About us
Since 2021, SSA has grown into a pan-African technical platform operating across 30+ countries — partnering with governments, institutions and communities to build lasting climate solutions.
Our story
One of the core challenges in Africa is not a lack of ambition or vision, but limited access to the tools, systems, and capabilities required to execute effectively. My ambition is to help build a new generation of young Africans who are equipped with the right skills, resources, and institutional tools to deliver on our collective aspirations with competence and confidence.
– Sandra Freitas, CEO of SSA & the Joke Waller Hunter Initiative grantee, 2008–2009
We believe Africa has vision and talent.
Across Africa, climate change is an immediate and defining reality, impacting economies, ecosystems, and daily life.
The difficulty lies not in the will to respond, but in the capacity to translate commitment into measurable impact — through access to appropriate expertise, effective instruments, and strategic partnerships capable of driving implementation at scale.
Sustainable Solutions for Africa (SSA) was founded in 2021 to respond to this gap.
We are an African-led, pan-African technical platform for climate finance. Headquartered in Lomé, Togo, and operating across more than 30 African countries, SSA partners with governments, local communities, financial actors, enterprises, regional organisations, and international partners to map climate risks, build capacity, design solutions, and deliver sustainable investments that respond to the continent's realities.
As a fully not-for-profit organisation, we invest all resources into strengthening African capacity and delivering where it matters most. Together with our partners, we build the systems that allow climate strategies to move from policy documents to funded programmes and on-the-ground impact.
Our story is not about importing solutions. It is about equipping Africa with the tools and expertise to shape and finance its own climate future.
We transform ambition for change into practical, sustainable solutions for Africa.
“My role models are generally anonymous individuals, sometimes little known, who act with strength and in silence. I share their vision of always reflecting on one's own uniqueness and contributing according to the realities we face. This kind of role model is important for our success.”
“Mes modèles restent généralement des personnes anonymes, parfois méconnues qui agissent avec force et dans le silence. Je partage leur vision de toujours réfléchir chacun à sa spécificité et d'apporter sa contribution en fonction des réalités que nous vivons et ce en toute discrétion. Ce genre de modèles est important pour notre réussite.”
– Sandra Freitas, 2015
Our approach
Africa's climate challenges are interconnected — so the solutions must be as well.
SSA's work is structured around an end-to-end methodology that connects scientific evidence and policy to financial decision-making and on-the-ground implementation — ensuring that every intervention is grounded in data, adapted to socio-economic realities, and built for lasting impact.
Our integrated approach and team mean that our partners and projects benefit from seamless coordination across disciplines, eliminating gaps that so often undermine development programmes in practice. Our multi-disciplinary team can connect climate hazard analysis and macro-economic modelling, to sector assessments and strategy design, to capacity-building, financial structuring and delivery of investment-ready projects.
Through our integrated methodology, SSA supports partners through the entire climate finance life cycle.
Our Operating Model
SSA operates as a fully integrated technical platform. We implement our own climate projects and programmes. Where we partner, we embed our experts within partner teams, build systems and capacity, and maintain long-term institutional relationships. This approach allows us to move seamlessly from strategic advice to practical implementation — always with sustainability and African ownership as our north star.
While fully non-profit, SSA operates with the scale and absorptive capacity of a specialised technical agency — managing multi-year climate finance programmes with governments, regional initiatives, bilateral and multilateral partners, philanthropies and financial institutions.
Our core principles
Our governance
SSA is governed with a clear commitment to results-based management for public benefit, transparent financial management, and accountability to funders and partners.
We implement robust governance and oversight arrangements that support sound decision-making, responsible risk management, and the effective delivery of complex climate finance programmes for long-term impact.
Our fully not-for-profit model combines programme-based financing, technical assistance contracts, strategic partnerships, and the development of high-value tools for the climate finance ecosystem. Consistent with its not-for-profit mandate, SSA distributes no private profit and reinvests all surpluses into strengthening capabilities, systems, and impact—ensuring that resources are used solely to advance climate resilience and sustainable development across Africa.