NAIROBI, Kenya — Africa’s ambitious sustainability agenda risks falling short unless governments and businesses strengthen their ability to turn commitments into measurable results, a new study has warned.
The warning comes amid growing pressure on countries to accelerate progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with project implementation emerging as a major weak link in delivering sustainability commitments.
A study by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and Green Project Management (GPM) found a wide gap between organisations’ confidence in their sustainability strategies and their ability to execute them.
The report, Executing Sustainability Strategy: When Ambition Meets Reality, surveyed nearly 1,600 professionals in 35 countries and found that while 85 per cent of sustainability executives were confident their organisations would achieve their goals, only 43 per cent of Project Management Office (PMO) leaders shared the same confidence.
Confidence was even lower among professionals directly responsible for implementing projects, with only 20 per cent saying they were extremely confident in their organisations’ ability to deliver sustainability objectives.
The findings are particularly significant for Africa, where governments and private-sector players are investing heavily in infrastructure, energy, healthcare, agriculture, mining and digital transformation.
The research found that although 79 per cent of respondents considered sustainability critical to their organisations’ long-term success, only 41 per cent said sustainability had been fully integrated into projects and day-to-day operations.
This means that more than half of organisations have yet to make sustainability a fully embedded part of project delivery and operational decision-making.
George Asamani, Managing Director of PMI Sub-Saharan Africa, said the continent’s challenge was no longer a lack of sustainability ambitions but the ability to deliver them.
“Sustainability is no longer a separate conversation from business performance. Across the continent, governments and businesses have set bold targets and made significant commitments. The real challenge is delivery,” Mr Asamani said.
He said projects were the vehicles through which sustainability commitments ultimately translated into tangible improvements in people’s lives.
“A strategy does not build a power station, expand broadband access, or improve water security — projects do. If sustainability is not embedded into project delivery, organisations will struggle to achieve the outcomes they are aiming for,” he said.
Execution emerges as critical weak point
The report identified sustainability as the strongest predictor of project success, ranking it ahead of traditional factors such as governance structures and project management methodologies.
Yet 59 per cent of organisations surveyed had not fully integrated sustainability into project delivery and operational decision-making.
Researchers identified six major obstacles: difficulties in translating sustainability benefits into business value, weak integration of sustainability into decision-making, unclear objectives, competing project priorities, limited visibility of results and the difficulty of managing outcomes whose benefits may only become apparent over a longer period.
For Sub-Saharan Africa, the consequences could extend beyond environmental and social outcomes.
As countries compete for international development finance, climate funding and ESG-linked investment, organisations may increasingly be required to demonstrate measurable sustainability outcomes before accessing capital.
The report therefore suggests that organisations unable to demonstrate tangible progress could find themselves at a disadvantage as sustainability considerations become increasingly important to investors and development partners.
Mr Asamani said many organisations still viewed sustainability primarily as a reporting obligation rather than an integral part of project execution.
“Too often, sustainability lives in strategy documents and annual reports, but it is less visible where decisions are actually being made,” he said.
“The question is no longer whether sustainability matters. The question is whether organisations can deliver it consistently, project after project.”
Leadership and skills key to closing gap
According to the study, organisations that perform better in delivering sustainability commitments tend to share two characteristics: strong leadership alignment around what constitutes success and the organisational capacity to translate sustainability priorities into project-level decisions.
PMI and GPM have responded by launching the Certified Sustainable Project Professional (CSPP), a certification and e-learning programme aimed at equipping project professionals with practical skills to incorporate sustainability throughout the project lifecycle.
The programme is based on the PMI GPM P5 Standard for Sustainability in Project Management and is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The P5 framework broadens the traditional definition of project success — often centred on time, cost and scope — to include People, Planet, Prosperity, Process and Product.
Mr Asamani said building this expertise would become increasingly important as African economies pursue large-scale investments in infrastructure, energy, industrialisation and digital transformation.
“The next phase of sustainability leadership will be defined by execution,” he said.
“As Africa continues to invest in infrastructure, energy, industrialisation, and digital transformation, the demand for professionals who can balance economic, environmental, and social outcomes will only grow.”
He added that strengthening project delivery capacity would have benefits beyond sustainability.
“Building that capability is not simply good for sustainability. It is good for business, competitiveness, and ultimately good for the region’s development,” he said.
The findings come as the global community faces increasing pressure to accelerate progress on the SDGs. The UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 indicates that only 35 per cent of SDG targets are on track or showing moderate progress, while nearly half are progressing too slowly and 18 per cent have regressed.
The PMI-GPM study suggests that closing the implementation gap could therefore be as important as setting ambitious sustainability targets in the first place.
