Can Social Innovation Address Africa’s Twin Development Challenges of Climate Change Vulnerability and Forced Migrations?

Abstract

Some studies indicate that climate change policy failures are endemic to policymakers in both developed and developing countries. Consequently, the increased vulnerability of people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can partly be attributed to developed-country stakeholders’ inability to understand climate change vulnerability in the context of SSA and a fear on the part of policymakers to implement substantive policy innovations. In order to determine how social innovation and entrepreneurship can be harnessed to enhance climate change resilience and improve the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an inductive analysis using secondary data consisting of research articles, policy briefs, project reports and case studies was undertaken. Agribusiness development–focused entrepreneurship and social innovation were noted to have the potential to facilitate the development of new institutions and social systems that can correct structural inequalities and improve investments in SSA’s agriculture sector, thereby reducing local vulnerabilities to climate change and facilitating the attainment of SDG 16 (i.e., promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development). This article is among the foremost in highlighting how climate change policies that integrate entrepreneurship and rural-to-rural migration as means to reduce vulnerability can reduce youth unemployment and support the ‘leave no one behind’ principle.