Accelerating the Circular Economy Transition: Innovations and Developments from Africa

The circular economy is an alternative to the traditional linear economy that is focused on “take-make-dispose”. The concept is identified as an important solution to contribute to climate change mitigations and sustainable development goals, and gains the attention of policymakers, investors, scholars and businesses globally.

The circular economy concept is still under development since the term circular economy is still new. The current concept is mostly developed by institutions based in western countries and the global North, which results that the current research agenda being mostly focused on developing circular economy knowledge for those areas mostly developed countries, with African emerging economies being neglected. There is a limited focus on developing countries, and even more on African emerging economies that have the opportunity to leapfrog to a circular economy. As a result, the current body of knowledge about the circular economy is ignoring the developments in African countries. Many simple questions surrounding African connected to circular economy state and practices and success factors in circular economy transitions remain unanswered. In 2022, the World Circular Economy Forum will be hosted for the first time in Africa, whereby leaders in the circular economy will meet to discuss the circular economy developments in the world. This is an additional reason, why more knowledge should be created about the circular economy for Africa, and why circular economy developments in Africa cannot be ignored.

Therefore, this research topic aims to stimulate circular economy research with the objective to build a body of knowledge for circular economy in Africa with the objective to accelerate the circular economy transition within the continent. Also, it has the objective to contribute to the body of circular economy knowledge at large.

The objective of this research objective is to promote circular economy research for Africa, and contribute to knowledge gaps to accelerate the circular economy transition in Africa.

Areas to be covered in this research topic may include but are not limited to:

- The current state of the circular economy development in Africa, and its best practices

- Success factors (barriers and drivers) that support the circular economy transition in Africa

- Documentation of the best practices of the circular economy in Africa

- Opportunities for the circular economy transition in Africa

- Policy related topics related to the circular economy in Africa

Keywords: Circular Economy, Africa, Bio-Economy, Global South, Sustainability, Circular practices, Circular Business models

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.