By Ayukmba Nkonghonyor*
Civic organisations across the Central Africa region and beyond gathered to echo the fundamental role of think tanks in policy-making processes. Convening over 250 participants from 10 countries, including the United States of America, Canada, Germany, and Peru, this landmark Think Tank Week, organised by the Nkafu Policy Institute of the Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation, triggered conversations around a key concern: “Shaping the Future: Role of Think Tanks and Civil Society in Central Africa Policy Processes”.
This timely topic crystallises the state of Central Africa’s policy governance infrastructure, aimed at addressing challenges facing the capacity of think tanks to effectively shape policies in a shrinking space, where their development initiatives within the sub-region are seriously hampered.
Beginning with the 2025 Emerging Leaders Program, which is ushering twenty young Cameroonians from all regions aged 35 and below, the week-long event set the pace by empowering community–based social entrepreneurs with leadership skills, through inspirational practical thematic discourses and enriching encounters to further mature and prepare them to step in and take advantage of available leadership opportunities with the leitmotiv of driving change.Participants at the end of the third Central Africa Think Tank Forum, convened by the Nkafu Policy Institute, a think tank of the Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation
To heighten the momentum, twenty-five high-profile leaders of civil society organisations amplified their voices, brainstorming on solutions to tackle common challenges impeding the growth of their respective organisations, especially as they navigate the current state of volatility. The share of best practices and experience stood out as an added value that made engagements even more practical and enriching.
Culminating in the Central Africa Think Tank Forum, this third edition of the Think Tank Week hosted some of the finest minds within the think tanks space in Central Africa and globally, with over thirty speakers, cutting across representatives of diplomatic missions, government officials, international organizations senior staff, scholars and academia, researchers, civic organizations, as well as local and international media.
Speaking during his opening remarks, Dr. Denis Foretia, Executive Chairman of the Nkafu Policy Institute, described this gathering as an initiative to “address practical questions on how think tanks’ engagement with government can ensure tangible uptakes and create sustainable funding models that support long-term institutional development”.
An opportunity for the United States Ambassador to Yaoundé, H.E. Christopher John Lamora, to emphasise that “many of the region’s most complex challenges—economic diversification, governance reform, and digital transformation—cannot be addressed by government action alone. They demand sustained collaboration among public institutions, civil society, academia, and the private sector.”
To further expand visibility and amplify the voice of think tanks in the region, the Nkafu studio provided high-quality professional interviews with key speakers on critical thematic issues.
Closing the series of plenaries, panel discussions, breakout sessions, alongside engaging one-on-one conversations, networking breakfasts, and dinners, all captured by over a dozen media organs, think tanks formulated the following recommendations to individual stakeholders of the policy governance infrastructure, appealing to: Increase policy collaboration at national level and within sub-regional international organizations; Increase financial and technical support to think tanks to strengthen the overall policy governance infrastructure of individual States; Create conditions and policy incentives to enhance transnational partnerships on collaborative projects and Improve political will for the creation of a more conducive environment that fosters think tanks development initiatives, by enacting incentivizing laws as well as by the strict application of the rule of law.
The curtain of the 2025 Central Africa Think Tank Forum closed down on August 8, 2025, with a promise to reconvene from September 10-11, 2026, during the 4th edition of what has now emerged to be one of the biggest policy rendezvous on the African continent.
*Ayukmba Nkonghonyor, Senior Communications Manager, Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation.