African Union agency and Wits University launch executive programme to overhaul public sector governance across Africa.
The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Governance (WSG) recently formally launched a strategic partnership to deliver a high-level Executive Management Programme aimed at strengthening public sector leadership across the African continent – an initiative that its architects say directly addresses a governance deficit threatening the realisation of Agenda 2063.
The launch, held at the Wits Anglo American Digital Dome in Johannesburg, was attended by South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Maropene Ramokgopa; AUDA-NEPAD Chief Executive Officer H.E. Nardos Bekele-Thomas; Wits School of Governance Head Professor Themba Maseko; and the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Garth Stevens. A formal partnership signing ceremony preceded a high-level keynote dialogue on the future of governance and public sector transformation in Africa.
The five-day programme convened ambassadors, senior public officials, and high-level policymakers for executive-level engagement on innovation, digital transformation, governance reform, and sustainable development.
“Strengthening institutional capacity and innovation within the public sector is essential to delivering inclusive growth, social justice, and sustainable development outcomes in line with Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.”
The programme is structured around five thematic pillars: public sector innovation and institutional reform; global health and sexual and reproductive health systems; financing systems and fiscal sustainability; digitalisation and artificial intelligence; and institutional resilience and governance transformation. Participants will engage through applied dialogue, peer learning, and expert-led sessions designed to yield practical policy tools.
The partnership comes as African governments face converging pressures: rapid technological change, demographic growth, fiscal tightening, and rising citizen expectations for accountability and service delivery. AUDA-NEPAD, the technical arm of the African Union mandated to coordinate continental development programmes, has identified institutional capacity as a critical gap in translating frameworks such as Agenda 2063 into ground-level outcomes.
The Wits School of Governance, which brings more than three decades of experience in executive training, policy development, and institutional reform, is positioned as the academic and pedagogical anchor of the programme. Its partnership with AUDA-NEPAD represents an institutionalisation of the relationship between African higher education and the continental policy architecture.
The programme’s objectives include strengthening leadership capacity among senior public officials, promoting innovation-driven governance reform, enhancing policy coherence aligned with Agenda 2063, fostering peer learning across the continent, and equipping leaders with practical tools for digital and institutional transformation.
This article is published with permission from The African Mirror.