Review of Design Research for Sustainable Development in Africa: A Design Science Perspective

Abstract

The design community can contribute significantly to the success of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. Currently, alignment of the design research community on sustainable development goals in Africa is not well understood. In this paper, we review relevant literature and identify trends in research topics studied and in patterns of collaboration between researchers. We find differences in topic representation and collaboration trends between African-based and non-African based researchers. Understanding these differences better will be important for future research.

Integrated Natural Resource and Conservation Development Project: A Review of Success Factors From a Systems Perspective

“…To pave the way for INRCD system optimization studies, this paper reviews the related extant literature and offers some observations on successes to date and the challenges ahead. This review is a continuation of previous reviews on the status of design for sustainable development within the Design Society's AFRICA-DESIGN initiative (Barlow et al 2020;Mitropoulos et al 2020;Design Society 2021). A thematic analysis of the literature reveals three broad areas of importance: community inclusion and income diversification, inadequate training and management, and inability to properly quantify data.…”

Challenges and Opportunities for Enabling Mutual Learning and Collaboration in Design and Innovation for Sustainable Development in Africa and Beyond

“…Consequently, we need to understand better how innovation, design theories, and practices apply in hitherto relatively new settings such as Africa. Design and engineering research in Africa is insufficient (Barlow et al 2020), and there is limited awareness of African designers and engineers (Ambole, 2020). African design is rich in diversity and differs, for example, from Western design views and approaches (Yeo and Cao, 2021).…”