostering creative solutions, actively engaging faculty-student exchanges involving hands-on community work, and social learning networks that bring together universities, policymakers, and practitioners,” he explains.
By embedding these five characteristics in South-South collaboration, universities can cultivate responsible leaders equipped not just with knowledge but also with the passion, skills, and networks needed to drive genuine systems change and accelerate SDG progress across both regions.
Decolonizing African Higher Education
Dr. Chirenje identifies African universities as uniquely positioned to advance sustainability by producing contextually grounded knowledge rooted in local realities and traditional practices, rather than importing one-size-fits-all solutions.
These institutions bridge communities, researchers, and policymakers while addressing resource governance gaps and gender inequalities.
However, transformation requires fundamental changes to how African universities operate.
“To truly transform African universities, it is essential to decolonize our education systems by prioritizing African knowledge, contexts, and voices instead of relying solely on Western-centric frameworks,” Dr. Chirenje argues.
“This transformative approach calls for a shift in mindset from merely pursuing education for employment to embracing problem-solving learning that addresses the pressing challenges faced by our communities.”
Curricula must integrate transdisciplinary education that dismantles disciplinary boundaries and align with the i5 Framework to foster learning that is Meaningful, Iterative, Joyful, Actively Engaging, and Social.
This will empower students to become innovative changemakers rather than passive job seekers.
Research agendas should emphasize bioregionalism and localized education, respecting the unique ecological and cultural contexts of different regions. Gender equality needs to be intentionally highlighted, ensuring that women’s voices are central in research and governance.
Community engagement must evolve from extractive practices to authentic co-creation partnerships that honor local expertise.
AfCFTA and ESG Frameworks: Promise and Pitfalls
Dr. Chirenje sees the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as offering transformative potential to reshape Africa’s development by creating a 1.2-billion-person market with integrated sustainability standards, gender equality commitments, and ESG-aligned investment protocols.
“However, success depends on effective implementation through robust capacity building across member states, deliberately mainstreaming sustainability criteria, supporting women and youth entrepreneurs, and establishing regional circular economy value chains,” he cautions.
“Without these critical actions, the AfCFTA risks becoming merely a beautiful document gathering dust in AU archives rather than the catalyst for an alternative development pathway.”
Similarly, the African Union’s emerging ESG frameworks, including Eco-Mark Africa and its alignment with Agenda 2063, hold transformative potential to drive responsible investment and sustainable industrialization.
These homegrown standards can address context-specific governance challenges, gender inequalities, and gaps in stakeholder participation while positioning African companies to access global capital markets.
Yet success requires urgent action on capacity building through universities, robust enforcement mechanisms, investment in digital infrastructure, harmonization of standards through AfCFTA, and meaningful community participation. Without these, frameworks risk becoming aspirational documents rather than transformative tools.
Youth as Africa’s Most Powerful Catalyst
Dr. Chirenje positions African youth as the most powerful catalyst for sustainability and innovation across the continent. The demographics tell a compelling story: 70% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is under 30, over 60% is under 25, and by 2030, young Africans will comprise 42% of the global youth population.
“They drive transformation through entrepreneurship, activism, and digital innovation both inside universities via living laboratories and outside through context-appropriate solutions,” he notes.
“However, realizing this potential requires access to finance, mentorship, policy inclusion, education reform, and addressing the employment gap, where 10-12 million youth enter job markets annually but only three million jobs are created.”
This employment gap represents not merely an economic challenge but a fundamental threat to social stability and a massive waste of human potential that Africa cannot afford.
Navigating the Green Resource Curse
Africa holds 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves essential for the green energy transition.
However, Dr. Chirenje warns that, despite the global battery market reaching $8.8 trillion by 2025, Africa’s share remains only $55 billion, with most focused on raw ore extraction.
“African leaders will increasingly rely on natural resources, but success requires moving beyond commodity exports toward value addition, regional cooperation through AfCFTA, governance reforms addressing revenue leakage, strategic partnerships leveraging geopolitical competition, and sustainability integration,” he argues.
“Without these transformations, Africa risks a green resource curse perpetuating dependency despite resource wealth.”
In recent years, African nations have negotiated more than $115 million in investment deals through partnerships such as the Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, and Zambia initiative, generating nearly 3,000 jobs.
Examples such as South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership demonstrate how strategic partnerships can lead to job creation in renewable energy.
However, successful partnerships must emphasize mutual benefits, local capacity building, and enforce conditions for value addition in agreements.
Regional cooperation through AfCFTA can enhance bargaining power, while diversified partnerships prevent dependency.
Ultimately, African nations should pursue partnerships that foster local job creation, promote sustainability, and enable independent governance.
Three Levers for Accelerating Progress to 2030
Looking toward 2030, Dr. Chirenje identifies three critical levers that could significantly accelerate climate action and SDG implementation in Africa.
First, investment in renewable energy, harnessing Africa’s potential for over 10 terawatts of solar power to achieve SDG 7 on clean energy.
Second, strengthening regional cooperation through frameworks such as the AfCFTA to pool resources and scale initiatives.
Third, capacity building and education to empower local communities with skills for sustainable innovation, advancing SDG 4 on quality education.
These three levers address the core barriers of financing, fragmentation, and local agency, and, if implemented with adequate resources and political will, could unlock the continent’s vast potential for green growth.
A Message to Africa’s Sustainability Leaders
To students, young researchers, and practitioners working on sustainability, climate change, and development, Dr. Chirenje offers a message of empowerment grounded in Africa’s unique positioning.
“Your perspective is not just valuable, it is essential.
You are not inheriting a problem to solve, but are in the position of a uniquely African opportunity to redefine development,” he emphasizes.
“The continent’s vast youth, natural capital, and untapped renewable resources position it to leapfrog outdated systems and build a resilient, green, and inclusive economy from the ground up.”
He urges young professionals to move beyond simply importing solutions, to ground their work in a deep local context, to integrate indigenous knowledge with cutting-edge science, and to champion justice by ensuring communities lead their own transitions.
“Your role is to build bridges: between traditional and modern, between local action and global systems, and between climate resilience and economic prosperity.
The world has much to learn from the solutions you will create. Stay critical, collaborative, and unwavering in your conviction that a sustainable Africa is a global powerhouse.”
As Africa navigates the complex terrain of sustainable development amid resource abundance, youth demographics, and climate imperatives, Dr. Chirenje’s work demonstrates the essential role of transformed education systems, decolonized knowledge production, and policy frameworks that center African agency.
His emphasis on systemic change over technical fixes, on mindset transformation alongside institutional reform, and on genuine partnerships rather than extractive relationships offers a roadmap for African universities, policymakers, and youth leaders seeking to accelerate progress toward the SDGs while building development pathways rooted in African realities, values, and aspirations.
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Dr. Leonard Chirenje is an Assistant Professor of Sustainability Sciences at Zayed University with a Ph.D. in Sustainability Science from the United Nations University in Japan. - His research focuses on the water-energy-food nexus, sustainable livelihoods in developing countries, climate change adaptation, and the circular economy, with particular emphasis on rural communities in Africa and development-oriented policy solutions. His work bridges academic insights with practical policy interventions that empower marginalized voices and create meaningful change at the community level.
