Sustainable Growth in Africa: Leveraging ESG Standards and Tech for Market Readiness
Sustainable Growth in Africa: Leveraging ESG Standards and Tech for Market Readiness
Panelists at the ABF2025 17 February 2025 ©United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
The Africa Business Forum 2025 (ABF), held on 17 February in Addis Ababa and organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), brought together thought leaders and stakeholders to explore pathways for transforming Africa’s regional value chains. A key focus was the roundtable discussion titled Achieving Sustainability and Standards Compliance: Unlocking African Value Chains for Local and Global Markets. Dr Hervé Lado, Africa Head, United Nations Global Compact, joined a distinguished panel including Dr. Debo Akande of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA); Ms. Serah Makka of the ONE Campaign in Africa; Amb. Albert Mudenda Muchanga of the African Union Commission (AUC); Dr. Hermogène Nsengimana of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO); and Dr. Sylvia Vito of Eva Pharma. Together, they emphasised the critical role of technology in advancing sustainability, driving efficiency, and enhancing global market readiness across key sectors such as leather, minerals, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture.
Dr. Lado highlighted the transformative potential of the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact
and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
in empowering African businesses, particularly SMEs, to thrive in emerging markets. He underscored how these principles—spanning human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption—provide a robust framework for aligning with universal sustainability standards. Through adoption of these principles, African SMEs can build trust, ensure compliance, and enhance their competitiveness in global markets while contributing to sustainable development. This alignment strengthens market readiness and positions SMEs as key players in driving efficiency and innovation across critical sectors.
For African SMEs, adopting these principles is a strategic advantage. Embedding sustainability into core operations improves reputation, attracts ethical investors, and opens access to international markets. The Ten Principles also serve as a foundation for achieving the SDGs, creating synergy between corporate responsibility and global development objectives.
A major challenge for African businesses is aligning with international Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards, traceability, and quality requirements, which are critical for accessing global markets and securing financing. The UN Global Compact’s framework offers a roadmap for African SMEs to meet these demands while fostering innovation and resilience. For instance, adherence to ESG principles can unlock green financing and ethical supply chains, while traceability standards ensure transparency and accountability. These standards can emphasized position businesses as reliable partners in global value chains, from agriculture and mining to pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.
Technological innovations such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and green technologies are transforming African business operations. Blockchain enhances supply chain transparency, AI streamlines quality control, and green technologies drive sustainable production. These advancements enable African SMEs to compete globally, meet compliance requirements, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and contribute to sustainable development.
As engines of innovation and job creation, African SMEs are central to the continent’s economic transformation and the achievement of the SDGs. With the alignment of the Ten Principles, SMEs can advance goals such as poverty reduction, gender equality, climate action, and sustainable industrialization. Their emergence in global markets presents a unique opportunity to drive inclusive growth. Through the right support, these businesses can scale operations, adopt sustainable practices, and access global markets, creating a ripple effect that benefits entire communities.
The Africa Business Forum 2025 underscored the transformative potential of aligning African value chains with global sustainability standards. The Ten Principles and the SDGs provide a clear pathway for African SMEs to enhance competitiveness, streamline compliance, and contribute to sustainable development. As Africa rises as a global economic powerhouse, integrating sustainability and technology will be key to unlocking its full potential, paving the way for a future where sustainability and competitiveness coexist and reinforce each other.
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Lusaka, Zambia –9 October 2025 – The 4th African Business and Human Rights Forum (ABRH) concluded today in Lusaka, Zambia, bringing together more than 600 participants, including business leaders, governments, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, national human rights institutions and international partners, to advance the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) across Africa. The Forum, held from 7 to 9 October under the theme “From Commitment to Action: Advancing Remedy, Reparations and Responsible Business Conduct in Africa,” was co-organized by several partners, including the African Union, the UN Global Compact, UNDP, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, UN Human Rights (OHCHR), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and UNICEF. This year’s Forum aligned with the African Union theme, “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations.” Participants focused on concrete steps to strengthen remedy and reparations frameworks and to promote responsible business conduct in the context of Africa’s evolving economic and regulatory landscape. The Forum has become a critical platform for moving from policy to practice, accelerating implementation, and highlighting regional solutions to ensure that businesses in Africa uphold human rights while contributing to inclusive and sustainable development. Over three days, the Forum featured high-level panels, roundtables and clinics, alongside a dedicated UN Global Compact Networking Event. These sessions provided space for governments, businesses and rights holders to exchange experiences, showcase innovations and build partnerships to translate high-level commitments into tangible action. Discussions centred on four priority areas: Strengthening access to remedy for victims of business-related human rights and environmental harms through improved policy frameworks, stronger judicial capacity and more effective grievance mechanisms; Advancing reparations by emphasizing the shared responsibility of states and businesses to address historical and ongoing injustices; Promoting responsible business conduct by embedding human rights due diligence across operations and aligning with regional frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the draft AU Business and Human Rights Policy; and Enhancing transparency and accountability through digital tools, improved reporting and collective monitoring of commitments. Speaking at the opening of the Forum, Hervé Lado, Africa Head of the UN Global Compact, underscored the urgent need for businesses to embed human rights into their operations and lead by example. “The theme of this year is a call to action for effective remedy, an invitation to go beyond protect and respect. As we develop our new global strategy 2026-2030, we want to equip more businesses in Africa by 2030 with knowledge, expertise and more ambition in upholding the Ten Principles and implementing adequate and effective remedies where their activities have caused adverse impacts. How companies respect human rights and implement remedies is central to building resilient and inclusive economies,” Lado said.
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The UN Global Compact Africa Regional Hub in Chad, recently joined the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator to convene a capacity-building and exchange workshop with leaders of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), government representatives and business associations. The session which was held on the 29 and 30 September 2025, revealed a significant opportunity: many SMEs are already contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), often unknowingly, through their daily operations. For example, a local dairy producer discovered that his business directly advances SDGs 1 and 2, and committed to formalising corporate social responsibility practices to deepen his company’s contribution. This experience reflects a broader challenge on SDG awareness among the private sector. While national development plans give the private sector a central role—Chad’s national development plan “Chad Connection 2030” allocates 46 percent of anticipated investments to private actors—, awareness of the SDGs remains limited. Yet evidence shows that private sector engagement is indispensable. Unlocking private sector investment in these sectors, alongside infrastructure and renewable energy, could accelerate growth and resilience. According to the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC), agriculture and pastoralism account for more than half of Chad’s GDP, with 73 percent of households depending on them for income . Yet, awareness of the SDGs among businesses remains low. At the same time, Chad’s new national development plan, Chad Connection 2030, targets over US$30 billion in investment by 2030 , with the private sector expected to play a decisive role. While in N’Djamena for the capacity-building and exchange workshop, Dr. Hervé Lado, Head of the UN Global Compact Africa Regional Hub, urged participants to embrace SDG-centered efforts in their business operations. “Leveraging the momentum from the 80th Anniversary of the UN, the 25th Anniversary of the UN Global Compact and the recent UN General Assembly, the private sector, the government and the UN system in Chad are called to enhance collaboration and catalyze partnerships to accelerate the achievement of the national development plan and the SDGs for the benefit of the populations,” Dr. Lado, expressed. Encouragingly, international partners are stepping up. Afreximbank has pledged up to US$1.5 billion to boost Chad’s private sector , particularly in agriculture and agro-industry. Combined with improved awareness, such commitments demonstrate how local enterprises can transition from being passive beneficiaries of development to active drivers of sustainable change. Strengthening dialogue and capacity building will be essential to ensure that businesses across the Sahel can fully align with the 2030 Agenda and mobilise the investments needed for inclusive and sustainable development.
GABI: Advancing African Competitiveness in a Climate-Regulated World at Unstoppable Africa 22 September 2025 | 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM EDT (3:00–4:30 PM CAT) The UN Global Compact Africa Hub and UNGC's Country Networks in Africa will host a high-level session titled “Navigating CBAM: Advancing African Competitiveness in a Climate-Regulated World” at the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI): Unstoppable Africa 2025. Scheduled for 22 September 2025 from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM EDT (3:00–4:30 PM CAT) at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Europe represents almost one-third of Africa’s trade and it is projected that if the European Union’s CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) is fully applied to all imports, Africa’s exports to the EU will plunge by 5.72% and Africa’s GDP cut by 1.12%, posing urgent economic and strategic challenges for the continent. This dialogue will unpack the implications of the CBAM, showcase corporate climate action by African businesses, explore pathways to green industrialization, enhanced competitiveness, equitable inclusion in global sustainability governance, and boosted intra-Africa trade. To attend, select the event in the GABI app and join leaders from business, finance, and policy in shaping a resilient, unstoppable Africa.
