Leadership centre to help drive sustainability science

The strengthening of sustainability science across Africa through leadership, sustainability science clusters, the nurturing of young emerging scientists, and the establishment of an African Sustainability Science Association to connect researchers across the continent and to global networks were discussed at the third Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress (SRI2024) Africa Satellite Event hosted in Durban, South African from 21-23 May.

The SRI2024 Africa Satellite Event is one of the largest regional gatherings on sustainability.

It was hosted by the Future Earth Africa Global Secretariat Hub together with South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and in partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal under the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Sustainable Rural Livelihoods.

The Future Earth Africa Global Secretariat Hub, which is being co-hosted by Rhodes University and the University of Pretoria in South Africa, is one of nine Future Earth Global Secretariat Hubs, a global network of scientists, researchers and innovators whose mission is to advance research in support of transformation towards global sustainability.

Citizen science

During his opening address, Dr Mmboneni Muofhe, the deputy director-general for technology innovation at the Department of Science and Innovation in South Africa, emphasised the importance of training a new generation of scientists and researchers on sustainability science as this would ensure continuity and the regeneration of knowledge, skills and expertise crucial for sustaining ecosystems and livelihoods for future generations.

He also spoke on the importance of approaching sustainability through the systems approach, rather than through a narrow lens, and considering inclusivity, citizen science and indigenous knowledge systems in driving sustainability.

“When we talk of inclusivity, one critical aspect is citizen science and, as scientists, when we go into areas to study the environment, we must not overlook the fact that, wherever we are going, there are people who have been staying there for years. What sustained them is the knowledge that they have, indigenous or otherwise, that has enabled them to take care of their environments.

“It is important that we ensure that this particular knowledge is harvested as part of the research we are doing and [that] we also make these communities part of the scientific contribution. The concept of citizen science is, indeed, very important,” he stated.

Developing voices on Africa’s sustainability

One of the key workshops on the opening day focused on the Future Earth Africa Hub Leadership Centre, hosted jointly by the universities of Pretoria and Rhodes, and its role in driving sustainability science, particularly the ongoing work around sustainability science clusters.

The plenary discussion was themed, ‘Future Earth Africa Hub and its Leadership Centre: Shaping the future of knowledge co-production and transformation co-design toward sustainability in Africa’.

According to Professor Nelson Odume, a senior researcher and director of the Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality within the Institute for Water Research at Rhodes University, since its inception, the Future Earth Africa Hub has been seeking ways to integrate Africa’s sustainability science, policy, and funding communities into the global sustainability science arena.

“The Future Earth Africa Hub Leadership Centre, which was launched in 2023, aims to mobilise human, financial and institutional resources to provide sustainability science leadership on the continent, and ensure the development of African sustainability voices in the implementation of science research clusters to give scientific building blocks for the Future Earth Africa Hub and its envisioned five regional nodes [ie, regional offices] on the continent,” he said.

He outlined that the leadership centre is deemed the strategic arm of the hub, which is still in its emergent phase, but it would design a monitoring, evaluation and learning framework for the Future Earth global partners, and establish thematically defined sustainability science clusters, as well as an African Sustainability Science Association.

“The long-term sustainability effect of this effort relies heavily on the development of emerging and early-career scientists, which is part of the leadership centre’s role.

“The key objective of the science clusters is to deepen and strengthen sustainability science happening on the continent and to connect African science to the Future Earth Global Network,” he added.

“We want Africa-based scholars to have a prominent voice in sustainability science. Therefore, capacity-building and engagement is crucial when it comes to the science clusters.

“The Future Earth Africa Hub Leadership Centre also mobilises and liaises across sustainability science disciplines including earth systems, social sciences, humanities, and the environment and many others in promoting science-based knowledge and practices to address pressing sustainability challenges in Africa,” Odume stated.

Sustainability science clusters

During the workshop, Odume also added that, through the Africa leadership centre, seven sustainability science clusters that are still part of a pilot were designed to bring expertise from different academic institutions together, including researchers, postgraduate and masters students to engage, co-create and share knowledge, while seeking home-grown sustainable solutions to planetary and environmental challenges.

Professor Philani Moyo, the director of the University of Fort Hare Institute for Social and Economic Research, presented on the degrowth and climate justice cluster, which he said aimed to create a platform for co-learning and knowledge-sharing with some of the state and non-state actors to promote sustainability science focusing on climate justice.

“We are trying to understand the intersection of theory, policy and practice within the degrowth and climate justice space. These two are interconnected in many ways and speak to aspects that critique the current economic system and how the current production system is working to the detriment of the planet. They both advocate for alternative models that prioritise equity, well-being and sustainability.

“This cluster also recognises the interconnectedness of social, economic and environmental issues and challenges the dominant cross-based economic paradigms, emphasises equity and promotes localisation and resilience strategies for building more just and sustainable societies,” he said.

A youth-led focus

Dr Danitza Klopper from the University of Limpopo, whose expertise lies in environmental sciences and management with a focus on atmospheric science, shared the work and activities around the ‘transformative research for healthy ecosystems and sustainable communities’ cluster.

“From our work with post-graduate students, some of the biggest issues faced by communities include inadequate waste management practices and a lot of population growth in specific communities which puts a lot of pressure on the municipality to deliver waste and water services. This comes with a lot of social and environmental impacts,” she said.

“We have realised the importance of co-creating solutions and this comes with understanding the contexts of things, and the perceptions and attitudes of people, understanding what access people have to resources to help them resolve these challenges, and what sort of skills gaps [exist] in the focus area to address these issues,” she added.

The research cluster has been working with university students across various waste-recycling initiatives – for example, with the University of Limpopo students, one of the initiatives focuses on creating science communication tools to better communicate the impacts of waste management, and how to be better environmental stewards.

With other regional universities, some initiatives have focused on training young people on recycling waste using the circular economy model.

Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka from Rhodes University, who holds the SARChI Chair in Global Change and Social Learning Systems, made a presentation on the ‘African youth futures: Transgressive social learning and regenerative sustainability education’ cluster which stems from the learning and education sciences as they intersect with the social, political, humanities and environmental sciences.

The youth-oriented research cluster has been working collaboratively with various youth groups from across Africa, including Fundisa for Change, a programme working with teachers to monitor climate change education in Africa, Real Life Learning, a group from Mauritius working on citizen sciences and 350.org, a climate activist group, and many others.

“We believe that there is a deficits discourse when it comes to what is meant by ‘African youth futures’, and this comes with a lot of statistics of youth challenges, including unemployment. This cluster wants to work with young people on how the world is rising up for them, to hear their stories and the work they are doing and to better understand their agency for change and how they are catalysing this agency and the relationships they are building among themselves within different contexts.

“This cluster is about how young people are using their agency and creativity to redefine their relationships with work, family, the state and the environment, because none of those structures are serving them particularly well. There’s a need to better understand this space, and the important thing we want to do is [to] start from scratch and rethink the discourses people use to describe young people,” she stated.