The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) was launched by President of the United States Barack Obama as a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders. The need to invest in grooming strong, results-oriented leaders comes out of the statistics: nearly 1 in 3 Africans are between the ages of 10 and 24, and approximately 60% of Africa’s total population is below the age of 35. Who will empower and lead these young Africans? Who will shape the future of business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, and public management? In order to answer these questions, YALI promotes three models designed to identify and empower young leaders: the YALI Mandela Washington Fellowship, YALI Network and now the establishment of Regional Leadership Centers across Africa.
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The program is two pronged by design with the Emerging Leaders Program targeting Africa’s young leaders and the Executive Leadership Program targeting the more experienced African leader group. The overall program entails a combination of taught content as well as practical and in-the-field leadership engagements.The Emerging Leaders Program will teach young African leaders about modern leadership over a period of 17 weeks. The program will be broken down into four phases - a 5 week coursework phase delivered in-person or online and the remaining 12 weeks distributed equally among a mentorship program, internship or community service, and a report writing period. Focusing on the 5 week coursework phase, it will entail three core courses (Leadership and Accountability, Ethics, and Contemporary issues affecting Africa) and one elective course selected from a sample of three courses covering three themes, namely Entrepreneurship, Public Policy and Management, and Civil Society Management. The in-person training will be conducted in Ghana at the Accra RLC whereas the on-line course will be available from any location around West Africa. Course facilitators/trainers will be selected from among proven leaders from Africa and around the world.
Innovative teaching and training approaches will be used to enhance learner experience and motivation. For example, theoretical content will be put into context using case studies, real life organizational analysis as well as site visits among other approaches. Various evaluation methods will be employed including self-evaluation/introspection and assessment of individual or group work by the course facilitator. In order to provide the best experience to online students, the online course platform will offer downloading of training videos, transcripts of lectures as well as lecture notes and reports on field/organizational visits by course participants. Online chat rooms and other communication platforms will be set up to enable learner collaboration (group work, team projects etc.) as well as to allow students engage course facilitators. It is worth noting, however, that the curriculum for both modes of study is the same. The leadership training program has developed and will continue to develop partnerships with leading universities from the United States and Ghana, international and local development organizations as well as the private sector in-order to develop and implement a strong and innovative curriculum that will produce transformative leaders in Africa. Click HERE to register