Initiatives
Practice of Leadership Programme
The Practice of Leadership programme was launched in 2015 as a way of ensuring students, fellows and researchers at the ALC are exposed to the experiences of leaders in the fields of peace, security and development. It complements teaching and research in the Centre and strengthens the theoretical analysis of leadership. The programme consists of the 'Leading practitioners reflectionIn 2016, the African Leadership Centre (ALC) established the Practice of Leadership programme. The programme seeks to embed the reflections and insights from leading practitioners into the academic programme of the African Leadership Centre – at King’s College London and at the ALC in Nairobi – through a formal learning module as well as a knowledge building programme. This has formalized an approach of inter-generational collaboration through which the ALC has documented and published the experiences of senior African practitioners responding to peace and security challenges in Africa and those participating in complex political transitions in their countries.
Leading Practitioners Reflection Series
Leading Practitioners are targeted and invited to reflect on their experiences in several peacebuilding and security situations:
Peace missions or peace operations;
Peace-making or mediation and
Political transitions.
One element of the Practice of Leadership is the role that leading policy actors and practitioners play in the production and transfer of knowledge at the ALC. Typically, select leaders in peace, security and development policy and practice are invited to the ALC to accompany research and teaching. These Leading Practitioners contribute to the generation of empirical evidence and to transforming the student experience at King’s/ALC. In the process, their leadership experiences are systematically documented over a period and subsequently published in a variety of sources.
Select ALC Fellows and Alumni are designated to work with Leading Practitioners to record their reflections and to undertake analyses of these experiences and relevant learning for future situations. This provides an important experience and learning opportunity for ALC Fellows and early career researchers. Attachment to Leading Practitioners offers them an invaluable mentoring opportunity and exposes them to policy actors and practitioners in the network of the Leading Practitioners, that they might otherwise not have access to.
Research Aide:
Dr Albert Mbiatem to Dr Youssef Mahmoud
Dr Akinbode Fasakin to General Martin Luther Agwai
Leonide Awah to Professor Abdoulaye Bathily
Dr Natasha Chilambo to Dr Fatima Akilu
Dr Toyin Ajao to Ms Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi
Dennis Jjuuko to Dr Kizza Besigye
Linganaden Murday to Mr El-Ghassim Wane
Dr Nompilo Ndlovu to Ms Thoko Didiza
Leading Feminist Voices in Africa Project
The Leading Feminist Voices in Africa project was established in 2021 and funded by the African Women's Development Fund.
The objective of this project was to provide a platform for Leading feminists from across the African continent to reflect on and share their leadership journey or involvement in a process of change or, response to a situation that led to change, within the African women’s rights and feminist activist space.
These individual narrations help to offer their perspectives on a situation and experience that will likely have included the participation of many others. Given what is an evident absence of systematic documentation of these narratives, the intention of this project is to highlight and document the journeys of African women who have been at the forefront of significant change on the African continent that have yet to be narrated.
As part of its intergenerational approach, the African Leadership Centre provides a platform for early career scholars and practitioners to learn and work with senior colleagues. Throughout the project, the Practitioners are supported by (early to mid-career) feminist/scholars chosen from the ALC Alumni network body. They contribute to the project as Research Aides to help collect, collate, and conduct the research for the reflection and documentation.
Leading Feminists:
Dr Bev Palesa Ditsie
Zeedah Meierhofer-Mangeli
Dr Mmatshilo Motsei
Stella Mystica Sabiiti
Coumba Toure
Professor Amina Mama
Research Aides:
Tendai Mutukwa to Dr Bev Palesa Ditsie
Ivy Nyawira Wahito to Zeedah Meierhofer-Mangeli
Sara Soumaya Abed to Dr Mmatshilo Motsei
Patricia Nangiro to Stella Mystica Sabiiti
Iris Nxumalo-De Smidt to Coumba Toure
Radwa Saad to Professor Amina Mama