Our 2025 reports celebrates a year of tremendous growth in our network of outstanding young African leaders. With our network of 715 young leaders spanning Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Malawi, and Sierra Leone, welcoming our largest intake yet with 194 new young public servants. This Annual Report highlights the young professionals at the heart of our work and the impact of their day-to-day leadership.

Announcing 2026 recruitment and celebrating the young public servants driving positive change in their communities across Africa.

Accra, Ghana - Emerging Public Leaders of Ghana (EPL Ghana) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, officially opened applications to the 2026 Public Service Fellowship on February 11, 2026, for young university graduates with an interest in joining the public sector. All applications should be submitted online by Sunday, March 22, 2026.

Emerging Public Leaders' Executive Director Abigail Kajumba shares reflections on the Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship program in Kenya and the upcoming launch event of the impact assessment report.

Independent evaluations in 2025 show that EPL is delivering on its mission: recruit young Africans into dignified, paid public service roles and expand youth inclusion in government

Nairobi, Kenya - Mira German shares her takeaways from the 2025 Baobab Summit, attended with her fellow Emerging Public Leaders (EPL) Alumni, Lawrence Nii Kotey Neequaye, from Ghana, and Izeecta Martha Gbollie from Liberia. The three-day summit, organized by the Mastercard Foundation under the theme “Nurturing the Future Through African Youth”, harnessed the resilience and purpose of African youth to drive progress.

Emerging Public Leaders is excited to kick off Africa Youth Month - a time to highlight and celebrate the powerful contributions of young people across the continent. All month long, we’re shining a light on the next generation of public sector leaders, the mentors guiding them, and the partners helping make their impact possible.

In partnership with Emerging Public Leaders, the Public Service Commission, and Mastercard Foundation, EPL Sierra Leone marked the launch of our first cohort of the Public Service Fellowship Program, welcoming 75 promising young Sierra Leonean leaders at a ceremony held on October 13, 2025, in Freetown.

A new chapter began for 46 young Malawian leaders, 70 percent of whom were women, at the Malawi School of Government on Monday, October 6, at the orientation ceremony for Emerging Public Leaders of Malawi’s (EPL Malawi) one-year Public Service Fellowship Program.

On Wednesday, August 20, 2025, the President’s Young Professionals Program (PYPP) in collaboration with the Civil Service Agency (CSA) celebrated the completion of 24 young professionals from their two-year public service fellowship program at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex Theatre in Congo Town.

H.E. former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf met with Rose Wachuka Macharia, Chief of Staff at the Office of the Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, and Robert Fefegula, the new country director for Emerging Public Leaders of Sierra Leone, on the sidelines of the 4th Nalafem Summit in July.

2024 Annual Report

Lilongwe, Malawi - Top government officials, private sector and civil society leaders, embassies, media, and Cohort I Public Service Fellows gathered at the Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) on the morning of Friday, May 9, 2025, for the official launch of the Public Service Fellowship Program.

Freetown, Sierra Leone – Emerging Public Leaders and the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Sierra Leone signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) marking the beginning of a new collaboration on the fellowship program in Sierra Leone.

Today, Kenyans over the age of 18 will go to the polls to elect their new political leaders. In addition to deciding who will become the next president, they will also vote for members of the National Assembly and Senate, county governors and members of the county assemblies.