Abstract
African economies are home to grand societal and environmental challenges, and
social enterprises in these contexts typically play a key role to address UN
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as poverty, inequality, climate
change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. In fact, social enterprises
in African countries are actively involved in the achievement of SDGs by
combining in the same organizations social, environmental, and economic missions
and processes. Recently, scholars acknowledged the relevance of Circular
Economy (CE) practices for the implementation of Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs). Therefore, this chapter focuses on East African countries (meaning
Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda). In these countries, the highest levels of ruralto-
urban shift of any continent in the world, together with context-related challenges
such as weak institutions, lack of financial support, low access to technology,
and a lack of education and technical skills, give rise to severe social and environmental problems. Gathering the extant but fragmented knowledge on
circular economy in East African social enterprises, this chapter aims at illustrating
the tensions and barriers that jeopardize social enterprises’ ability to implement
circular strategies. Further, the chapter reveals the enabling factors of social
enterprises adopting circular strategies recognizing a leading role of local community,
business incubators, and informal sector. Finally, this chapter examines
the outcomes of circular strategies, in the form of an active contribution toward
sustainable development as well as negative tensions which are generated
between social enterprises and stakeholders.
Lingua originale | English |
---|---|
Titolo della pubblicazione ospite | SDGs in Africa and the Middle East Region. Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals – Regional Perspectives |
Editor | W., Abubakar, I.R., da Silva, I., Pretorius, R., Tarabieh, K. Leal Filho |
Pagine | 1-27 |
Numero di pagine | 27 |
DOI | |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2023 |
Keywords
- Africa
- Circular economy
- Circular models
- Social enterprise