Call for Applications: Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme 2026

Published: September 20, 2025
Deadline: September 21, 2025
Category: Fellowship Training

The 2026 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Program is now accepting applications. Interested candidates are urged to click here to learn more about this opportunity and to apply.

About Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme

The process for the 2026 cohort is changing compared to previous years. On a continent blessed with outstanding young leaders, we are fortunate that the Archbishop Tutu Fellowship Programme attracts the extraordinary young people that it does. The large numbers of nominees we have seen apply to the programme in past cohorts bodes well for the continent. But AFLI's programme size is small, as is its staff. The large numbers from our previous, fully-open nomination phase negatively impacted our capacity to diligently review all of the applications to find the best candidates. We do not wish to outsource selection, or run our process through an imperfect algorithm. For this past 2025 cohort, we received almost 1,000 nominations from across the continent for the cohort of 25 slots. This year, AFLI limited the public announcement of the nominations and the open period for nominations will be very short.

Sponsor Organisation: African Leadership Institute (AFLI)

Benefits of Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme

The ATLP provides participants with an intensive learning and broadening experience on the principles and application of leadership, and an opportunity to explore the issues and specific characteristics of leadership in Africa, as well as the global challenges and dimensions of leadership. The programme places emphasis on learning and experiencing, not teaching, offering a variety of formal and informal learning opportunities to enhance the leadership capabilities of the candidate. At the end of the ATLP, the Fellow will have achieved:

A self-formed view of leadership principles and values that are most appropriate to the future African/global context and their own circumstances, which will be the model they can apply to their own leadership endeavours
Membership of an elite network of leaders throughout Africa and beyond, committed to leading change and development on the continent.
A breadth and depth of understanding of leadership, built upon academic research as well as the practical experiences of successful leaders, and the complexity of demands on leaders.
A broader understanding of how leadership functions in the global arena, and the complexity of issues facing global leaders.
A global perspective on the challenges and application of leadership within an African context, and confidence in the role they can play as a leader in both Africa and the global arena
Practical experience of leading a project through which they will have enhanced the capabilities or circumstances of at least 25 fellow Africans.
Interaction with African and global leaders
A breadth of understanding of the regional and global forces and issues that will influence the decisions and behaviours of future leaders in Africa.
A broad, systemic, strategic and visionary approach to addressing leadership issues
Practical experience and feedback from working as part of a team of high-calibre individuals
A better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses as a future African leader in a global environment, and an enhanced self-awareness of their leadership capabilities and style
They will be a more confident and wiser leader, with experiences, tools and insights that will enable them to “play” in both the African and global arenas in the 21st Century.

Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme Requirements

Preferred candidates for the Archbishop Tutu Leadership Programme (ATLP) are people, who, by their actions and achievements, and the values and principles by which they conduct their affairs, have demonstrated their potential as an ethical leader committed to contributing to positive change and development of the continent. We are seeking exceptional emerging African leaders – people who are expected to be the top level leaders in their sphere of activity in the next 5 to 10 years if they are not already in that position, and who are actively engaged in making Africa a better place to live.

They will be between 30 and 39 years of age. They must be older than 30 on 30 April 2026 and younger than 40 years on 30 April 2026. These are hard limits. There is an age validation calculator available on site.

Candidates can come from any sector of society – business, government or civil society. Candidates nominated and selected for the programme must demonstrate many of the following characteristics:

Ability to Inspire others to believe in themselves and the cause; to liberate and empower others to succeed
Committed to serving their constituency (stakeholders/cause) and community, ahead of self-gratification
Confident, optimistic, with high expectations and high energy
Courage to take risks – be prepared to fail; challenge the status quo; do things that may be unpopular
Determination and strong professional will
High values, standards and ethics
Humility – chosen to lead rather than a self-imposed leader
Visionary, strategic and forward thinking – leading for a better future
Systemic thinker – ability to assimilate, simplify and channel complex inter-connected forces to advantage
Empathy and a strong relationship builder