News
The latest news from the African Leadership Institute and its Fellows. AFLI Fellows are leaders and change-makers, so this section has a lot of news. All text in all of the posts is fully searchable.
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2019 Tutu Fellow Samson Itodo was appointed by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), for a three-year tenure beginning in 2021. International IDEA is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide. The board of advisers of IDEA play the major role of advising the council of member states and the secretariat on matters of strategic importance.
Samson is the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, a community of change-makers focused on building sustainable democracies in Africa. YIAGA promotes the principles of inclusion, justice, accountability and constitutionalism, which successfully lead the #NotTooYoungToRun movement.
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- Written by: Norman Smit
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2013 Tutu Fellow Catherine Constantinides offers her experience with COVID-19 as a cautionary tale. She was young, healthy, and with no comorbidities, and when she caught the virus in July it almost killed her. She describes her difficult recovery as a nightmare. She shares her experience in the hope that people will take the necessary precautions against spreading or catching the disease.
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2014 Tutu Fellow Mireille Tushiminina has been appointed the Global Coordinator for the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Eliminate FGM is the largest global programme to accelerate the end of FGM and advance the rights, health and well-being of women and girls.
Despite being internationally recognized as a human rights violation, some 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, and if current rates persist, an estimated 68 million more will be cut by 2030. Female genital mutilation refers to any procedure involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genitals for non-medical reasons.
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2013 Tutu Fellow Tomiwa Aladekomo has been been appointed as the Acting National Chair of the Youth Party, a registered political party in Nigeria, in preparation for the 2023 general elections. This appointment was announced by Party Chairman Seun Sule and the Board of Trustees in a statement in late October 2020. Tomiwa's appointment is expected to be ratified at the party’s convention in March 2021.
The Youth Party recently regained the right to compete in all elections moving forward till 2023, following a Federal High Court ruling.
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Professor Jumoke Oduwole, a 2013 Tutu Fellow, and Ada Osakwe, a 2014 Tutu Fellow, are among 20 contributors to the UNDP in Africa’s The Futures Report: Making the AfCFTA Work for Women and Youth.
AfCFTA - or, the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area is a legal instrument – among the African Union Member States to create a single market. This report argues that the AfCFTA represents much more: “on the one hand, it is a significant milestone on the journey to African integration and development. On the other hand, it is a catalyst for new ways of doing business, producing, working and trading within Africa and with the rest of the world.”
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A 2009 Tutu Fellow,Dr Julie Makani, has been awarded the Dr Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health. The award, which was made in November 2020, is awarded annually to a person, institution, a governmental or nongovernmental organization that has made an outstanding contribution to public health. It was presented at a special ceremony during the World Health Organisation Assembly.
Julie was awarded the prestigious prize at the WHO event due to her leading work at the Sickle Cell Disease Consortium in Tanzania, which provides an academic and scientific environment that serves as a platform for the professional development of clinicians and scientists working to combat sickle cell disease.
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2012 Tutu Fellow Swaady Martin has launched an independent publishing house and online store called Loving Kindness Boma. It provides resources to help cultivate a culture of love, kindness, compassion, understanding, mindfulness, introspection and self-love within the family. Loving Kindness Boma provides a selection of beautifully illustrated stories with diverse main characters created to foster conscious values, social-emotional wellbeing and mindfulness in children.
Swaady explains on the site that the choice of the name borrows from the African tradition of a Boma being a place for storytelling and a coming together of people.
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- Written by: Norman Smit
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2019 Tutu Fellow Robin Miller has been appointed to serve on the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on the New Agenda for Work, Wages and Job Creation. The council considers what the new pathways are to creating more and better jobs in the new economy. The work of the council is possibly more relevant than ever when seen against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis that has led to significant economic and social disruption with sharp increases in unemployment and underemployment and radical changes in how work is done. This disruption could accelerate previous trends towards the displacement of workers through automation and digitalization – possibly leading to a jobless recovery – without proactive efforts by governments, business and workers.
Robin is a Partner and founding member of Dalberg’s Africa Team and has been recognized as a thought leader and expert on the topic of digital transformation on a range of global platforms, including the BBC, Financial Times, and the World Economic Forum.
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Forbes Africa Magazine has profiled 2013 Fellow Danladi Veheijen and Eric Idiahi who was selected for the Tutu Fellowship Class of 2020 in their cover story of the October/ November 2020 Special Edition on Private Equity in Africa. Danladi and Eric are co-founders of Verod Capital Management Limited. They founded the company at the apex of the global financial crisis in 2008, and it was one of the first indigenous venture capitalist firms in Nigeria.
Verod is a $300 million Africa-focused private equity firm which invests in high growth, medium sized companies across several sectors, including consumer products, manufacturing, technology/media and real estate.
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2007 Tutu Fellow Brilliant Mhlanga has written an intimate and moving tribute for the late former Ghanaian President and military officer, Jerry John Rawlings. JJ Rawlings - as he was commonly known - led the country from 1981 to 2001, a period that included a military junta until 1992. He went on to serve two terms as the democratically-elected president of Ghana, stepping down at the end of the constitutionally-limited time frame.
Brilliant describes Jerry Rawlings as a “true Pan African” and a “Giant of Africa”, giving us an intimate look into this man's personality, political views, and dreams for the African continent.
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The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) has announced the appointment of 2012 Tutu Fellow Lydie Hakizimana as its Chief Executive Officer. The AIMS International Governing Board (IGB) made the announcement on the 4th of November 2020, following a unanimous decision.
Founded in 2003, AIMS is a pan-African network of centres of excellence for post-graduate training in mathematical sciences, research and public engagement in STEM. With centres in South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon and Rwanda, AIMS is leading Africa’s socio-economic transformation through innovative scientific training, cutting-edge research, and public engagement.
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2019 Tutu Fellow Edwine Barasa PhD has been appointed visiting Professor of Health Economics at the University of Oxford. In this role, he will be responsible for Health Economics research, student supervision, and teaching at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford.
Edwine is already a professor, and the Director of the Nairobi Programme of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme and also heads the Programme’s Health Economics Research Unit. He has a PhD in Health Economics (University of Cape Town), a Master’s degree in Health Economics (University of Cape Town), and a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy (University of Nairobi).
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In October 2020, the African Union Youth Envoy, Aya Chebbi, had an audience with the Namibian President, Hage Geingob, and spoke at the opening of the South Sudan National Dialogue, where the tenets and recommendations of the report: Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Public Service and Governance were put forward.
Copies of the report have also been distributed to the AU Commission Chairperson Mousa Faki and the 55 African Union member states represented in Addis Ababa. Copies were also shared with the Ambassadors to the AU from Algeria, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa.
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2014 Tutu Fellow Linda Kasonde has been at the forefront of a legal battle since 2019 to prevent a change to the constitution by the Zambian government. Zambia’s Constitution Amendment Bill (No. 10 of 2019) aimed at weakening the legislature, judiciary, and state institutions that provide necessary checks and balances. “Bill 10”, as it was known, also threatened to change the electoral system to make it easier for the incumbent to win the 2021 presidential election and to hold on to power through gerrymandering. In a victory for the people, the bill has been defeated in the legislature.
Chapter One Foundation - which she founded - and the Law Association of Zambia, sued the state on the basis that the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill was unconstitutional when it was first proposed.
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In October 2020, two Nigerian Tutu Fellows, Akin Oyebode and Serah Ugbabe, co-hosted a Zoom discussion, entitled, Let’s Run for Office: Spotlight on Local Government Chairman. The guest speaker for the event was Folarin Gbadebo-Smith PhD, the Director General for the Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research as well as the Local Government Chairman for Lagos from 2003- 2007.
In the Zoom discussion, Folarin shared his history, personal anecedotes, and insights into working and rising through local governance in Nigeria.
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- Fellow appointed as VP of International Affiliated Institutes at the Chartered Insurance Institute
- Open Letter to President Buhari from Archbishop Tutu Fellows
- Fellow on UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
- South African power utility appoints Fellow as GM of People Relations
- Trevor Manuel to chair AFLI's Board of Directors
- Aidan Eyakuze elected to lead at the Open Government Partnership
- Bibi Bakare Yusuf wins Distinguished Africanist Award
- Fellow releases Board Diversity Index for Ghana listed companies
- Nigeria appoints Fellow to assist with development planning
- Access Bank appoints Hassan Usman to the board
About AFLI
The African Leadership Institute (AFLI) is unique among leadership initiatives in that it focuses on building the capacity and capability of visionary and strategic leadership across the continent. Developing exceptional leaders representing all spheres of society, the Institute’s flagship programme is the prestigious Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship. Offering a multifaceted learning experience and run in partnership with Oxford University, it is awarded annually to 20-25 carefully chosen candidates, nominated from across Africa. Alumni of the African Leadership Institute form a dynamic network of Fellows passionately committed to the continent’s transformation, bridging the divide between nations and ensuring that Africa is set centre-stage in global affairs.