Sustainable Futures

This 2021 report by FSD Africa, prepared in collaboration with Impact Value, defines the concept of 'sustainable futures' and outlines how it is operationalised and measured across FSD Africa's projects. The framework emphasizes a 'just transition' and the preservation of five types of capital—financial, manufactured, human, social, and natural—to ensure that current interventions do not compromise the needs of future generations.

• FSD Africa defines 'sustainable futures' as a requirement that interventions meeting current needs do not "adversely affect the ability of other people to meet their own needs, now and in the future," and that environmental goals like net-zero emissions incorporate a "just transition" for those most affected.
• The framework identifies five types of capital essential for long-term poverty reduction: financial, manufactured, human, social, and natural. Natural capital includes "clean air, water, fertile soil, biodiversity, stable climate," while social capital encompasses "supportive communities, schools, hospitals, families, businesses, civil society organisations."
• FSD Africa evaluates its interventions through two lenses: impact and dependency. The 'impact' perspective asks if activities "promote or undermine" natural, social, or human capital, while the 'dependency' perspective recognizes that long-term success is "dependent on some of the factors underpinning a sustainable future," such as strong governance and the avoidance of natural resource depletion.
• To implement 'sustainable futures' thinking, FSD Africa excludes certain sectors, such as "coal, oil, gas," from job creation interventions and supports climate adaptation measures including "flood defences, drought resistant crops, irrigation, resilient infrastructure."
• FSD Africa has executed specific green finance projects, including facilitating over "£100m of Sovereign and Corporate Green Bonds in Nigeria" for solar energy and afforestation, and supporting a "£35.3million" green bond in Kenya for environmentally-friendly student accommodation.
• The organization tracks its contribution to sustainable futures using a multi-tiered measurement system: country macro-level indicators (such as the "Gender Inequity Index (GII)" and "Transparency International Corruption Perception Index"), social impact indicators, market system change indicators (like "Green finance mobilised"), and output indicators.
• FSD Africa reports that as of March 2020, it had reached "over 1.5 million women with financial services" as part of its commitment to narrowing the gender gap in finance.

APA

FSD Africa (2021). Sustainable Futures. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Sustainable-futures-11.02.21.pdf

Chicago

FSD Africa. Sustainable Futures. 2021. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Sustainable-futures-11.02.21.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=FSD Africa |title=Sustainable Futures |date=February 2021 |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Sustainable-futures-11.02.21.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fsdafrica2021sustainable, author = {{FSD Africa}}, title = {{Sustainable Futures}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, year = {2021}, month = feb, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Sustainable-futures-11.02.21.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }