Africa––the world’s oldest inhabited and second-largest continent––is young in population, rich in resources, and massive in geography, with an evolving entrepreneurial space and a growing private sector impact. However, the continent continues to face many challenges related to universal access to infrastructure––not just digital––causing several divides, lack of inclusive development, food crises, water scarcity, poverty, inequality, governance, and the level of informality in most of its 54 economies, to mention a few. Most recently, these challenges were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of Africans.
Climate change also presents Africa with threats and opportunities. Although Africa has contributed only 3 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, unfortunately, it will disproportionately suffer the consequences of the actions of the world’s richest and most industrialized economies, whose economies benefitted from decades of burning fossil fuels. For hundreds of millions of Africans, climate change is a painful reality with unprecedented implications for individuals, organizations, and societies, including growing migration and severe work conditions. Developing economies––mainly in Africa––will suffer the most from climate change, given that those equatorial regions will be among the hardest hit with extreme weather, and these countries have far fewer resources to adapt.
During COP27, among the concrete takeaways and following extensive negotiations by representatives from around 200 countries, an agreement was reached to establish a new United Nations Loss and Damage Fund that could help the poorer and most vulnerable countries cope with growing and challenging climate issues, including but not limited to destructive storms, pandemics, heatwaves, droughts, floods, wildfires, and other disasters including refugees’ migration and helping to save millions of lives in the years to come. While these pledges and commitments are of utmost importance, they must be funded, and implementing the mitigation and adaptation-related strategies and actions remain vital in facing the climate change challenges––especially for developing economies in Africa. While governments and corporates have an important role to play in facing climate challenges, business schools––given their role in society manifested through their different academic offerings––also have a significant role to play in working together and collectively benefiting from their strengths and experiences.
Actions on climate change require leadership––that should not be confined to passionate speeches at global conferences, forums, and meetings. While there has been real progress over the last few years to achieve a net-zero transition by 2050––is that enough? The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, echoing the views of both experts and the public, suggests that there is much more to do. For example, a November 2022 Edelman survey of adults in fourteen countries showed that 71 percent felt we must move faster in addressing climate change. It is perhaps no surprise that African countries express some of the strongest views, with 81 percent of South Africans feeling we need to move faster.
“Moving faster” will require a collective societal effort, including greener policies and regulations, increased financing, and other resources but, most importantly, regular capacity-building programs and investing in human capital. Therefore, governments, businesses, and civil society organizations have a significant role. Equally important, higher education and research institutions, including business schools, in collaboration with different stakeholders in society, they too have a vital role to play in combating the climate challenge. In fact, in comparison to other stakeholders, educational institutions are perceived by society as the most trusted partner in such a timely and vital endeavor, with the same Edelman study showing that universities were the most trusted institution in virtually every country to “do what is right about climate change.”
We need to continue to earn this trust by preparing future well-rounded leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and agents of change. These leaders need knowledge, experience, and acumen to adapt to a changing global environment. They need better practice in making complex judgments that tradeoff private and social costs and benefits, especially given that human influence and its associated actions are the primary reasons for changing the planet’s climate at unprecedented rates. We must address the root causes and consequences of climate change while creating economic opportunities and contributing to sustainable development. And if businesses must do this, then business and management education needs to rethink how it can reconfigure itself for the betterment of society.
All business schools need to use the climate crisis to rethink our work—our research, our teaching, and our engagement with the business community. In the context of Africa, what can business schools do? How can they engage with different stakeholders in society? How can their voice be heard? Can they make an effective and scalable influence on society? Do their current academic program offerings address the climate topic? If so, is the content relevant to the context in Africa? Do business schools have faculty trained to address those issues? Can business schools help shape future leaders by offering them the appropriate academic programs and developing their much-needed skills and capacities? These are just a sample of the questions that leaders of African business schools may address while framing their roles in dealing with issues ranging from decarbonization, adaptation, and loss and damage.
It is clear to us, as current and former business school deans from Africa and Europe, that sustainability and climate-related concerns are already, and will become more, integral to the future of socially responsible management education in Africa and beyond. Historically, business schools prided themselves on training leaders; today, we must support—and be—climate leaders. This includes advocacy, which is vital. Through their respective missions, strategic plans, and objectives, business schools should reconfigure their academic efforts to influence policies and prepare the next generation of climate-savvy African leaders, offering a new breed of climate leadership. However, a lot must first change for business schools to be actively engaged in such a timely––and for some––existential conversation. Business and management education should offer degrees, specialized courses, research projects, student and learner-led clubs and associations, and engagement in extracurricular activities in addition to seminars, forums, and roundtables that can help raise awareness and build momentum about climate-related issues. And underpinning this activity, there must be rigorous research so that the work is grounded in evidence and critical in spirit.
Business schools in Africa have many differences but also similarities and need a platform to facilitate working together, learning from each other, and complementing their efforts to collectively address issues of common interest. These issues incorporate societal, economic, sustainability, and environmental concerns. They will require us to adopt interdisciplinary approaches and innovative academic offerings, initiatives, and practices.
The ultimate objective is to ensure that leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers––among other future movers and shakers in society––have the awareness, understanding, mindset, knowledge, and capacities needed to make the most appropriate decisions that balance business and economic priorities with social and environmental imperatives to create a positive, scalable, and sustainable impact on society while supporting businesses through the readiness of their workforce to realize the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
To play an influential role in climate leadership, from the outset, business schools need to commit time and resources to clearly defined actionable plans with specific objectives. They must adapt to current and projected future demands in addressing the climate issue and reflect that in their educational offerings.
The portfolio of business schools’ offerings across the continent and through a possible collaborative scheme could be demonstrated in implementing innovative approaches to curriculum development, degree program delivery, and research endeavors. This should be done while adapting to the context of the continent, coupled with business and industry engagement through a Pan-African partnership scheme with different stakeholders, including universities and business schools.
Business schools are fortunate to have a learning ecosystem including students in degree programs, lifelong alumni learners, seasoned executive education participants, faculty, and staff. To help all members of this ecosystem become better climate leaders, schools can draw up alumni experience and corporate partners, but will also require upskilling and reskilling of faculty members on a host of sustainability and climate issues. This includes green finance, leadership, policies, governance, diplomacy, innovation, energy, health, green technology, renewables, agri-tech, water, biodiversity, social entrepreneurship, inclusive development, sustainable development goals (SDGs), and environmental, societal and governance (ESG) issues. We all need to become climate learners to become climate leaders.
Therefore, inspired by Business Schools for Climate Leadership Europe (BS4CL Europe) ––an initiative formulated around COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 with eight business schools from Europe, including Oxford University Said Business School, London Business School, and Cambridge University Judge Business School (UK), HEC Paris and INSEAD (France) IMD (Switzerland) and IESE and IE University Business School (Spain)–– several business schools in Africa in collaboration with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and their Africa Chapter met for a deans’ roundtable at the School of Business of the American University in Cairo on November 6-7, 2022 on the eve of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh. The purpose of the roundtable––driven by having business schools play an impactful and scalable role in climate leadership in Africa—was to launch BS4CL Africa building and learning from the experience of BS4CL Europe.
The founding deans of BS4CL Africa included Thami Ghorfi, President, ESCA Ecole de Management (Morocco); Morris Mthombeni, Dean, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria; Mark Smith, Director, University of Stellenbosch Business School, and Jonathan Foster-Pedley, Dean, Henley Business School Africa, and Chair, Association of African Business Schools (South Africa); David Chiawo, Dean, School of Tourism and Hospitality, Strathmore University (Kenya), Yinka David-West, Deputy Dean, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University (Nigeria) and Sherif Kamel, Dean, School of Business, the American University in Cairo (Egypt). The roundtable participants also included Peter Tufano, Dean Emeritus, Said Business School of the University of Oxford, Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School, and BS4CL Europe Founding Team; Mette Morsing, Head, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), UN Global Compact; Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor, The Financial Times; Sarah El-Battouty, Global Ambassador, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Sherwat Elwan, Chair, PRME Chapter Africa; and Mumbi Wachira, Vice-Chair, PRME Chapter Africa in addition to other faculty members from the participating schools.
BS4CL Africa brings together schools to build a collaborative framework for centering climate leadership at the core of their schools’ strategic directions. The collaboration goes beyond the six founding schools--BS4CL Africa hopes to influence business in Africa in collaboration with PRME Chapter Africa and BS4CL Europe. The initiative––through hopefully an Africa-wide alignment of purpose––will invite intercontinental contributions from the private sector, civil society, startups, investors, scientists, and academics.
Recognizing the critical role that higher education, especially business and management education, plays in addressing climate change, the ultimate aim of BS4CL Africa is to integrate sustainability and climate seamlessly and effectively across the business schools’ ecosystem. This would encompass formulating a portfolio of joint academic activities, such as curriculum development, faculty collaboration, research projects, case studies, student competitions, community awareness and development activities, and executive education.
The BS4CL model in Europe and Africa is built on institutional commitment from both the top down and bottom up: both from deans and directors as well as faculty members and professional staff. When fully deployed, BS4CL Africa can help develop and support homegrown talent in the form of identifying faculty members interested in sustainability and climate, formulating cross-continent networks and strategic partnerships with other business schools and businesses, and preparing future leaders with the right skills and capacities to deal with growing socioeconomic challenges related to climate. We also envision projects—too big or important for any one school—that we can accomplish together. If BS4CL is to succeed as an impactful alliance of business schools that share a common purpose––which is to address climate in Africa––it requires thought leadership, resources, focus, priority, and a collaborative approach driven by concrete actions while acknowledging possible challenges such as resource limitations, conflicts, competition, and industry commitment.
Business schools around the world––including Africa––are gradually shifting their traditional views of business from being solely focused on preparing the next generation of graduates that are driven by wealth creation to those who can be part of institutions that lead by example with a commitment to profits along with people, purpose, and planet.
Business schools continue to be a force of positive change by progressing not only profitable ventures but also societal priorities through teaching and learning, scholarship, outreach, and community development. The challenge and opportunities of climate change are massive, but as business schools, working hand-in-hand and building on our respective experiences can make a huge difference. The prospects for BS4CL Africa are bright in realizing inclusive and sustainable development for Africa and Africans.
About the authors: Sherif Kamel is a Professor of Management and Dean of the School of Business at The American University in Cairo, and Peter Tufano is the Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School; Emeritus Dean and Professor at Oxford University Said Business School; and Senior Advisor at the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.
31 March 2023
Issue #29