A Zambian youth addressed the inaugural Africa Week 2026 Youth Forum at UNESCO on May 20, challenging a new generation of African entrepreneurs to move beyond basic project implementation toward building robust, scalable systems.
Chai Fundanga, a sustainability and ESG consultant at Deloitte in France, told attendees that many African sustainability projects struggle to achieve lasting impact due to insufficient intentional design from the outset.
Drawing from her professional background in driving measurable impact within the private sector, Fundanga argued that the gap between a successful pilot program and a scalable enterprise often lies in product lifecycle development.
She urged developers to look beyond initial implementation, advocating for the integration of lifecycle planning, clear incentive structures, and rigorous measurement frameworks to ensure their innovations can scale effectively.
Fundanga also emphasized that sustainable innovation cannot rely on implementation alone.
She noted that long-term impacts depends on whether communities can realistically adopt, maintain, and sustain solutions over time making education, local ownership, and behavioral change essential components of successful sustainability systems.
The Youth Forum, a new addition to the 2026 UNESCO Africa Week program, served as a platform for young leaders to showcase projects designed to address the continent’s most pressing climate and environmental challenges.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Zambia.
Source: Embassy of Zambia in Paris
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