Continuous professional development is necessary in all fields of work and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the AMALI City Leadership Forum in Cape Town, South Africa from 29th January to 1st February 2024. Hosted by the African Centre for Cities in partnership with Big Win Philanthropy and Bloomberg Philanthropies, this year’s Forum was attended by 15 Mayors and Governors including the Mayors of Dakar, Accra and Windhoek and the Governor of Nairobi.
For the duration of the Forum, each Mayor and Governor was paired with an advisor, an outstanding personality with first hand knowledge and experience of developing, driving and communicating transformative agendas. My advisor was Hon Luisa Dias Diogo, the Former Minister of Finance and Prime Minister of Mozambique. In addition to the truly inspiring insights and input I received from my advisor, I was also exposed to amazing input from all the other advisors at the Forum and from incredible guest speakers.
Our days started at 7.30am every morning and finished late every evening. Classes were held in the beautiful University of Cape Town and all protocols were left at the door – the Mayors and Governors were back at school! I have benefited greatly from fantastic academic and practical input and meaningful peer-to-peer exchanges and learning. And we had fun too! The Forum provided an ideal and timely opportunity for me to look back on the #TransformFreetown agenda and to think deeply about how to most effectively, with the greatest positive impact, continue the journey of service to Freetonians.
I am really excited about what we can achieve together in my second term. I look forward to extensive engagement and consultation with Freetonians as we finalize our city development plan which will in turn complement the national development plan.