Private Sector Efforts for Sustainability – Reflections from PANAFCON-3 on Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration

From May 27-29, 2025, stakeholders from across Africa and beyond gathered in Lusaka, Zambia, for the 3rd African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water – the PANAFCON-3. Convened under the theme “Assuring Inclusive and Climate-Resilient Water Security and Sanitation for the Africa We Want,” they came together to review the draft for the post-2025 Africa Water Vision and Policy. The conference was a call to action – aiming to reignite political and institutional commitment to water and sanitation as a core driver for achieving the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Against this backdrop, the Lusaka Water Security Initiative (LuWSI) and Wiggles Ventures convened a session titled “ESG and Sustainability for the Private Sector” on May 27. LuWSI is a multi-stakeholder platform that brings together public institutions, private sector companies, civil society, and academia to safeguard Lusaka’s water resources. Wiggles Ventures, a sustainability-focused enterprise, is committed to promoting green business practices and inclusive development through innovation, technology, and partnerships. The Natural Resources Stewardship Programme (NatuReS) contributed to the organisation of the session, supporting LuWSI and sharing its expertise in stewardship multi-stakeholder partnerships.
ESG and the private sector’s evolving role in achieving sustainability
The session aligned directly with PANAFCON’s broader goal of inclusive and climate-resilient water and sanitation strategies: It explored the growing convergence between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) adoption and climate imperatives. And it discussed how the private sector contributes to sustainable water and sanitation outcomes through ESG implementation, driving both resilience and competitiveness in the private sector.

The session, moderated by NatuReS’ Adjoa Parker, opened with a keynote address by Mr Elvin Nasilele, CEO of the Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI). Mr Nasilele unpacked the concept of ESG, explaining how the three pillars help businesses future-proof operations, build stakeholder trust, and demonstrate credibility to investors, regulators, and communities. He emphasized that ESG should be seen not merely as compliance but as a business enabler, especially in navigating the ESG-climate change nexus, which increasingly defines risk and opportunity landscapes for the private sector. Mr Nasilele also called for collective action, underscoring the role of multi-stakeholder platforms in convening diverse stakeholders, facilitating knowledge exchange and capacity building, aligning business action with national sustainability goals, and creating an enabling environment for ESG uptake.

Multi-stakeholder collaboration as implementation framework
A cornerstone of the session was the power of multi-stakeholder collaboration – the idea that when businesses, governments, and civil society work together, they can unlock shared value and co-create a better future – essential to both LuWSI’s work and the PANAFCON-3 ethos. The session featured a multi-stakeholder panel with representatives from the different sectors who shared diverse perspectives on ESG implementation in Zambia. Key challenges mentioned included siloed efforts and lack of coordination among stakeholders, the absence of incentives and diverging priorities across sectors, the perception of ESG as a tick-box exercise rather than a transformative framework, as well as resource constraints.
In this regard, the multi-stakeholder approach came out as an important success factor for ESG implementation. Discussions also included how businesses investing in ESG tend to foster local community development and how civil society as well as auditing firms can support capacity building and governance frameworks. Further, the session underlined how ESG implementation that considers youth engagement, gender equity, and wellbeing can deliver more inclusive long-term outcomes. Integrating ESG into business strategy is also a powerful tool for building climate resilience, particularly in the water and environmental sectors that are vulnerable to climate shocks.
Beyond this session at PANAFCON-3, NatuReS continues to champion the value of transformative multi-stakeholder partnerships such as LuWSI. Through these stewardship partnerships, NatuReS works to identify and mitigate risks collaboratively, promote inclusive development, and co-create solutions that drive environmental health, economic resilience, and social equity.