Mapping the Dynamics of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

The issue of sustainability is a global agenda with the United Nations (UN) spearheading the drive. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era which commenced in 2000 and lapsed in 2015 recorded some accomplishments of the goals while others were not completely successful and some failed outrightly. The post-2015 agenda, which is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030, has just 8 years left with the little achievement of its objectives, especially in Africa. With Africa always lagging in the uptake and implementation of global agendas, it is imperative to provide an in-depth understanding of the SDG research trends in Africa. Hence, this study aims to analyze, visualize, and identify the research trends focusing on the SDGs in Africa. The study employed a quantitative bibliometric analysis. The datasets are research publication outputs from the beginning of the SDG era to date (2015–2022). The results of the bibliometric (annual publication trends, most cited publications, top publication outlets, keywords co-occurrence, scientific collaboration network, citation burst, and cluster analysis) and systematic analysis (key research areas, and strengths and limitations of SDG in Africa) were presented. It is believed that this study will assist sustainability proponents and other stakeholders in policy- and decision-making inherent to Africa’s needs and geographic characteristics toward achieving the SDGs.