The African Circular Economy Network (ACEN) is Africa’s original think-and-do tank for circular economy transformation. Founded in 2016 by practitioners who saw that the global circular economy conversation had little to say about African realities, ACEN today connects more than 1,180 practitioners and organisations across 42 African countries and delivers programmes that translate circular economy principles into business models, policy frameworks and systemic change. Our work rests on three strategic priorities — Connect, Empower, Transform — and on a distinctly African reading of circularity that treats poverty reduction, job creation and the inclusion of informal and marginalised actors as core objectives rather than co-benefits.

The African Circular Economy Network (ACEN) is Africa’s original think-and-do tank for circular economy transformation. Founded in 2016 by practitioners who saw that the global circular economy conversation had little to say about African realities, ACEN today connects more than 1,180 practitioners and organisations across 42 African countries and delivers programmes that translate circular economy principles into business models, policy frameworks and systemic change. Our work rests on three strategic priorities — Connect, Empower, Transform — and on a distinctly African reading of circularity that treats poverty reduction, job creation and the inclusion of informal and marginalised actors as core objectives rather than co-benefits.