Women in Leadership: Pathways to Boards, Cabinet & the C-Suite

Overview

Despite progress in women's educational attainment, leadership representation in boardrooms, cabinets, and executive roles remains starkly unequal across Africa. This dialogue examined the structural, cultural, and systemic barriers that limit women's advancement to senior leadership — and the evidence-based interventions that are making a measurable difference. Participants included sitting board directors, former ministers, CEOs, and researchers.

Key Outcomes

• Agreement to establish a regional Women on Boards Mentorship Compact, connecting 50 emerging leaders with sitting board directors.
• Participating countries urged to legislate gender parity targets for state-owned enterprise boards by 2026.
• A toolkit for gender-responsive leadership development programmes to be published and made freely available by mid-2025.
• Corporate signatories committed to publishing annual gender diversity scorecards covering management and board levels.
• Calls for unconscious bias training to be mandatory for appointment committees in public institutions.

Speakers