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Application Deadline: December 4, 2026
Applications are now open for the 2027/2028 Obama Foundation Leaders Program. The Obama Foundation Leaders Program is an eight-month, global virtual leadership development journey. Designed for changemakers aged 24 to 45 across various sectors, the program brings together diverse cohorts to collaborate, share insights, and strengthen their values-based leadership. The program is open across four regions and free to all participants.
Obama Foundation’s Africa Leaders Program
Leaders Africa is an eight-month, hybrid leadership journey for 35 leaders from across the African-continent, focused on exploring values-based leadership skills and building deep relationships with fellow cohort members.
Requirements
Across the spectrum of diversity, the program endeavor to identify applicants and invite Leaders to the program who:
- Possess a clear issue of focus and can describe or measure their impacts.
- Hold a leadership position in their changemaking work, whether full-time or volunteer (there are no leadership rank or title requirements).
- Demonstrate a deeply ethical, values-based, equitable, and collaborative approach to leadership.
- Demonstrate a willingness to learn from and share with other Leaders in a group setting.
Program Details
For an average of 8-12 hours per month, the program will bring together cohorts of leaders from across the regions. Participants (known as “Obama Leaders” or “Leaders”) will take part in weekly sessions that include:
- Practical tools and training for deepening values-based leadership
- Curated spaces for deep personal reflection and interpersonal learning with peers
- Community groups
- Conversations with thought leaders
- Leadership coaching
- Cultural programming that showcases the richness of diversity in the region
The Leaders Africa program identifies exceptional trailblazers in public, civil society, and the private sector who have a clear issue-focus and who can illustrate the impact of their work. The program helps build a network of values-based leaders, who create positive, innovative change in their communities, throughout Africa, and around the world.
- Weekly Group Learning Sessions: Weekly virtual group sessions offer a mix of collective engagement including conversations on leadership frameworks, engagements with regional-based individuals in relevant subject areas, and interactive, small-group work in breakout spaces.
- Monthly Community Groups: Leaders work in learning groups with their other program participants that encourage deeper relationship-building and peer-learning, and offer opportunities to reflect on case studies of prominent African leaders and issues.
- Individualized Leadership and Regional Coaching: Each Leader is supported by a cadre of coaching engagements to help them gain self-awareness, clarify goals, brainstorm ideas, achieve their development objectives, unlock their potential, and dive into more specificity on issue-based area regional challenges and opportunities.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Obama Foundation’s Leaders Program