Albert Oppong-Ansah
Accra, Sept. 1, GNA – An African convening aimed at advancing locally led development and shifting decision-making power to African institutions opened in Accra on Tuesday, with speakers calling for greater agency, ownership and recognition of African knowledge systems in shaping the continent’s future.
The three-day Africa at the Centre: Leading Change, Shifting Power convening has brought together more than 200 leaders from 30 countries, including civil society actors, policymakers, development practitioners, philanthropists, researchers, social innovators and members of the African diaspora to examine how Africa can take greater control of its development agenda.
Participants are expected to discuss practical approaches to strengthening African leadership, redefining partnerships, mobilising local resources and ensuring that communities play a central role in determining development priorities.
Delivering the welcome address, Dr Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), said the continent should not have to seek inclusion in decisions affecting its own future.
“A bird cannot fly on borrowed wings. Africa belongs at the centre. Africa actually is the centre,” she said.
Dr Afadzinu noted that long before colonial rule, African societies had built strong systems of trade, governance, science, innovation and social organisation, but historical injustices and external influences had gradually pushed Africa to the margins of decisions concerning its development.
She said many development priorities, funding arrangements and measures of success continued to be determined outside the continent, leaving African institutions to implement programmes they had little role in designing.
“For too long, Africans have been asked to implement priorities they did not define within systems they did not design,” she stated.
The WACSI Executive Director said a rapidly changing development landscape, characterised by shrinking donor funding and multiple global crises, presented Africa with an opportunity to reassess existing models and reclaim ownership of development processes.
“This moment gives us a choice: simply adjust to a changing development system, or use the moment to rethink who shapes it, who resources it and whose knowledge defines its future,” she said.
She said, shifting power was not merely about Africans occupying seats at decision-making tables, but about controlling resources, setting agendas and determining what constitutes success.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Presidential Special Envoy for Reparations, underscored the need for African countries to pursue development models anchored on self-confidence, innovation and strategic leadership.
He said Africa possessed abundant human and natural resources but often failed to leverage them effectively because of structural weaknesses, fragmented approaches and overreliance on external actors.
Dr Spio-Garbrah said meaningful transformation would require stronger African institutions and leadership committed to long-term development rather than short-term interests.
He called on governments, civil society organisations, academia and the private sector to work together to build systems that reflected African realities and aspirations.
The former minister also stressed the importance of investing in young people, innovation and knowledge generation as part of efforts to strengthen Africa’s competitiveness and reduce dependency on external support.
Participants at the convening later echoed concerns about power imbalances in global development systems and the need to place African experiences and expertise at the centre of policy formulation and implementation.
Addressing the gathering virtually, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, United Kingdom Member of Parliament for Clapham and Brixton Hill, argued that development and reparatory justice were closely linked because both sought to address questions of power, inclusion and self-determination.
“For most of our lifetime, development has been something done to our people rather than by them,” she said.
She maintained that while development institutions had increasingly embraced language around partnership, localisation and community-led action, decision-making authority often remained concentrated in external institutions.
“If we want different outcomes, the power itself has to move, not the language around the power, but the power itself,” she stressed.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy described the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism as processes that stripped Africans of agency and control over their destinies, arguing that restoring agency must be central to both development and reparatory justice efforts.
“Agency was the crime and agency has to be the remedy,” she said.
She further challenged prevailing assumptions that solutions must come from outside the continent, insisting that African societies had long developed effective approaches to agriculture, justice, environmental stewardship and community resilience.
“The knowledge was never missing. What has been missing is the respect, the resources and the willingness to let that knowledge lead,” she stated.
The UK lawmaker also called for stronger collaboration between Africa and its diaspora, describing the relationship as a strategic partnership capable of influencing institutions and policies beyond the continent.
The convening will proceed through three thematic phases: Remember and Locate, which will examine the historical and structural factors shaping current development systems; Disrupt and Reimagine, which will explore alternatives centred on African leadership and self-determination; and Build and Steward, aimed at translating ideas into lasting commitments and collaborative action.
Organisers say the meeting seeks to move conversations on African ownership beyond rhetoric and towards practical actions that place Africans at the centre of decisions affecting the continent’s future and development trajectory.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei
1st September 2026
Reporter: Albert Oppong-Ansah
Email: [email protected] This story was a collaboration with New Narratives.