KAMPALA, July 29, 2026 — The Kigali-based African School of Governance [ASG] will host the inaugural Africa Mindset Reset Forum, an Africa-led convening focused on the leadership mindsets, institutions and results-oriented culture of execution needed for the continent to realise its sovereign development ambitions.
The Forum will take place on August 25-26, 2026 at the Kigali Convention Centre, bringing together leaders from across Africa and beyond, with 80 percent of participants expected to be young and emerging leaders. It is conceived not as another conference about Africa’s challenges, but as a platform to spotlight the critical role of leadership and mindsets, showcase what is already working, connect the people and institutions driving change, and move from dialogue to delivery.
The Forum comes at a defining moment for the continent, as global geopolitics shift, superpower competition intensifies, development finance tightens, artificial intelligence transforms economies and demographic change accelerates.
This context requires African countries to increasingly address their own challenges through African leadership and home-grown solutions. Yet no single African country is large or strong enough to do it alone. The destiny of the continent, therefore, lies in working together as one. This requires a new leadership mindset that promotes effective African integration.
The continent has no shortage of talent, natural resources or entrepreneurial energy. The Forum argues that Africa’s next challenge is less about potential than about organising these strengths into capable institutions, effective leadership and systems that consistently deliver results together.
For millions of young Africans, this is far from theoretical. It will shape how economies create dignified work and how education equips graduates with future-ready skills. It will also address how entrepreneurs can build businesses that scale, as well as the need for open borders that enable Africans to cross freely for trade and opportunity. The Forum treats these not simply as policy questions, but as leadership questions influenced by the mindsets of those in charge. How these challenges are addressed will help define the opportunities available to this generation and the next.
Held under the theme “From Pan-Africanism to Meta-Africanism,” the Forum seeks to define Africa’s next chapter. Long before the struggle for independence, Africa pioneered and built civilisations rooted in knowledge and culture, with libraries and universities, monarchies, and systems of trade and governance that shaped the wider world. Pan-Africanism later drew on this inheritance to build the solidarity that helped win the continent’s freedom.
Meta-Africanism is the Forum’s term for what comes next: a chapter that asks Africans to look beyond what they can be freed from and consider what they should build with their freedom, standing on the shoulders of those who came before. It is Africa’s next historic challenge: to build a modern and prosperous Africa, together as one.
“Our forebears fought to free this continent. Our charge is different – the next phase of Pan-Africanism, beyond political liberation to economic creation, together as a continent. It asks something of all of us: to serve beyond self-interest, and to do the patient, unglamorous work of building institutions that outlast us. This moment belongs to those ready to do that work, and it starts with a mindset reset,” said Francis Gatare, President of the African School of Governance.
Unlike many gatherings, the Africa Mindset Reset Forum is designed to continue well beyond the two-day event. Through year-round thematic networks and action platforms, participants will pursue practical ideas and partnerships to strengthen governance, advance regional integration, improve state effectiveness, steward Africa’s natural resources and expand dignified work.
Young Africans are central to that vision. Rather than treating youth as beneficiaries of some future development, the Forum recognises them as today’s entrepreneurs, innovators and public leaders, reflecting a simple conviction: Africa’s transformation cannot be designed for young people without being shaped by them.
“We often tell young people they are the future. That is not quite true. They are the present. The entrepreneurs, researchers and public servants who will decide Africa’s direction are already here, already at work. Our task is not to plan Africa’s future on their behalf, but to build it with them, and then to trust them with it. That is why this is an Intergenerational Forum and it belongs, first, to the youth,” said Hailemariam Desalegn, Co-Founder of the African School of Governance and former Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
The Forum is built around seven transformational mindset shifts that encourage movement from fixed to growth mindsets, closed to open, pessimism to possibility, reactive to proactive, scarcity to abundance, victimhood to responsibility, and mediocrity to excellence. Together, these shifts seek to cultivate a new mindset that strengthens leadership and institutions and enhances Africa’s capacity to shape its own future.
Ultimately, the Africa Mindset Reset Forum asks a question that matters to every African: What is today’s generation of African leaders bequeathing to the next? Will the next generation inherit a continent known primarily for its potential, or one recognised for its ability to build world-class institutions, create opportunity, compete globally and shape its own destiny?
Buy your copy of thecooperator magazine from one of our country-wide vending points or an e-copy on emag.thecooperator.news
