Workshops, webinars, and conferences on sustainability topics

A knowledge-sharing revolution is taking place across the vast and diverse African continent. Sustainability-themed workshops, webinars, and conferences have moved from a fringe concept to the forefront of African discourse, proliferating across the continent. These are not just academic exercises; they serve as catalysts for change, bringing together diverse stakeholders to address the pressing environmental, social, and economic challenges facing our continent. 

In Nairobi, each year the Africa Sustainability Summit attracts participants from across the continent and beyond. It is a leading showcase of new solutions for the challenges of sustainability in Africa, all the way from renewable energy technologies to sustainable agricultural practices. The summit derives its power not just from the presentations made therein but mainly from the connections that are established between the policymakers, the entrepreneurs, and the community leaders, so that the collaborations really outlast the event itself. 

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre in West Africa conducts regular workshops on green entrepreneurship. It is in these functional sessions that young innovators are taught ways of coming up with business models that, besides helping resolve different environmental challenges faced by the country, also reap economic benefits. From solar-powered cold storage facilities for farmers to effective, environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic packaging ideas fostered through these workshops have started changing lives in this region of the world. 

Read more: Achieving full sustainability requires collaboration and unified efforts

The webinars have democratized access to knowledge on sustainability as a result of the digital revolution. For instance, the African Circular Economy Network offers a monthly virtual platform where experts from across the continent discuss topics ranging from managing urban waste to fashion sustainably. Webinars also allow participants from Senegal to Somalia to engage in discussions in real time, thus dismantling geographical boundaries and engaging in a pan-African approach toward sustainability. 

In the Mediterranean region of North Africa, unique environmental challenges are tackled through specialized conferences. The annual Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Morocco brings together the coastal nations to discuss marine conservation and the adoption of sustainable practices in fishing and potential ocean-based renewable energy. Such discussions are quite vital in a region struggling with overfishing, coastal erosion, and the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. 

Workshops and seminars also play a crucial role in sustainability education across all universities in Africa. The African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town ran a number of regular interdisciplinary workshops bringing together both researchers and students with practitioners to work on complex sustainability challenges. These events nurture a new generation of African sustainability leaders armed with theoretical knowledge and practical competencies. 

The power of such events is, however, not so much in the formal presentations, but rather in the informal exchanges they allow. Coffee breaks at conferences become incubators for new ideas, WhatsApp groups formed during webinars evolve into ongoing knowledge-sharing networks, and workshop participants turn out to be lifelong collaborators. This organic, word-of-mouth dispersal of sustainability knowledge may perhaps be the most powerful outcome of such meetings. 

But the realization of the sustainability events holds their peculiar problems in Africa: Poor funding may seriously limit the number of participants, especially the representatives of grass-roots organizations and developing regions. Since more than 1,500 languages are part of the continent, barriers with languages might mean some participants experience a full-fledged program. The digital divide means online events-exclusionary in other ways-can exclude those without reliable access to the internet. 

Yet in Africa, creativity knows no bounds: webinars offer convenience given the high smartphone penetration rates; events in multiple languages with real-time translation services, ensure wider participation; and there is even a decentralized conference model, with several location satellite events to make sure it will help lower geographical and financial barriers to attending. 

While at the outset, the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption, if anything it has accelerated the evolution of sustainability events across the continent. The rapid shift to virtual platforms has dramatically increased participation in some cases. For instance, a webinar on renewable energy hosted by the African Development Bank attracted participants from 63 countries-far more than would have been possible at an in-person event. 

Going forward, the potential impact of such events as these with a focus on sustainability is enormous. It nurtures this pancontinental community of practice in knowledge sharing, sparking innovations, and catalyzing collaboration-from the farmer in rural Tanzania learning how to adapt to the changing climate by practicing resilient agricultural techniques to the city planner in Lagos taking home insights on how to develop more sustainable urban centers. It is through these events that Africans are being equipped with means to shape a more sustainable future. 

Thirdly, these gatherings have given new impetus to African voices in global discussions on sustainability. Through uniquely distinctive perspectives and homegrown solutions presented by participants, there is challenge to the notion that the knowledge of sustainability flows only from North to South, but rather positions Africa as a source of innovative, contextually appropriate sustainability solutions relevant far beyond its borders. 

The unfolding challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequalities increasingly put into sharp focus the role that workshops, webinars, and conferences play. They are events, but they incubate hope, are crucibles of innovation, and bridge knowledge and action. 

As the African proverb goes, “Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” Through these events on sustainability, we are cultivating a garden of knowledge across Africa, from which we are reaping seeds that will lead to a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future for our continent and the world. 

The sun rising over the African savanna stretches, it seems, endlessly into a day of long shadows, reminding us of the urgency of our task. But we also feel hopeful, for we know that in conference halls and on computer screens, in community centers from one end of this grand continent to the other, Africans are coming together, sharing knowledge, and working with unyielding determination to create a sustainable future for generations to come.