Influence of Environmental Practices on Sustainable Development of the Sub-Saharan African Countries

Background Although sustainable development has gained global acceptance, there is limited research on the adoption of sustainable development as it stands today, the challenges facing the Sub-Saharan African region and the prospects of sustainable development implementation in the region. This research aimed to determine the influence of environmental practices on sustainable development of the sub-Saharan African countries. The study was guided by the Ecological Modernization Theory. Methods The research used a longitudinal design, which was necessary to capture the temporal precedence and had a stronger reason to make a causal conclusion on how the dynamics of the predictor variables result in the dynamics of sustainable development outcomes. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy. The study examined data from 49 Sub-Saharan African countries over 24 years from 2000 to 2023. This period was effectively chosen to embrace a significant longitudinal curve to grasp the short and long-term tendencies in the sustainability-related practices and sustainable development. The study utilized a structured secondary data collection sheet for data collection, designed to explore the multifaceted dimensions of sustainability practices within the Sub-Saharan African region. Results System GMM results showed that the Environmental Practices Index (EPI) had a statistically insignificant relationship with sustainable development (β = −0.0329, p = 0.624), while the lagged dependent variable demonstrated strong persistence (β = 0.8124, p