Africa Conference Builds Momentum Ahead of 2025 Edition with Past Successes and Quarterly Convenings
As anticipation builds for the Africa Conference 2025 scheduled for October 2–3 in Abuja, FixPolitics is highlighting the growing impact of the platform since its launch in 2023. Over the past two years, the conference and its quarterly convenings have become one of the continent’s most dynamic spaces for conversations on democracy, governance, and citizen power.
The inaugural Africa Conference in 2023 was hosted at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja as part of the SPPG Class of 2023 Graduation Week. Themed “Governance and Political Trends in Africa: Overview of Citizen Movements and their Impact”, the event brought together disruptive leaders, policy thinkers, and grassroots movements from across Africa. It set the tone for what has now become an annual continental platform, blending academic insight with practical strategies for building democratic resilience.
In 2024, the second edition of the Africa Conference reinforced that momentum. With a strong emphasis on leadership and citizen engagement, the gathering spotlighted how “the quality of governance determines whether a country develops or not.” It attracted diverse participants across Africa and highlighted bold citizen-led ideas for reform. The recap video, widely shared on social media, underscored a growing appetite for authentic, values-driven leadership across the continent.
Beyond the annual conferences, FixPolitics has sustained the conversation through quarterly convenings. These virtual and hybrid sessions provide opportunities for alumni of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), reform advocates, and citizen movements to exchange ideas, track progress, and debate solutions to pressing governance challenges. In 2024, for example, one FixPolitics virtual dialogue featured high-profile voices from Nigeria and Senegal, deepening cross-country solidarity and practical learning among reformers.
These regular convenings have ensured that the Africa Conference is not a once-a-year conversation but part of an ongoing process of building a continental community of practice. They also serve as incubators where new ideas are tested, refined, and amplified before being showcased on the bigger Africa Conference stage.
According to FixPolitics, the aim has always been to create a pipeline of disruptive leaders, strengthen citizen demand for accountability, and reframe the narrative around Africa’s governance crisis. The 2025 edition, themed “Democracy in Crisis: Exploring New Pathways to Governance and Development in Africa,” will build on these foundations, bringing together leaders, activists, and scholars to design context-specific models of governance rooted in African realities.
From its modest beginnings in 2023 to the continent-wide conversations of 2024, and the quarterly convenings that keep reformers connected, the Africa Conference has grown into a continental beacon for democratic renewal. With the Abuja gathering set for October, the platform appears more vital than ever in a period when Africa faces democratic backsliding, legitimacy crises, and urgent demands for accountable governance.
