The Interplay Among Green Innovation, Digitalization and Institutional Quality, for Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

The attainment of Sustainable Development is a daunting task globally. In the Sub-Saharan Africa region, it becomes even more unsettling given the resource constraints that may delay or deter its smooth pursuit. This research seeks to explore the contributions of green innovation, digitalization, natural resources rents and institutional quality towards the advancement of sustainable development in African countries. The adoption of the sustainable development index of Hickel, provides the basis for the originality of this paper given the analytical merging of the human development index and ecological footprint that provides for a comprehensive exploration of sustainable development. The data of the forty-three Sub-Saharan African nations is considered in this analysis for the time spanning from 2000 to 2021 and the ‘Method of Moments Quantile Regression’ is employed in the analysis. Major findings indicate that green innovation, digital technology, natural resources rents and renewable energy support sustainable development. These findings are consistent with reducing environmental damage and improving human development. The robust findings establish that while Income per capita and Institutional Quality support the advancement of human development, these variables are however, detrimental to the environment and reduce overall sustainable development. Our paper provides policy makers in African countries a basis to advocate for sustainable development with an inclination toward green technologies, renewable energy, digitalization, and natural resources rents.