About

Elke Nijman

MSc of Science in Public Administration, Radboud University

Ing. Applied Sciences in Applied Biology, HAS University of Applied Sciences

Founder of Circular Africa

elke@circularafrica. com

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Circular Africa is a consulting, training, and information portal that seeks to unlock the potentials of circular economy for businesses, youth, food security and a Circular Africa.

Elke Nijman is a circular economy expert that has a strong ambition to find circular solutions for sustainable food systems in Africa. Through her MSc thesis, she uncovered the barriers and solutions of implementing a circular economy in food systems for East Africa, which is one of the first studies about the integration of circular economy, especially for (East) Africa.

Living and working in East Africa for multiple years, she acknowledges the great potentials for circular economy practices in East Africa to unlock the potentials for businesses, youth, food security and a green planet. As a result, a circular economy requires system thinking and collaborations between industries and value chains.

Elke has specialized herself in applying her expertise and circular economy knowledge through consultancy work with Circular Africa. Elke seeks to interconnect the government, private sector, industries, knowledge institutions to unlock to potentials for a circular economy in Africa. Elke has a great experience in providing advice, project management and development, (academic) research, and the organization & coordination of conferences, workshops and seminars. Elke has been working with clients such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (global leader in circular economy), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rwanda, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Solidaridad, SNV, the consultancy firm UNIQUE forestry and Land use, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) together with the Swiss University St. Gallen and Impact Hub Kigali.

Besides the work that she has done on circular food systems, Elke also has been working on circular economy E-waste projects in East Africa, she is the founder of Circular Africa and Country Representative of Rwanda for the African Circular Economy Network.