The School of Sustainable Development at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD), Somanya, Eastern Region is hosting the Circular Economy Summer School – Capacities4CircularFutures II, a collaborative initiative aimed at strengthening capacity for sustainable development and circular economy practices in Ghana.
The Summer School brings together participants from Ghanaian Universities and international partners to build capacity for sustainable development and circular economy practices. The participants are made up of students and faculty members from UESD, University of Ghana, Legon, UDS, UCC, Ho Technical University, and KNUST.
The Summer School is being organised in partnership with the Wuppertal Institute—a leading implementation-oriented research institute based in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany—and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The Wuppertal Institute is dedicated to promoting sustainable transformation and fostering just transitions towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient future that ensures quality of life within planetary boundaries.
Through this partnership, the programme seeks to establish sustainable structures that can be supported by Ghanaian stakeholders over the long term. Its broader goal is to enhance resource conservation, economic resilience, and international collaboration, while strengthening the Ghana–NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) partnership and reinforcing Ghana’s pioneering role in advancing the circular economy in Africa.
The Wuppertal Institute delegation includes Coordinator Burcu Gözet, and staff members Maike Demandt, Dominik Martin, and Prof. Dr. Henning Wilts.
The opening day of the Summer School explored key thematic areas such as Introduction to Circular Economy and Governance, Regulatory and Legal Frameworks for Circular Economy, Circular Economy Policies, Financing Circular Economy Initiatives, and Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) for Circular Economy Governance. The sessions were facilitated by Burcu Gözet, Maike Demandt, and Dr. Jacob Ato Kwamina Dodoo, a lecturer at UESD’s School of Sustainable Development and facilitator of the programme.
Upcoming sessions focus on topics including; the health impacts of plastics, plastic waste generation and management strategies, case studies of circular businesses, keys to successful start-ups in the plastic circular economy, circular economy and TVET, and sustainable materials and circular design.
The Circular Economy Summer School – Capacities4CircularFutures II serves as a vital platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, and capacity building among academia, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. It marks a significant step toward promoting sustainable economic transformation in Ghana and across Africa.