Sub-Saharan Africa meets UN SDG challenges daily through crucial collaborations, enhancing education, health, and economy, while promoting gender equity and sustainability.

Sub-Saharan Africa confronts and rises to all the challenges posed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) every day. Collaborations between local and national governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private entities, and international foundations are essential to driving project progress in the region, strengthening the education, health, and economy of residents so that they can, in turn, protect and repair the environment and advocate for improved living conditions in the areas of gender equity, clean water and sanitation, and more.

Let’s look at the projects transforming Sub-Saharan Africa that are helping elevate our world.

The Samburu Project’s Well Expansion Project  For bringing clean water and the gift of time to women  UN SDG: 6, Clean Water and Sanitation   Kenya

Walking miles to access water isn’t just physically taxing; it also robs water carriers, who, in Kenya, are mostly women and girls, of precious time. The Samburu Project’s well expansion initiative recognizes that ensuring clean, accessible water in Kenya’s most remote communities gives women time for other tasks and opportunities, and it increases the likelihood that girls will be able to attend school.

The Samburu Project’s well installations aren’t “drill and run” projects; they coordinate hygiene and sanitation workshops, build hand-washing stations, install pit latrines, and facilitate menstrual hygiene programs, boosting overall community health. They also help build new classrooms and dorms, purchase and provide school supplies to girls, and award scholarships to girls in need. While girls are at school, women participate in workshops about their rights, the risks of female genital mutilation (FGM), nutrition, and income generation opportunities.

In 2023, the organization, whose work is funded by donations, undertook an ambitious well expansion project, adding 10 new wells to its existing portfolio of 155 wells, across Kenya’s most remote regions. Two of the 10 wells are deep wells and are solarized, and all are connected to a monitoring system administered by locals using smart phones. The data they collect is fed back to the organization, which assesses the project’s success in water availability and use.

The Square Kilometer Array Radio Telescope  For exploring the skies in greater detail than ever before  UN SDG: 17, Partnerships for the Goals  South Africa

Understanding deep space helps us understand life here on Earth, and for members of The SKA Observatory Project, there’s no better way to magnify what’s happening in the skies than by launching the most ambitious collaborative space exploration project in human history.

The Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), the first phase of which launched in 2023, is one global observatory operating two telescopes on three sites.” Both telescopes and all sites use big data to “revolutionize our understanding of the universe and the laws of fundamental physics.” The project brings together 10 national governments and a wide array of stakeholders — astronomers and other scientists, policymakers, funders, and more — to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with a collecting area of over one million square meters. The total cost will be $2 billion euros and will be borne by SKAO member states, including Canada, China, and South Korea, among others.

South Africa and Australia are the host countries for the mid- and low-frequency radio telescopes, which will be 10 times more sensitive than existing radio telescopes. The building of telescopes brings jobs to areas in economic need and will generate data that help us understand the universe in greater depth and detail than previously possible. The telescopes have already produced initial images, which affirmed the telescopes’ power to produce high-quality images to global study.

Vision Impact Project  For expanding vision screening by an order of millions  UN SDG: 3, Good Health and Well-being  Kenya

More than 15 percent of Kenyans have vision problems. Of the country’s 52.5 million residents, 7.5 million live with vision loss or impairment—and 75% of these problems could have been prevented had they been detected and treated in time. The Vision Impact Project, a project of the Christian Blind Mission, is designed to reduce avoidable visual impairment and blindness by strengthening the health system in seven Kenyan counties, affecting change for a total of 8 million people.

The project uses an award-winning technology called Peek software to train non-eye health professionals, such as teachers or community health workers, to accurately conduct eye tests using a smartphone application. To date, 700 screeners have been trained. The ubiquity of smartphones and the training of non-professionals are essential because so many Kenyans live beyond the areas served by local health clinics where vision exams are provided. House-to-house and school screenings enable Kenyans who would otherwise be overlooked or excluded from vision screening to get tested. Once they have received the exam, results are used to refer people for treatment or additional services that can prevent vision loss or total blindness. In its first year, one million Kenyans were screened.

The project involves a partnership among several international NGOs, Kenya’s Ministry of Health, municipal governments, and public and faith-based hospitals, expanding VIP’s reach through increased funding and deployment of the Peek technology.