The Alumni of the African Leadership Centre converges in Nairobi for its 5th Biennial General Meeting on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 June 2023. This conference also coincides with the 15th Anniversary of the African Leadership Centre – King’s College London and University of Nairobi.

About

Conference theme: 15 years of African-led scholarship and leadership: Prospects for sustainability and enhanced impact?

In recent times, Africa and much of what is described as the developing world has been plagued with the twin crises of leadership and insecurity. Both Leadership and (In)security as terminologies have assumed a currency for diverse usage in articulating the multiplicity of social, economic and political crises in Africa.

Accordingly, they have become the prism through which actors, researchers and commentators on African affairs have sought to comprehend and respond to the many crises of ineffective public service delivery. Including health systems and wellbeing, energy for both domestic and production usage, education and schooling outcomes, the environment and climate stress, and regional co-operation, economic inadequacies, rising militarisation and peace-building among others.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made leadership and insecurity even more precarious on the continent. Accordingly, these concepts have become increasingly stretched, yet their contextual application remains contested and murky. As concept, both leadership and (in)security rest at the confluence between governance and development, with no clear distinctions on the lines between what is or is not leadership or security.

Agenda

Panel 0 - A conversation with the Experts on 15 years of African-led scholarship and leadership and the prospects for sustainability and enhanced impact. – moderators: Shuvai Nyoni, Clement Sefa-Nyarko

• Introductions and conversations about the theme - Professor Funmi Olonisakin, Professor Karuiti Kanyinga, Brian Kagoro

Panel 1 - Indigenous knowledge systems/ Democracy, leadership and sustainable societies – moderator: Kafui Tsekpo

• From Violence to Sustainable Peace: Social Resilience to Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria - Ibrahim Mohammed Machina
• Ending Communal Conflicts in Africa: The Relevance of Traditional Approaches to Conflict Resolution - Alagaw Ababu Kifle
• The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Post-Conflict Reforms - Saramba Kandeh
• Decolonizing Transitional Justice: Lessons from Kenya and South Sudan - Njoki Wamai

Panel 2 - Gendered leadership, youth, peacebuilding and security/Democracy, leadership and sustainable societies

• Women's Leadership and Activism during Peace Processes: The case of the armed conflict in Anglophone Cameroun - Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo Wondieh
• Is Mutuality Wanting? Urban Governance and City Transformation in Dakar and Nairobi - Balogun Olufemi Samson
• The Role of the Business Sector in Peace, Security and National Healing in Zimbabwe - Debra Mwase
• Effective Leadership for Effective Institutions amidst Institutional Deficits in Africa – Albert Poliquen Mbiatem

Panel 3 - Leadership Development and transformative peace/Effective peacebuilding and the future of our commons

• Intimate Exclusion and Pastoralists’ role in Large Scale Land Acquisition in Kenya - Jackson Wachira
• Chaos, the Arts and Leadership: A strange threesome - Tendai Mtukwa