17 September 2025

Insights and highlights: 2025 Nairobi Action Forum

In June 2025, the World Benchmarking Alliance brought its annual Action Forum to Nairobi – a deliberate choice to place local perspectives at the heart of global sustainability conversations. Leaders from Kenya’s digital, food and agriculture, and urban development sectors gathered with policymakers, civil society, and development partners for a day of open dialogue.

The aim was simple yet ambitious: listen deeply, understand local priorities, and explore how businesses can be more accountable in shaping a sustainable future.

Across the sessions, a clear picture emerged: Kenya’s businesses – whether homegrown or part of global supply chains – are stepping up on environmental, social and governance issues

Regulatory frameworks, such as those from the Capital Markets Authority, are driving improved corporate reporting and transparency. International standards like GRI and ISSB are finding their place in local practice. Yet participants cautioned that the path to progress is uneven. Small-scale producers, for example, often bear the brunt of new international rules introduced without consultation.

The conversation returned often to accountability

Benchmarks, including those from WBA, are helping measure and inspire change, but participants called for more inclusive standard-setting. Rules, they argued, must be shaped with the voices of those most affected: farmers, small business owners, and community advocates; not imposed from a distance. This need for contextualisation was echoed in the urban development discussions, where global building standards were recognised as valuable, but often mismatched with the realities of Kenya’s housing stock and governance capacity.

In the digital sphere, concerns focused on data privacy, online safety, and persistent inequalities in access

Women, people with disabilities, and rural communities remain underserved, even as infrastructure improves. The call was for technology companies to take greater responsibility in safeguarding rights and in ensuring the benefits of digital transformation are shared equitably.

Underlying these sector-specific issues was a broader truth: trust is fragile

Civil society organisations enjoy relatively higher trust, yet scepticism toward companies, media, and government runs deep. Addressing this requires transparent action (not just words), and data that tells a human story, presented in ways that communities can use for advocacy.

Potential follow-up and action points



Assess opportunities for strategic partnerships between the World Benchmarking Alliance and local organisations

Both through the Action Forum itself, and the one-to-one meetings that the team had with several Kenyan stakeholders, the team had received several suggestions on CSOs and other organizations to further our work in Kenya.



Define key corporate accountability priorities for companies operating in the country

General agreement on the significance of companies in advancing the SDGs, but there is a need to define how this would look like in the country. A key recommendation was to articulate 3-4 issues for companies to focus on, before proceeding with further asks. Some key issues and questions that were raised across the three transformations’ session:



Examine the business case for sustainability, comparing how Kenyan companies perform against regional and global peers.

Businesses, especially those with constrained resources might be reluctant to spend resources pre-emptively for sustainability efforts and opted instead for a more reactive approach. Building a case where pre-emptive incorporation of sustainability practices into a businesses’ operations sooner is beneficial for them could help make a case for wider adoption of sustainability practices. A comparative analysis on African companies and their counterparts in another comparable world region could also contribute to build such a case.



Evaluate the impact of international sustainability standards and requirements on Kenyan businesses.

New sustainability requirements are often implemented without consulting those that are more affected. Participants called for a more inclusive approach to sustainability and standard setting, one that invites local stakeholders to the table before rules are enforced. A study on the impact of international sustainability standards, including cataloguing of best practices in various sectors, could build a case to have local voices heard in international decision-making and allow for a more inclusive process in setting international sustainability standards. Establishing a platform for equal exchange of opinions can help advance discussions



Adapt global standards and methodologies to the local context, including developing clearer and more accessible communication materials.

In line with some of the inputs around ‘the need to contextualize’ our findings, and ‘locally driven issue prioritization’, explore partnerships to help with adapting global frameworks to fit local contexts. Translation of findings to more accessible formats, such as stories, infographics, briefings, and other such products, to make it easier for data to be used for advocacy purposes.

Subscribe to stay informed on our work

Keep up to date with all the latest from World Benchmarking Alliance

Join our newsletter