Background
The African Leadership Centre (ALC) was established in Nairobi Kenya on the 24th June 2010 as an educational trust under Kenyan law, and in partnership with King’s College London and the University of Nairobi. The ALC and its flagship programmes grew out of the Conflict, Security and Development Group (CSDG) at King’s College London. The ALC aims to do the following:
• To train and mentor young Africans with the potential to lead and enable innovative change in their communities and in the African region.
• To build the capacity of the individuals we train, and in so doing, ofthe communities, institutions and organizations in which they live and work.
• To contribute to building a wholistic knowledge base, based on theory and critical analysis, on the causes of conflict and insecurity in Africa
•To nurture a solid knowledge base among ALC Fellows/ Alumni thereby forming a foundation for innovation and agenda-setting.
• To increase, in scope and quality, knowledge on peace, security and development within select academic institutions in Africa.
• To contribute to critical engagement with global discourses on peace, security and development.
• To contribute to nurturing and upscaling the generation and ownership of African ideas around peace, security and development for Africa and that are grounded in African realities.
Vision
A new community of leaders generating cutting-edge knowledge for peace, security and development in Africa.
Mission
To train a new generation of Africans and serve as a forum for transformative discourse on peace, security and development in Africa
The ALC seeks to achieve its mission by:
• Building a critical mass of next generation scholars and practitioners.
• Facilitating a core of institutions to achieve a transformed landscape for thinking about peace and security for sustainable development in Africa.
• Building a knowledge base to support these efforts.
• Projecting its voice and image within Africa in particular and in relevant global spaces.
2015 – 2019 Strategic Objectives
1. The quality of leadership and discourse in key peace, security and development policy and decision making spaces in Africa improved and increased
2. ALC programmes and operations effectively and efficiently led/governed, managed and sustained to 2019
The ALC is anchored on and guided by these core values:
• Promoting African-led ideas and processes of change
• Pursuit of excellence
• Encouraging independent thinking
• Respect for diversity in all its forms – not least gender, religion, class and beliefs
• Recognition of youth agency
• Integrity
Achievements so Far
• Increased pool of Fellows (100 Fellows trained so far), many of whom are high performing – trained at the ALC with an expanded and relevant knowledge base.
• Noticeable advancement of Fellows trained on the programme – i.e. moving into higher degrees, more prominent positions in policy institutions, etc.
• ALC partners that are relevant and add value to ALC’s overall agenda
• A steady evolution into a “knowledge kernel” on peace, security and development in Africa.
• Increasing linkages with relevant national, regional and global processes on peace, security and development