The Obama Foundation Leaders Africa program seeks to build a growing network of innovative and values-based changemakers who will drive positive change in their communities, the continent, and the world.
During the Obamas’ tenure in the White House, they traveled across the African continent and witnessed incredible stories of young African leaders carrying the baton for change. Since then, they’ve formed partnerships to expand opportunities and create new connections for passionate leaders, beginning with the inaugural Leaders Africa program in 2018.
Leaders Africa is a six-month, non-residential, virtual leadership journey for 35 emerging leaders from across the continent focused on exploring values-based leadership skills and building deep relationships with fellow cohort members.
The virtual Leaders Africa program seeks to identify exceptional leaders in public, civil society, and the private sector who have a clear issue-focus and who can illustrate the impact of their work. Our objective is to build a network of values-based leaders, who create positive, innovative change in their communities, throughout Africa, and around the world.
Leaders participate in the following core elements as part of the program:
Weekly Virtual Video Calls These live virtual sessions are the primary form of collective engagement. These connections, an average of four times monthly, offer a mix of new content (conversations with experts, introductions to leadership frameworks, skill-building, etc.) and interactive, small-group work in breakout rooms.
Monthly Community Groups Leaders work in peer learning groups that encourage deeper relationship-building and peer-learning, and offer opportunities to reflect on case studies of prominent African leaders, or discuss open questions from the group sessions.
Individualized Leadership Coaching Each Leader is paired with a coach to help them gain self-awareness, clarify goals, brainstorm ideas, achieve their development objectives, and unlock their potential.
The Leaders Africa Program is currently not accepting applications.