While East Africa's youth are frequently praised as the region's greatest asset, the true challenge lies in creating the systems that enable them to lead, build institutions, and drive regional integration. The gap between the rhetoric of youth empowerment and meaningful leadership development remains significant. The EAC Youth Fellowship exists to close that gap by preparing a new generation of leaders capable of shaping the region's future.

The third cohort of EAC fellows
In November 2025, the EAC Youth Fellowship convened its third cohort, comprising 30 fellows from the eight EAC partner states, for a leadership programme running until April 2026.

This particular programme had two tracks, Youth in Leadership and Politics and Youth in Business and Enterprises, with climate justice, gender equality, digital transformation and the green transition as cross-cutting issues, framing the world these leaders were being prepared to navigate. The programme was delivered through a blend of virtual and in-person sessions.

Leadership that starts with personal reflection and self-awareness
From the very beginning, the programme was designed as a leadership development journey with a foundational training that challenges participants to confront the most basic, yet often neglected, leadership quality that starts with personal reflection and awareness. Sessions on identity, values, and personal leadership ground participants in the understanding that leadership does not begin in boardrooms or parliaments, but in personal discipline, clarity of purpose, and the ability to influence oneself before others.

Youth in Leadership and Politics
For those on the Leadership and Politics track, discussions extended into governance systems, democratic safeguards and the increasingly complex nature of political participation in hybrid regimes.

“Democracy is not defended by slogans or periodic elections; it is secured by strong institutions, an informed citizenry, and the continuous balancing of power with power. Where these are weak, democracy becomes ceremonial, present in form, absent in substance.”

Prof. Julius Kiiza, associate professor of political economy and development, Makerere University – facilitator of Leadership and Politics

Youth in Business and Enterprises
The Business and Enterprises track immersed fellows in the realities of entrepreneurship in Africa, where innovation often exists alongside structural constraints. Through sessions on business modelling, investment readiness and digital transformation, fellows were challenged to move beyond ideas into execution.

“The difference between a concept and a company is discipline: systems, consistency and the courage to build even when the environment is not ready for you.”

Christian Iradukunda - business track fellow.

The cross-cutting themes
Through the cross-cutting themes of climate justice, gender equality, digital transformation and the green transition, fellows examined the structural inequalities behind the climate crisis and its lived inequalities. They also grappled with the systemic barriers that continue to determine who has access to leadership and the governance implications of a rapidly digitalising world. 

Exploring political processes
The fellowship programme also prepares young leaders to engage with the architecture of regional integration. During its in-person sessions, fellows visit the East African Community headquarters in Arusha gaining a first-hand understanding of how policies are negotiated, implemented and sustained at a regional level. This exposure prepares the young leaders to think, build relations and lead so that they can also operate beyond national boundaries.

The EAC Youth Fellowship is a leadership development programme that is delivered through the YouLead Africa Program. Established in 2023, the fellowship is a joint initiative of MS TCDC, the EAC Secretariat, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete Foundation, Julius Nyerere Leadership Centre, and the Emerging Leaders Foundation, with support from Danida Fellowship Centre (DFC).

David Nyaribi is Together for Impact’s partnerships and learning coordinator and Stuart Amanya Communications Associate, Youlead Africa.

For a period of seven months the EAC Youth Fellowship equipped 30 emerging leaders from all eight EAC partner states with the knowledge and skills needed for self-leadership and regional integration to translate their potential into tangible cross-border impact.