Africa Health Collaborative Convening to Spotlight Youth, African-Led Innovation, and Systems Change in Primary Health Care

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Spotlight

Country

Rwanda

Pillar

Network Learning & Development

Coming to you from the land of a thousand hills, this year’s Africa Health Collaborative (AHC) Annual Convening is hosted by The African Leadership University, under the theme “From Potential to Impact: Advancing Africa’s Health Workforce and Innovation Ecosystems.”

This year’s Convening will bring together leaders and innovators from government, academia, civil society, and the private sector to explore practical solutions for strengthening Africa’s primary health care systems through workforce development, entrepreneurship, institutional collaboration, and innovation.

More than a dialogue, this Convening is a continental call to action — co-creating a roadmap to translate Africa’s health innovation potential into measurable, national-level impact. The theme reflects a common goal: to amplify what’s working, scale bold innovations, and strengthen the people and organisations driving progress on the ground.

The AHC is a collaboration of nine universities in Africa and Canada working in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation to transform primary health care. Together, they aim to train 30,000 health professionals and support 5,000 youth-led health ventures. This Convening will accelerate that vision, ensuring that policy and investment follow Africa’s homegrown solutions.

A Co-Created Platform for Collaboration and Policy Impact

The 2025 Convening builds on AHC’s mission to foster cross-institutional collaboration and shared learning among Africa’s leading universities and health actors. Participants will:

• Strengthen partnerships and shared tools for tackling health challenges through joint programming;
• Showcase workforce development models that align with Africa’s evolving health needs;
• Review and adapt community-led models that can be scaled or integrated into academic and policy frameworks;
• Develop tangible commitments to advance AHC’s collective goals beyond the Convening.

Through these discussions, the Convening will help transform innovation into implementation — ensuring promising solutions are embedded in policy, scaled through institutions, and sustained through African leadership.

Distinguished Participation

The Kigali Convening will host a distinguished group of leaders from across Africa and beyond, including:

Guest Speakers

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Their participation reflects the growing recognition of AHC as a convener of action-oriented dialogue on health systems in Africa and a catalyst for collaborative, system-wide transformation.

This year’s Africa Health Collaborative convening will showcase further innovation milestones and launch a new era policy co-creation framework, said Dr. Nhlanhla Thwala, Vice Chancellor of the African Leadership University and Chair of the Executive Steering Committee, Africa Health Collaborative.

Watch the opening ceremony live on YouTube:

Scenes from last year’s Convening