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About Us

AL for Governance is a network of impact-driven public leaders who share a commitment to address Africa’s most pressing governance and development challenges. We believe that lasting peace and shared prosperity on the African continent is only possible if we build and sustain accountable institutions together. Our network develops a new generation of ethical public leaders who will work together to address the public leadership crisis in Africa. The network facilitates diverse career pathways for our young leaders into the governance sector, catalyse connections between members, and foster powerful intergenerational mentorship relationships to drive lasting change.

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Meet the Team

Lesego Otlhabanye
Program Manager

Lesego B. Otlhabanye holds a Master’s degree in Development Policy from the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a major in International Development and a minor in Global Governance and Political Economy. Lesego brings years of cross-sector experience spanning the public, private, and nonprofit spheres, where she has consistently worked to improve outcomes and drive impact in communities. She is a 2020 Fellow and current Deputy Chairperson of the Futurelect Alumni Community 2023-2025, a 2018 Atlas Corps Fellow, and a Global Shaper alumna, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. A passionate writer and speaker, Lesego is committed to work that uplifts and shapes the African narrative positively.

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Sidoine Felix M. Leudjie
Senior Program Associate

Sidoine Felix M. Leudjie is a Cameroonian personal development expert and civic leadership proponent. Passionate about youth empowerment and Africa’s positive transformation, Sidoine is a 2022 Mandela Washington Fellow and a 2019 graduate of the African Presidential Leadership Program from Cairo. Sidoine has worked with the Pan African Institute of Development “ West Africa (PAID-WA) as the Coordinator of Clubs and Associations. He has also led reputable organizations like the Cameroon Debate Circuit as National Chair in 2019-2020, the Pan African Universities Debate Council as Director in Charge of Fundraising and Partnerships in 2019, Junior Chambers International (JCI) Cameroon as National Secretary General in 2016, the Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa (YALDA PAID-WA) as Pioneer President in 2015, and he founded Toastmasters PAID-WA in 2016. Sidoine holds an MBA in Project Management from PAID-WA, a degree in Law from the University of Buea, and he is currently a final-year BSc student in International Relations at the University of Buea.

Feliciana Nezingu
PROGRAM ASSOCIATE

Feliciana was born in Angola and completed her tertiary education in South Africa as a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at the University of Pretoria, where she earned a Master of Arts in Security Studies. Driven by her passion for African development and human security, she undertook various roles throughout her studies, including positions in journalism, writing, community engagement, and research. She has also worked as a political risk and intelligence analyst at VoxCroft Analytics and as a climate change researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs. Feliciana is currently a research intern for the Early Career Success team. Beyond work, she enjoys traveling, discovering unique restaurants in the city, and connecting with friends over coffee.

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Meet the Advisors

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Patience Masua

Patience Masua is a Namibian politician and lawyer. She serves as a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly, after being appointed by President Hage Geingob in April, 2021, becoming Namibia’s youngest Member of Parliament. Previously, she was Secretary General of the Namibia National Students Organization and served in the UNAM SRC as student parliamentary speaker. Patience entered mainstream student politics and activism in university, primarily through her newspaper opinion pieces and then serving in the student union as Faculty Representative for the University of Namibia Faculty of Law. Later she ran for the position of Speaker of Student Parliament of the UNAM SRC and won it in 2019. Thereafter she served as Secretary-General for the Namibia National Students Organisation (NANSO).

Yawa Hansen-Quao

Yawa Hansen-Quao is a visionary leader who has spent her career unlocking opportunities for women and youth in Africa. As executive director of Emerging Public Leaders Yawa is working to create better governance in African nations by investing in young people in public service. Yawa knows deeply the impact that a lack of good governance can cause. Her family was forced to flee Ghana to escape the political turmoil brought on by a military coup. Her experience inspires her passion for improved governance, peacebuilding, and the deepening of democracy in Africa.

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Michael Hastings

Lord Dr. Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE has appreciated a deeply purposeful career across the public/private & non-profit sectors, working within education, philanthropy, justice and commercial business to support and develop communities around the world. He currently serves as the Chancellor of Regent’s University London and as Professor of Leadership at the Stephen R. Covey Leadership Centre at Huntsman Business School, USA & on the Concordia Leadership Council. He is also a Vice President at UNICEF UK and a trustee for the Africa Philanthropy Foundation. Lord Hastings is the former Head of Public Affairs at the BBC and was their first head of Corporate Social Responsibility serving for 12 years.

Esther Benjamin

Esther T. Benjamin has been a global executive in the public, private, and civil society sectors for more than 25 years. Before joining WES as CEO and executive director, Esther worked with Laureate Education, Inc., a leading global higher education organization. Her career includes service in two U.S. Presidential Administrations as the Associate Director for Global Operations of the U.S. Peace Corps, and previously as a White House Fellow. She was a member of the senior leadership of the International Youth Foundation and the International Partnership for Microbicides. Her private sector experience includes management consulting with Grant Thornton. Early in her career, she worked with the World Bank History Project, and served with the United Nations as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer.

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Fatima Al Ansar

Fatima is a former Malian diplomat, a social entrepreneur and activist for girls education and women’s rights. She has served as head of mission at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. She is the founder of Tilwalte Girls Peace Network which empowers girls to be peace ambassadors through entrepreneurship, leadership and peace building trainings and those girls are back to their communities to create different peace building network throughout Mali. In addition to being an alumna of the Oxford Consortium on Human Rights, she was a MasterCard Foundation Scholar and also studied at the African Leadership Academy, Trinity College and Vienna University. She is One Young World and Orange Corners Enterprise for Peace Scholar. Fatima is the youngest 2010 YALI fellow (a fellowship for young African Leaders) Fatima is passionate about writing and her latest article Feminization of African Politics got published by Project Syndicate and translated in eight different languages.

Trevor Lwere

Trever Lwere graduated from Notre Dame and is now at Tsinghua University pursuing a Master’s Degree in Global Affairs as a member of the Schwarzman Scholar Class of 2023. Trevor worked with Professor Jaimie Bleck in the political science department to study the incentives for civil society organizations to flag corruption in Mali. He also co-authored an introduction article to a special issue of a journal entitled, The Future of Youth in the Sahel to be published in the Canadian Journal of African Studies in 2022. Trevor also worked on a senior thesis that is analyzed Africa’s past attempts at development and some of the available alternatives to development on the continent.

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