Date of Conferral

8-14-2025

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Management

Advisor

Keri Heitner

Abstract

Liberia and sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries lag behind the rest of the world due to substandard social and physical infrastructure development. Poverty is persistently increasing, and fewer than half of the countries in SSA did not meet the development goal for reducing extreme poverty. SSA countries could progress much faster by developing their core infrastructure and reforming their institutions. The purpose of the qualitative, policy Delphi study was to determine how a panel of 16 purposively selected global experts on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) in multinational organizations in the United States and Africa view the desirability, feasibility, and importance of forward-looking strategies for establishing policies and standards to implement socially sustainable practices for facilitating social and infrastructure development. The research question pertained to these strategies. The conceptual framework was based on policies and standards, social and sustainable practices, and social and physical infrastructure. Three iterative rounds of data collection and analysis of medians and frequencies resulted in the top 10 most desirable and important strategies in five categories derived from the UNSDGs practices. The five categories are: (a) sustainable development practices, (b) socially sustainable practices, (c) social infrastructure, (d) physical infrastructure, and (e) leadership. The implications for positive social change include the potential for SSA government institutional leaders to use these identified strategies for improving social and physical infrastructure development, enhancing the economy, and living standards for sustainable practices.

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