Our third strategic priority is to “unleash the network”, we will nurture diverse pathways to impact, and foster a lifelong, collaborative relationship with alumni. Our graduates have demonstrated that we can and should expect them to have impact on Africa’s public, private, and social sectors. But the magnitude of their impact will be enhanced through their work together.

As we move forward, we will draw upon the lessons from the past five years to optimize our existing programs for graduates, and we will make selective investments that accelerate the careers of leaders across a range of sector pathways, from entrepreneurship to public health to public service.

In 2023, active sector-level interest groups will exchange ideas and support each other’s development and impact. Because one of our founding beliefs was the importance of entrepreneurship to Africa’s future, we will seek to deepen our understanding of entrepreneurial pathways in Africa. We will continue our investment in the Anzisha Program, drawing upon lessons to date to grow our impact. Under that umbrella, we will also pilot a targeted accelerator for young entrepreneurs in the education sector, which we expect to launch in 2018.

Today, over 2,000 young people in Africa attend schools founded and run by ALA graduates, a number that is growing rapidly. We believe that targeted work with this cohort – who work in the sector we understand best and in which our networks are strongest – will provide valuable lessons on how to catalyze graduate entrepreneurs toward ‘impact at scale’, and allow ALA to have broader systemic impact in education. We will apply lessons from this work to future activities that support graduates on other pathways. significantly to reflect our deeper understanding of how we accelerate trajectories and enable transformative leadership. Each year, we will map a learning agenda, with a set of experiments that will test new adaptations to our curriculum and program.