President Museveni to launch 8th African Leadership Forum

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President Yoweri Museveni is, on Monday, 7 April 2025, expected to preside over the inauguration of the 8th African Leadership Forum (ALF).

The event is set to take place at Speke Resort Hotel in Kampala on 7–8 April 2025.

Convened by former Tanzanian president, Dr Jakaya Kikwete, and H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the forum will bring together leaders and changemakers from across the continent under the theme: “Realising sustainable development goals in Africa: Progress and way forward.”

The event has been organised as a pre-event to the Eleventh Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD-11), a multi-stakeholder forum scheduled to run from 9 to 11 April 2025.

ALF was conceived in 2014 as a platform for former and current African leaders to interact and share their experiences and knowledge on strategic challenges facing the continent.

Since its inception, seven forums have been held, covering themes such as economic transformation, integration, peace and security, natural resource management, and intra-regional agricultural trade.

The forum will reflect on progress, identify gaps, and reaffirm commitments to advancing the SDGs in Africa.

Race against time

With only five years left to meet these ambitious targets, the forum represents a crucial opportunity to catalyse real change on the continent, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Reports indicate that, while some progress has been made on the SDGs—as reported in voluntary reviews—organising experts are concerned that Africa, like many other parts of the world, is currently off track with most SDG targets and has even seen regression in some areas.

The SDGs form a cohesive and integrated package of global aspirations that the world is committed to achieving, building on the accomplishments of their predecessors—the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Uganda adopted the SDGs in 2015, joining a total of 192 countries in a journey set to conclude in 2030.