COLUMNS
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Njoki Kamau-Mbugua | ESG Automation: The Smart Advantage for East African Businesses
For business leaders across East Africa, the drumbeat of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria is growing louder. Once a distant concern, ESG is now a non-negotiable demand from the global markets upon which regional growth depends. Driven by powerful investor mandates and far-reaching regulations like the EU’s new sustainability rules, international partners are now required to enforce stringent sustainability…
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Zaharaa Khanbhai | Building the Financial Framework for a Sustainable Built Environment
In Africa, a house is more than a roof over one’s head. It is a symbol of dignity, a vessel of intergenerational wealth, and a cornerstone of economic stability. In the Kenyan context, where the housing deficit stands at over 2 million units, the urgency to address this challenge is not just a matter of infrastructure, it is a moral…
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Karen Basiye | It’s Time We Put Youth at the Forefront of Achieving the SDGs
AI consider myself privileged to have worked with and led young people in my close to two decades career in sustainability. I have seen young Community Health Promoters doing their best to improve health outcomes, youth-led groups striving to address unemployment through their skills, and youthful managers redefining waste management. I have seen the youth propelling action towards enabling the…
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Edgar Kitur | How Food Delivery is Powering Inclusion and Enterprise in Kenya This World Food Day
Food connects us, through culture, community, and increasingly through economic opportunity. World Food Day 2025 is calling for global collaboration in creating a peaceful, sustainable, prosperous, and food-secure future. We must look not only at what we eat, but how access and inclusion are built into the food system. In Kenya, online food delivery is no longer a novelty. According…
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Mukesh Bector | Global solar panels aren’t enough: Why supply chains hold the key to sustainability
Switching to solar is good. But on its own, it’s not nearly enough. If companies are serious about sustainability, they must look beyond energy use and tackle the entire value chain on how we source, move, and design products from start to finish. The Hidden Emissions Problem The biggest sustainability blind spot isn’t in offices or factories. It’s in supply…
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Ajong Mbapndah | Africa’s Role in Shaping the Global Energy Transition
The global energy system is undergoing rapid change, influenced by environmental concerns, technological advances, shifting geopolitics and evolving consumer patterns. Fossil fuel dependency and centralised infrastructure are increasingly seen as unsustainable, while supply chain vulnerabilities, climate change and energy inequality add urgency to the search for alternatives. Energy investment is projected to reach 3.3 trillion US dollars in 2025, with…
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Edith Kikonyogo | Africa’s Hybrid Energy Edge: Where Risk Can be Turned Into Resilience and Sustainability
The cost of electricity in sub-Saharan Africa is 3,188% of income per capita making it the highest globally and nearly 3.5 times the cost of the next highest region, South Asia. While precise continent-wide gross domestic product (GDP) loss figures aren’t universally agreed on, the World Bank and a variety of academic institutions agree that unreliable and expensive energy supply…
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Jad Neaime | Feeding the future: How local innovation will shape Africa’s food security
Food security remains one of Africa’s defining challenges and opportunities. Despite significant agricultural potential, Africa continues to face widespread undernourishment. In East Africa alone, nearly 64 million people are currently food insecure, according to the World Food Programme. Climate change, population growth, urbanization, and supply chain disruptions have only intensified the urgency for scalable, sustainable solutions. What is increasingly clear…
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Peter Odhengo: Counties Rise to Climate Challenge by Enacting Laws That Shape Local Climate Solutions
Kenya has quietly notched a milestone in the fight against climate change. All 47 counties have passed laws supporting climate action and ring-fencing funds in their annual budgets, marking a decisive shift from policy intent to grounded action. This achievement is a rare example of how decentralization can be leveraged to mainstream climate resilience across a highly diverse and devolved…
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Rajul Malde: Why Manufacturers Must Lead Kenya’s Clean Energy Transition
Clean Energy: High and rising energy costs have been identified as one of the impediments to manufacturing and to new investments in Kenya. As highlighted in various forums, Kenya’s high power costs are not only undermining industrial competitiveness but also threatening to derail the country’s ambition of becoming a regional manufacturing hub. Yet as the manufacturing sector grapples with escalating…
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