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The African Leadership Institute in South Africa (AFLI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Trevor Manuel as Chairman, following the end of Ronnie Ntuli’s tenure after three years of service during which time he very successfully restructured the Institute’s governance and prepared for a seamless transition as the Founders stepped back.

The African Leadership Institute was founded in 2003 by Sean Lance and Peter Wilson and is committed to nurturing the leadership capabilities of Africa's highest potential young leaders in the age range 25-39.  It is the vision of the Founders that this values-based network of visionary, strategic, self-aware and ethical African leaders become the catalysts for change and the transformation of Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is the Patron of the Institute and the flagship offering is the Archbishop Tutu Leadership Programme which is delivered in partnership with Oxford University.

2008 Tutu Fellow Bibi Bakare Yusuf has won the Distinguished Africanist Award from ASAUK. The ASAUK - or African Studies Association of the United Kingdom - is a scholarly organization with a membership that includes academics, journalists and broadcasters, civil servants and many others with an interest in Africa. 

Bibi is the award-winning Co-Founder and Publishing Director of Cassava Republic. Bibi explains: “I am a publisher because I am interested in the future. I am interested in contributing to and helping to shape what people in 100, 200 or even 500 years will be discussing and mulling over when they take a walk into the labyrinth of their past that is our present moment. I am interested in how we can create the archive of the future in the present.”

2019 Tutu Fellow Marcia Ashong, the founder and Executive Director of TheBoardroom Africa, has partnered with the Ghana Stock Exchange on a new report assessing progress on gender diversity across the region.  The report is titled Board Diversity Index, Ghana 2020 Edition. The index tracks the number of listed boards by country and identifies all board seats filled by women.  It also monitors the number of women in chair and other executive positions. 

Research to date covers publicly listed boards across 11 African countries, and now includes Ghana.

2019 Tutu Fellow Samson Itodo has been appointed by the Nigerian government as a member of the national steering committee for the new Nigerian development plan, Agenda 2050. Itodo is the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, a community of change-makers focused on building sustainable democracies in Africa anchored on the principles of inclusion, justice, accountability and constitutionalism.

He convened the Not Too Young To Run movement that led the successful advocacy for the reduction of age limits for running for public office in the Nigerian constitution. The campaign was adopted by the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS as a global campaign.

2007 Tutu Fellow Hassan Musa Usman has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Access Bank Plc, following the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Access Bank is a Nigerian multinational commercial bank, owned by Access Bank Group. Hassan brings his experience as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aso Savings and Loans Plc to his board position, as well as other previous experience in this space.

The global mobility technology multinational, Bombardier Transportation, has announced the appointment of 2019 Tutu Fellow Makgola Makololo as Managing Director for South Africa. In this role, she is responsible for Bombardier Transportation’s strategy, development and deployment in the country, with sustainable customer and partner relationships as priorities.

Makgola is an engineer with extensive management experience in large-scale organisations and has been listed as a leader in science and technology by a variety of publications. Globally, Bombardier has nearly 60,000 employees and manufactures planes and trains.

2010 Tutu Fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey PhD has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she contributes to a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Robtel is an academic, published author, essayist, scholar-activist and children's book author.  

2019 Tutu Fellow Akintunde Oyebode has been appointed as the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development for Etiki State in Nigeria. He was sworn in by the State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, following a cabinet reshuffle. Akin has played several senior roles in Ekiti state government, with this now being his most senior role.

Akin was previously the Special Adviser on Investment, Trade and Innovation at Ekiti State government, where he was responsible for leading the state government’s efforts to make Ekiti an attractive destination for investors and innovation-driven enterprises. An additional element to that portfolio had been creating jobs for young people.

The governance committee of African Risk Capacity Limited has appointed 2014 Tutu Fellow Ladé Araba to join its Board of Directors. Ladé is the Managing Director for Africa at Convergence Finance. She is also the Co-Founder and President of the Visiola Foundation, which empowers African girls and young women through education, training, and mentoring in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.  Also appointed to the board was Sarata Kone-Thiam.

African Risk Capacity (ARC) is a specialized agency of the African Union that was established to help African governments improve their capacities to better plan, prepare, and respond to extreme weather events and natural disasters.

Two Tutu Fellows, Lai Yahaya and Moji Rhodes, have been appointed as Special Advisors to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.  Lai is a 2009 Fellow and Moji a 2014 Fellow.

Lai was appointed as a Senior Special Advisor to the President handling Strategy and Planning, while Moji was appointed as a Special Advisor handling Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. Their appointments were announced in August 2020.

2013 Tutu Fellow Ifeoma Malo has been awarded the Power Industry Leader of the Year at the prestigious Nigerian African Power, Energy and Water Industry Awards. 

Ify is the Nigerian Campaign Director for Power for All, a global decentralized renewable campaign organization. She is also the founder and CEO of Clean Tech Hub and the Energy Innovation Center in Abuja. She was the immediate past Senior Policy Adviser on Energy Policies, Regulations and Partnerships to the Minister of Power in Nigeria and advised on the policy direction for large-scale grid-connected and off-grid power.

Investec’s Women Behind the Mask initiative is a series of robust conversations which showcases women making a difference, and how women can help other women to move South Africa forward.  In this second edition of the webcast series, 2016 Fellow Cumesh Moodliar, who is the Head of Private Banking at Investec, chaired a panel of women who are leaders in banking and financial markets. They discussed the impact that women in leadership had had on decisions made during lockdown for COVID-19.

The panel comprised Fundi Tshazibana, the Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank; Tertia Jacobs, a Treasury Economist at Investec Bank SA;  Leila Fourie, the Group CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; Rene van Zyl, a Tax & Fiduciary Specialist at Investec Wealth & Investment; and Ruth Leas, the CEO of Investec Bank UK.

BBC Radio has celebrated the 60th Anniversary of its Focus on Africa programme, and as part of its look back, it interviewed 2015 Tutu Fellow, Uduak Amimo.

In the interview, Uduak discussed joining the BBC's Africa service in 2002 and having to cover hostilities in Sudan, Nigeria and other countries.  When she became a senior producer and presenter on Focus on Africa it was a time when the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency was being waged in Uganda.The LRA was a cult-like movement that initiated conflict in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The insurgency was accused of human rights violations and the use of child soldiers.

The report: The Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Public Service and Governance was launched on August 12, International Youth Day 2020. The report is part of an ongoing partnership between the African Leadership Institute's Project Pakati and the African Union Office of the Youth Envoy to shift young Africans to the centre of the African development narrative. These efforts are being funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation. 

The report documents the outcomes of the jointly-organised workshop - The Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Public Service and Governance - that was held from 4th- 5th May 2020 and engaged with policymakers, government officials, and young leaders around best practices and lessons from selected progressive policies aimed at enhancing youth inclusion in governance in Africa.

Africa is the youngest continent on the globe and set to remain so for the next 30 years.

The African Leadership Institute's Project Pakati launched its report titled The Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Public Service and Governance on August 12, International Youth Day 2020. The report is part of an ongoing partnership between the African Leadership Institute and the African Union Office of the Youth Envoy, to shift young Africans to the centre of the African development narrative. These efforts are being funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation.

The focus of this report is less on making the self-evident case for the need for young people to operate in governance and the policy realm, but rather on how progress can be accelerated and how African Union member states can achieve greater youth inclusion in public service and government.