The Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI), inspired by a Henry Crown Fellow, aims to develop a new generation of values-based community spirited leaders in Africa.  ALI has programs in East Africa (Kenya Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda), West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria), South Africa and there is a class of Fellows from Mozambique.   

ALI Fellows are highly successful entrepreneurial individuals who come from business, government and civil society. 

Fellows are selected through a nomination process managed by a committee of Fellows and Senior Mentors.  The goal is to assemble classes of 20-24 that are diverse in viewpoint, political affiliation, industry, ethnicity and gender.  Emphasis is placed on men and women of integrity, vision, a passion for change, an entrepreneurial can-do spirit and that have achieved a high degree of success in their fields of work.

Each class of Fellows participates in four intensive week long seminars together over 18 months.  Each Fellow is also required to carry-out a project of their own design and passion for the betterment of their society. The projects seek a tangible demonstration of the Fellows’ commitment to community service in a leadership capacity, and encourage Fellows to expand their leadership abilities while making a contribution.  Importantly, the projects serve as values-based leadership in action.

ALI Fellows join more than 1300 Fellows (and growing) in 43 countries as members of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN). Members of the AGLN have participated in a values-based leadership program modeled on the Henry Crown Fellowship program and are all committed to addressing the foremost challenges of their communities and times.  The AGLN ensures Fellows remain active and connected with additional seminars and gatherings; a searchable database of Fellows around the world; and an on-line community geared to discussions on the global challenges of our time and how Fellows around the world might work together to address those challenges.

The Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI) is a collaborative effort of seven partner organizations in Africa and the United States – Infotech Investments (Tanzania), The Aspen Institute (United States), CETA Construction Services (Mozambique), the Databank Foundation (Ghana), LEAP Africa (Nigeria), The Letsema Foundation (South Africa), and TechnoServe (Africa and United States). 

The four seminars are:

  • The Challenge of Leadership: A seminar which asks Fellows to think about their own role and responsibility as leaders as they are exposed to a range of leaders offering different leadership styles and models.  Among them are Ricardo Semler of Semco (Brazil), Mahatma Gandhi, Jean Monnet, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Lee Kwan Yew. The Fellows produce a personal handbook of the attributes of effective, enlightened leaders and of what such leaders do and do not do. 
  • The Aspen Seminar: Is the Aspen Institute’s flagship seminar. During this seminar Fellows build their own vision of the “good society” by reading, discussing, debating and relating the writings of a wide range of thinkers to their present-day conditions.  Thinkers include Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes, Milton Friedman, Julius Nyerere, Rachel Carson, Ibn Khaldun, and others.  The Fellows share their personal thoughts on the proper role of government in society as well as on the sorts of trade-offs they are willing to accept in the name of economic growth. 
  • Leading in an Era of Globalization: A seminar in which the Fellows explore a wide range of ways globalization is influencing their world -- economic, political, scientific, cultural and ethical. Fellows also look at what globalization means for their leadership and where there might be opportunities to harness the forces of globalization for good and asks them to think about where they might draw the line its influences.
  • The Promise of Leadership: Is the final seminar in the series of four and is the most introspective.  In this seminar Fellows share the results and lessons learned from their Leadership Projects and explore issues of balancing work and family, community engagement and personal legacy. They are poised from here to engage in the next phase of their leadership and have begun their journey from success to significance.