Higher education: A vital cog in Africa’s green economy

Africa’s ability to achieve a fair and inclusive shift to a green economy hinges not only on political will and international financing but also on the active role of higher education and research institutions.

A new academic study stresses that universities must be charged with being the architects and not passive observers of a just transition grounded in African realities.

Through curriculum innovation, climate-focused training and interdisciplinary research, African universities can contribute to skilling a new generation of green professionals and policy-makers.

This is one of the key insights of ‘Examining Multifaceted Constraints to Just Transitioning Agenda in Africa: Integrating Sustainable Social and Economic Perspectives into Policy Framework’, a paper published recently in International Environmental Agreements: Politics, law and economics (Springer Nature).

The study, authored by Dr Richard Kwame Adom, Paul Mukoki, Dr Nomhle Ngwenya, and Professor Mulala Simatele, all from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, explores the deep-rooted socio-economic, environmental, and political barriers slowing down Africa’s just transition ambitions.

The research, conducted across South Africa, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya and Morocco, involved academics, community leaders, representatives of research and financial institutions, and civil society actors.

An underlying factor highlighted within the research paper was that “transitioning to a just transition and green growth agenda requires careful and deep thought with much focus on local contexts, energy dynamics and requirements as well as the livelihood needs of the population”.

The authors argue that the continent must develop strategies and interventions that will promote sustainability, resilience, inclusivity, understanding and appreciation of the just transition agenda.

“This paper offers a powerful opportunity to interrogate the multifaceted barriers and the complex social, economic, environmental and political barriers impeding Africa’s transition to a just and green economy.

“We unpack challenges such as limited technical and human capacity, infrastructure deficits, funding gaps, institutional inertia, weak regulatory environments and high investment risk, factors that threaten inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development across the continent,” Ngwenya told University World News.

“Our call-to-action centres on building technical and institutional capacity, fostering innovation, enhancing collaboration and reforming education and policy to enable meaningful change,” she added.

The role of higher education

The researchers warned that, despite rising attention to climate goals and Sustainable Development Goals, Africa continues to face severe constraints, including limited resources for green technologies, a dearth of technical and institutional capacity, fragmented policy frameworks, and low levels of awareness about just transition policies among key stakeholders.

Some of the challenges identified by respondents in interviews and surveys conducted as part of the study to be hindering a just transition included infrastructure deficits, climate vulnerability, high levels of unemployment, lack of an educational curriculum on renewable energy, land tenure challenges, cultural issues, political instability and conflict, and the dearth of digital and technological innovation.

The study posits that higher education and research institutions must take to the challenge by growing the needed skills for a new generation of green professionals, building policy-relevant knowledge systems and engaging with communities on the front lines of climate impacts.

The risk of missing an opportunity

With the continent welcoming an estimated 10 million new entrants to the labour market every year, the study shares that, without forward-looking, climate-focused training systems, Africa risks missing the opportunity to channel this youth bulge into green jobs and innovation.

The authors forecast that an effective just transition could generate nine million jobs by 2030, and an additional three million by 2050. However, these must be quality jobs that are secure, well-paying, and socially protected.

“We need guarantees that new green jobs will be stable and provide decent wages. Social protection schemes should be in place to support workers during the transition period,” a representative of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, or COSATU, said in an interview for the study.

It was proposed that policy-makers, funders, and workforce developers needed to meet near-term demands with effective training, apprenticeships, and job- or skill-matching to meet the demands of green growth. There is also a crucial need for targeted skills development, training and re-skilling programmes tailored to local contexts. This means practical skills that align with the future job market, not just generic courses, a contributor said.

A researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, or CSIR, in South Africa quoted in the study noted that the youth must be at the forefront of this transition. As such, there was an urgent need for educational reforms that integrate climate change and sustainability into the curriculum from an early age.

Universities as community anchors

Despite this, the paper’s empirical research reveals a lack of public awareness and education about the just transition agenda. A survey of over 1,000 participants across six African countries reflected that 63% lacked adequate knowledge about the green transition agenda, and only 16% had a high level of understanding.

Engagement with field experts revealed that 20% of respondents saw job training and education as key to enhancing just transition activities, while 25% highlighted renewable energy investment as more critical. Other strategies included government policies and incentives, public awareness campaigns, and community engagement and participation, as well as strengthening social safety and involvement of the private sector.

One of the study’s key findings is that just transition strategies often fail because they are top-down, elite-driven, and disconnected from the lived experiences of vulnerable communities. In such instances, youths are often sidelined from conversations and implementation of activities focused on the transition.

At the same time, universities are strategically well positioned to become community anchors, critical for driving participatory research, co-producing knowledge, and training leaders from within affected areas.

The paper calls for several actionable reforms that place universities at the heart of Africa’s transition. This includes embedding climate justice and just transition into curricula at all levels of higher education, expanding vocational training systems to support skills in renewable energy, green finance, agriculture and the circular economy and strengthening university-community-industry partnerships to ensure research aligns with real-world labour and environmental needs.

According to Ngwenya, universities and scientific research centres can also contribute towards developing national data systems in collaboration with other transition actors to track the social and economic impacts of transition policies.

“Beyond the technical findings, I am committed to amplifying African academic voices and ensuring our research helps shape global discourse, especially on issues that determine the future of our people and planet. Africa must, not only be included in global conversations, but lead them,” she said.