The student-led brought together students, policymakers, and researchers to address the most pressing development challenges facing the continent. The theme of the conference, “Africa by 2040: The Future of Africa’s Youth,” sparked conversations about the promise of Africa’s young people—and the structural, social, and political issues that will shape their future.
Co-chairs of the conference Femi Olonilua MPA 2025 and Kofi Bempong MPA 2026 reflected on what was discussed and key moments at this year’s African Development Conference.
—&Բ;
What inspired you to get involved with the Africa Development Conference?
As African students navigating elite institutions like Harvard, we were acutely aware of both the responsibility and opportunity we carry. We are often among the few voices from the continent in our classrooms and professional spaces, and it felt imperative to do more than just represent. We wanted to shape the narrative. The Africa Development Conference offered the perfect platform to do that—to convene diverse voices across sectors and borders, to center African excellence, and to shift conversations about the continent from those of deficit to those of agency, brilliance, and leadership. We saw this as an opportunity not only to honor the work of those who have come before us but also to create space for the next generation of African thinkers, builders, and changemakers to step into their power.
What do you see as the most urgent policy issues impacting African nations today?
Many of the challenges we face are well-known: youth unemployment, fragile healthcare systems, under-resourced education, and the growing impacts of climate change. But beneath all of those is a more systemic issue: the crisis of governance. The lack of inclusive, transparent, and accountable leadership continues to undermine even our most well-intentioned policies. When young people are locked out of decision-making, we lose innovation, we lose legitimacy, and we lose time. Addressing this means more than just creating youth ministries or advisory boards. It means rewriting the rules so that young Africans are empowered not just to participate but to lead. It also means embracing a regional lens—leveraging frameworks (AfCFTA) to create shared economic opportunity and push for coherent continental strategies.
What gap in policy discussions were you hoping to fill with this conference?
Too often, the global discourse on Africa is dominated by voices outside the continent or by those who view Africa through the narrow lenses of risk, instability, or aid dependency. Rarely are we asked, “What does Africa want for Africa?” This conference sought to disrupt that pattern. We wanted to create a space where Africans were not just the subject of conversation but the authors of it. Our programming was intentionally designed to surface cross-cutting solutions; to convene policymakers alongside entrepreneurs, artists, and activists; and to emphasize bold, homegrown innovations. We hoped to highlight the role of youth as central to policy design, implementation, and reform. We weren’t just convening panels; we were creating a platform that demanded attention to intergenerational collaboration and long-term impact.
“We hoped to highlight the role of youth as central to policy design, implementation, and reform. We weren’t just convening panels; we were creating a platform that demanded attention to intergenerational collaboration and long-term impact.”
What does the theme of the conference, “Africa by 2040: The Fate of Africa’s Youth,” mean to you?
This theme is both a mirror and a challenge. It invites us to take an honest look at where we are now, and to courageously ask what kind of future we are building for the generations that follow. By 2040, Africa will be home to the world’s largest population of young people. That’s not a footnote in global policy; that’s a headline. And yet, the youth across our continent continue to face exclusion from formal policy processes and limited access to economic mobility. For us, this theme was a call to action: to stop planning for youth and instead start planning with youth. It’s about ensuring that Africa’s future is not just something we theorize about in development frameworks, but something we actively build through education, investment, governance, and technology today. The future of the continent will be determined by the choices we make now, and those choices must be inclusive, bold, and rooted in justice.
What key message did you want to communicate through this event?
At the heart of ADC 2025 was one fundamental message: Africa’s future belongs to Africans—not to foreign aid, not to multilateral institutions, but to the people and communities who are investing, organizing, leading, and dreaming on the continent every single day. We wanted our attendees to walk away understanding that transformative leadership is already here—it just needs to be supported, resourced, and amplified. The conference was an invitation to act: to build partnerships, to scale solutions, and to support the visionaries already doing the work. Our panels and keynotes showcased the immense breadth of talent and thought leadership emerging from Africa and its diaspora. We wanted to create an ecosystem of collaboration—a space where ideas could become strategies and where strategies could become shared action.
“We wanted to create an ecosystem of collaboration—a space where ideas could become strategies and where strategies could become shared action.”
What do you hope attendees took away from the conference?
We hope attendees left feeling deeply seen and powerfully inspired. But more than that, we hope they left with the conviction that they are not alone—that they are part of a much larger movement of Africans and allies committed to rewriting the story of the continent. Whether someone came as a speaker, a student, a policymaker, or a creative, we hope they walked away believing in their agency to shape Africa’s future. We hope they formed new collaborations and had hard conversations. And we hope they carry with them the energy of this weekend long after the panels end. This conference wasn’t the end of anything—it was the beginning of a thousand new connections, new commitments, and new acts of leadership. If we did our job right, ADC 2025 was not just an event. It was a catalyst.
Photos courtesy of Sam Mironko, Davidson Toussaint, and Martha Stewart
