ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The Amplifying African Voices for Strategic Action (AFSA) conference is an annual event held in different cities across Africa. Its overarching goal is to advance and amplify African agency and enhance African voices continentally and globally. The inaugural AFSA conference was held in October-November 2024 at Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya. In 2025, the conference convened at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, under the theme “Africa in the G20: Advancing Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability.” The third conference will be held in November 2026, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the theme of “Africa and the United Nations: Shifting Global Order, Multilateralism, and Reforms.

The United Nations (UN), established in 1945 in San Francisco in the aftermath of the Second World War, emerged as the successor to the failed League of Nations, created in 1919. At the heart of the UN Charter is the founding principle that states should “live together in peace with one another as good neighbours,” emphasising peaceful coexistence, mutual respect for sovereignty, and the avoidance of force in resolving disputes. Yet, eighty-one years later, the world finds itself in a state of complex turbulence that in many ways resembles the pre-World War II era, characterised by a fragile post-World War I peace, economic instability marked by the Great Depression, and the rise of aggressive authoritarian regimes that shaped intractable global political, economic, and social conditions, that precipitated the onset of World War II. It is now widely acknowledged that the UN is at one of its weakest points institutionally, especially in its ability to manage accelerating global challenges. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa, a continent burdened by deep social, political, and economic fragilities, which has borne the greatest impact of the UN’s shortcomings—despite the organisation’s expanded presence on the continent.

Building on the above context of the AFSA 2026 conference situates Africa within the UN system to provide a platform to deliberate on waning multilateralism and its impacts on the 54-nation region, tied to global economic and political power shifts. Significantly, it will discuss the key strategies for pursuing African interests and demands in the ongoing UN reform agendas and Africa’s position in the emerging multipolar world.

Goal

The overall conference goal is to advance the discussion and recommendations from the AFSA 2025 on African agency by analysing and interrogating the critical question of Africa’s interests and demands in the United Nations. The aim is to broaden the knowledge of scholars, practitioners, leaders, and policymakers on the impact and consequences of the shifting world order on Africa’s interests and positioning in the UN. In particular, the conference will frame discussions on the current state of the UN-led multilateralism, while advancing practical and strategic insights on how Africa can more effectively shape and contribute to the ongoing UN reform processes.

Conference Structure

The conference will be delivered through:

• Keynote speeches.
• Plenary sessions.
• Roundtable discussions.
• Panel discussions.

Sponsorship Opportunities

We expect to host 300 participants from universities, think tanks, governmental organisations, diplomatic missions, international organisations, civil society, and businesses. All five regions of Africa will be represented. Sponsorship benefits are as follows:

• Branding and positioning in all pre-event, event, and post-event activities.
• The inclusion of your organisation’s logos and other promotional materials in all conference multimedia platforms.
• Display of your organization’s banners during the awards ceremony and the conference.
• Speaking slots in the conference programme.
• Be an acknowledged partner in the knowledge production outputs in the post-conference period.
• Using your organisation as a case study showcasing the excellent work that you do or intend to do in promoting Africa’s global economic, trade, and investment interests.
• An opportunity to use the Conference as a springboard for the promotion of your corporate social responsibility and social investment projects.

The Sponsorship Categories are as follows:

• Platinum: R500,000 ($27,000) – full sponsorship benefits.
• Gold: R300,000 ($16,000) – 7 of the conference sponsorship benefits.
• Silver R200,000 ($10,700) – 5 of the conference sponsorship benefits.
• Bronze R100,000 ($5,400) – 3 of the conference sponsorship benefits.