ABOUT THE COURSE

Reimagining Development sets out to build a new working paradigm for Africa’s future. It moves from a clear eyed critique of inherited development frameworks toward analysis that begins from African values, knowledge, and priorities. It asks the questions mainstream development tends to avoid. Who defines development, and for whose benefit? Whose knowledge and evidence are allowed to count? Where is value captured along the commodity chains that anchor African economies? And what does justice require of a continent that contributes a small share of global emissions yet carries much of the climate burden?

The course is organised in three arcs. Foundations examines development narratives, African ethics, and epistemic justice. Structures turns to political economy, leadership and statecraft, and innovation. Futures addresses aid and partnerships, climate and the global commons, and Pan African scenarios for the decades ahead.

The work is participatory and applied. Participants reframe a country’s story through counter narrative design, map where power and value sit in a real commodity chain, negotiate climate finance and partnership terms in structured simulations, and build scenarios for Africa in 2050, grounding their thinking in Ubuntu, Sankofa, Ujamaa, and Teranga and aligning their work with the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

WHAT YOU’LL WALK AWAY WITH

  • A capstone development output of your own: a policy framework, leadership manifesto, project concept, or narrative or media product.
  • The analytical tools to trace where power and value sit in the commodity chains that shape African economies.
  • Negotiation practice from structured simulations on climate finance and partnership terms.
  • A working command of Ubuntu, Sankofa, Ujamaa, and Teranga as active design principles for institutions and policy.
  • Scenarios for Africa in 2050, built and stress tested with your cohort.
  • A cohort of peers shaping development on African terms, and the ALADI alumni community.

WHO IT’S FOR

Leaders, policy practitioners, entrepreneurs, and communicators who want to shape development on African terms.

THE DETAILS

Format: Ten modules organised in three arcs (Foundations, Structures, Futures) across forty four sessions, closing with a three week capstone. Delivered virtually and in person, mirroring the Executive Leadership delivery formats.

Venue: ALADI Sleeping Warrior Camp, Elementaita, with virtual sessions in blended formats