World
Online African Women Conference: From Adaptation in Russia to Issues of Health and Spirituality
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Women, generally, are fighting for their own empowerment in society. Gender equality dominates their activities, flexing their feminine muscles for higher positions, with men, in diverse professional aspects, including politics and entrepreneurial spheres of activity.
Such consistent struggle was backed by a collective declaration, worldwide observing March 8 as International Women’s Day. Until today, March 8 commemorates women’s fight for equality and liberation along with the women’s rights movement. In addition, the March 8 celebration focuses on issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.
On the eve of March 8, the Cameroonian Diaspora (Diaspocam) and the “African Business Club” together with Russian women’s organisations, held a special online conference under the theme: “How to Succeed as a Woman in Russia”, which brought together over a hundred participants from different regions, including Africa.
The discussion was dedicated to the challenges of adaptation, career prospects, health, and spiritual security of a fast-growing number of young African women living in the Russian Federation. The conference was moderated by Louis Gouend, a specialist in business communications between Russia and Africa, President of the African Business Club, and an expert of the Council of Russia-Africa Cooperation under the State Duma, lower chamber of Russian legislators.
Louis Gouend congratulated the women participants while extending to them good health, wisdom, and new achievements. The main goal of the conference was to create a space of trust and exchange views on the full spectrum of women’s multidisciplinary approach to questions.
On adaptation and legislation: Alina Andrukh, Director of the International Department, spoke on the topic “Global Adaptation of Foreign Citizens in Russia.” She thoroughly examined educational trajectories for women, employment opportunities, and new legislative realities that foreign women need to consider when building a career in the Russian Federation.
The speaker further placed special emphasis on how to avoid getting into trouble, complying with Russian laws, and protecting one’s rights.
Health Without Barriers and Support Centres: One of the most anticipated speeches was given by Ekaterina Glok, a midwife by profession. In her presentation on “The Health of an African Woman in Russia,” she touched upon the delicate topics of reproductive and sexual health. The expert gave practical advice on how to overcome the language barrier and shyness when visiting a gynaecologist, and explained the specifics of the Russian healthcare system for foreign patients.
Ekaterina, however, reminded the women of the importance of regular medical check-ups: visiting a doctor, at least, once a year is necessary even in the absence of complaints. She informed the participants about the existence of support centres for women and single mothers, where they can turn to in difficult life situations. Additionally, the speaker announced her upcoming working missions in the Republic of Cameroon, planned for May 2026, and gave many practical tips on maintaining women’s health.
Social and Cultural Challenges – Warning About Dangers: An important block of questions concerning safety and conscious motherhood was highlighted by Mme Zima épouse Ndong Toung Celestine Charlotte, Cultural Advisor at the Embassy of Cameroon. She had a frank conversation, warning the girls about scammers and dishonest individuals offering attractive working conditions, behind which often lie indecent earnings and dangerous situations.
The Advisor reminded that for those who came to Russia to study, education should remain their main priority. She urged lady students to be vigilant, not to give in to dubious offers, and to postpone questions of pregnancy and starting a family to a later period, after completing their studies. She touched upon the legal and moral aspects of unwanted pregnancy, calling on the girls to engage in conscious life planning.
Economic Independence and Earning Opportunities: Luciana Tchami, a member of the executive bureau of Diaspocam, a non-profit social organisation, presented a report on “Women’s Capabilities: Professions and Part-Time Jobs for Young Women in Russia.” She gave examples of successful strategies for earning money and building a career within the conditions of the Russian labour market that are accessible to foreign students and young professionals.
The speaker detailed specific areas of work: young women can take short-term training courses and work in beauty salons (manicure, pedicure); many cafes and restaurants offer convenient part-time jobs. Luciana also mentioned specialised websites with attractive conditions for job seekers and opportunities for remote work: becoming a freelancer and helping with tasks online, for online stores, and in other areas.
Spiritual Support: A Reminder of a Woman’s Value. The conference concluded with Pastor Gustave Mbeng, responsible for charity at Diaspocam. His prayer-speech was dedicated to women’s rights and spiritual awakening. As a pastor, Mbeng reminded the participants that woman is the last and most ideal creation of God, perfect in all parameters of the universe. He emphasised that women are more beautiful and harmonious than men, and urged the girls to take care of themselves and not to distance themselves from God, so that there would be fewer difficulties and questions in life.
Pastor Gustave further paid special attention to the theme of preserving life. He took a stand against abortion, reminding that every child is a creation of God, and in the eyes of the Almighty, there is no such concept as abortion. If pregnancy does occur, it is important to preserve the child’s life and trust in God’s providence.
Technical organisation, moderation, translation and coordination of the conference were provided by Iness Zengue Abeng, President of the Association of International Students “Russia-Africa,” and Belle-Grâce Euphrasie, Dean, who acted as interpreter during the online event.
Conclusion and Future Plans: At the end, Louis Gouend extended gratitude to all participants, speakers, and presenters for the warm and trusting atmosphere.
The conference was held in an open dialogue format on the”Yandex Telemost” platform, which allowed women from different parts of Russia to ask questions live and receive moral support. Following the meeting, the organisers decided to hold such an online gathering, including organising a series of meetings not only for women but also for foreigners living in Russia.
The topics of future conferences will aim at education, open discussions, and debate on issues important for Africans in the Russian Federation: knowing one’s rights, being able to avoid unpleasant situations, behaving correctly in difficult life circumstances, and preserving cultural and spiritual identity.
Until now, prejudice and reactionary attitudes have denied full-fledged civic rights to millions of women, who are considered as workers, mothers, family partners, and citizens worldwide. Nevertheless, International Women’s Day, with its chequered history, is a public holiday in several countries. The United Nations observes the holiday in connection with a particular issue, campaign, or theme in women’s rights across the world.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Russia’s system of foreign students’ admission is currently experiencing a completely different shape, due to the rapidly shifting geopolitical reality. The emerging trends are closely connected with increasing the number of highly interested applicants rather than the quality of education. The geopolitical shift is pushing Russia to make education for young Africans an ultimate priority. The quota campaign has already begun as the figure compares favourably with previous benchmarks but, to some considerable extent, noticeable challenges are currently affecting enrollment from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Despite that, general interest in Russian education among foreign nationals is increasing; the quota campaign confirms this trend. Last year, for instance, there were about 144,000 registrations in Rossotrudnichestvo’s Education in Russian system. The number has exceeded 160,000 in 2026. What is important here is that Russia shows preparedness to get more students from developing countries, especially from Africa and uses it as a factor for influencing its foreign policy in the region.
Regarding educational initiatives, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with relevant agencies and organisations are active in Africa. Noticeably, Russia is developing and expanding the existing, successfully operating cooperation in the sphere of education. In fact, priority is given to projects in the field of education and training of professional personnel for African countries. Currently, over 37,000 students from Africa are studying at Russian universities. Reports say a gradual increase in the number of scholarships for African citizens and the expansion of the range of professional training programs will provide a strong incentive for further promoting education at Russian universities.
This will continue to actively strengthen inter-university ties with African partners, including through specialised umbrella organisations such as the Russian-African Network University, the Consortium of Technical Universities “Nadra Africa” based at the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, the Russian-African Network Transport University, and the Consortium of Russian Universities Working in West Africa based at the NGO “Centre for Public Diplomacy.”
Reports further indicated that the Rossotrudnichestvo representative offices—the Russian Science and Culture Centres—operating in eight African countries, as well as the Open Education Centres operating under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Education in 31 African countries, serve as a solid foundation for our humanitarian presence in Africa. They serve as conduits for the Russian language and culture on the continent. It is, however, hoped that their number would only increase in the subsequent years.
While addressing the staff and students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Russia’s readiness to cooperate actively in the sustainable economic development and to strengthen efforts at training the needed specialists and professionals for Africa. After the collapse of the Soviet system in 1991, there were problems sustaining relations with Africa. Then, after more than a decade, Russia started to return to Africa. This process has been ongoing for the past 15 years, according to the top Russian diplomat.
According to Lavrov, these past few years have been characterised by frequent interactions between Russian and African Foreign Ministers, plethora of MoUs were signed that set out the broad parameters of cooperation. Russia’s Education Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry have raised the quotas for many African countries, the highest given to Angola, Ethiopia, Namibia and Mozambique, and South Africa.
According to a report posted on the MFA website in August, for instance, some 1,120 Angolans have enrolled, on Russian scholarships or grants, at various institutes and universities throughout the Russian Federation. Figures for other African countries are available on the official information portal of the ministry.
Besides state-sponsored students, Russia’s Education Ministry has also launched a large-scale educational campaign targeting the recruitment of private foreign students into its educational institutions across the Russian Federation. The program is to be implemented until 2025, which has a website (studyinrussia) translated into different languages, seeks to boost the popularity and improve its image abroad.
Undoubtedly, Russia aims at strengthening the next generation of pro-Russian elites who will help promote its interests, including long-term ones in their home countries. With this in mind, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ultimately, hope to improve the efficiency of “soft power” in Africa, though not to the levels during the Soviet era.
Understandably, Russia is now targeting Africa’s fast-growing population as a huge potential market for knowledge transfer and export education. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a widely circulated Russian daily newspaper, reported that Russia has been focusing on the young population in developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, targeting the elite and middle class in these markets for the export of education, which has great potential.
The newspaper reported on the advantages of multiculturalism and cross-cultural interactive activities paving the way for integration in Russian society. As far back as 2023, Russia’s Federation Council and State Duma (upper and lower houses of parliament) passed a bill. That bill was finally signed into law, allowing foreign students the right to employment, a replica of the work and study model in Western and European countries.
Professor Viktor Sadovnichy, Rector of Moscow State University and Chairman of the Russian Rectors’ Association, an organisation that unites more than 700 heads of higher education institutions, argued that education and demography are interconnected; developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America have growing middle classes. “This favours the export of our education; it has great potential cooperating in the education sphere, it could serve as a huge market – training young professionals that are in demand on the labour market,” Sadovnichy said, addressing a plenary meeting of the Russian Rectors’ Association at Peter the Great St Petersburg State Polytechnic University.
Professor Natalia Vlasova, Deputy Rector at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Ural State University of Economics in Yekaterinburg, explained that many African countries are developing rapidly, and the African elites and the growing middle-class have great potential for sponsoring their children’s education abroad. “In the times of the Soviet Union, African countries were strategic partners, and now we should reactivate these relations because in the near future they will have big economic and political power. This could, indeed, be a huge market and has the business potential,” she noted assertively.
An educational survey released in September 2024, divided into five major groups, said Russia has made significant efforts at improving teaching (the learning environment), research, citations (research influence), knowledge transfer, and international outlook (staff, students, research) in the educational field, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
One year after launching a continental initiative designed to make excellence in public governance the foundation of a new drive to transform Africa, LEAD, the Africa CEO Forum’s pan-African leadership programme, takes stock of its first cohort and announces the launch of its second class. Built around a community of senior public decision-makers committed to modernising the state and to the continent’s digital transformation, this new cohort gathers for three days, from 28 to 30 August 2026, on the campus of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Rabat, Morocco.
A second cohort that confirms the programme’s durability
For its second class, LEAD brings together 50 fellows, senior public decision-makers engaged in the design and implementation of the continent’s economic and social policies. Over three days, participants take part in collective and collaborative working sessions, peer exchanges and meetings with figures from the public, business and academic spheres, in order to compare their practices and build shared responses to the major challenges of governance.
Speakers include Mehdi Jomaa, former Head of Government of Tunisia, Donald Kaberuka, Managing Partner & Founder, SouthBridge Group, and former President of the African Development Bank, Serge Ekue, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Sanjay Jain, co-creator of India Stack and Director of Digital Public Infrastructure, Gates Foundation, and Mauricio Cardenas, Professor of Professional Practice in Global Leadership, Columbia SIPA, and former Finance Minister of Colombia (2012-2018).
They share their reform experience, their public policy trade-offs and their view of continental priorities. Throughout the programme, the cohort benefits from the dedicated support of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Asafo & Co, BOAD, BCG and the African Development Bank, LEAD partners that have chosen to invest in the transformation of African public action.
LEAD, a pan-African community serving public action
Created by the AFRICA CEO FORUM, LEAD is a leadership programme whose ambition is to reposition Africa’s administrative elite as a driver of reform, of performance and of dialogue with all the continent’s stakeholders.
Designed for senior African public decision-makers, LEAD sets out to build a lasting community of public officials able to share their experience, compare their practices and build common solutions to the major economic, technological and institutional transformations under way in Africa. That community is structured around three pillars: modernizing the state, improving public services, and strengthening cooperation between governments, development institutions and private-sector players.
From fellows to alumni: a long-term initiative
Made up of 36 fellows drawn from a range of administrations and institutions and representing 24 countries across the continent, LEAD’s first cohort demonstrated the quality and the potential of this community from its very first year. In less than twelve months, six of its members have taken a significant step forward: two have been appointed ministers, two have moved into strategic positions at the highest level of the state and two have been promoted to chief executive roles. These moves, which account for 16.7% of the first class, show the role LEAD plays as an accelerator of impact within African administrations.
By bringing together a new cohort of fellows every year, each of them joining the LEAD alumni community, the initiative follows a long-term trajectory: in time, to unite several hundred African public decision-makers around a shared culture of transparency, performance and regional cooperation.
A first year devoted to public service and digital public infrastructure
Throughout the year, the fellows devoted their work to strengthening African public action, to make excellence in public governance a central lever of transformation. An awareness campaign, run as part of Africa Public Service Day, brought to light those who, within the continent’s administrations and institutions, are concretely transforming public policy and improving the services offered to citizens.
Members of the cohort also took part in a special round table held in Kigali during the ACF 2026, in order to carry their thinking to a wider community of public and private leaders. That forum reinforced LEAD’s role as a platform for dialogue between the administrative elite and the continent’s economic players. Digital public infrastructure (DPI) formed the main thread of this first year of work.
Discussions covered issues at the heart of the digital sovereignty of African states: digital identity, payments, secure data exchange, interoperability, governance and the protection of citizens. This work examined the conditions under which African states are developing, in some cases, and can develop, in others, shared, open infrastructure robust enough to improve the quality of public services while supporting local innovation and preserving the capacity of public authorities to set the rules of the game.
A white paper to move from consuming technology to creating value
This year of work concludes with the publication, in collaboration with BCG, LEAD’s Knowledge Partner, of a white paper on Africa’s place in the digital economy and in artificial intelligence. With the digital economy still accounting for around 5% of African GDP, against close to 15% worldwide, the paper calls on the continent to shift from a logic of technology consumption to one of value creation.
The white paper identifies three structuring priorities for African public actors:
- Building shared digital infrastructure that serves as the backbone of public services and private innovation.
- Pooling investment in order to reach critical mass and avoid the fragmentation of efforts across the continent.
- Favouring open and interoperable architectures, with trust and governance built in by design, so as to protect citizens while stimulating the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The white paper is available here to all public decision-makers, technical partners and institutions concerned.
“LEAD’s first cohort confirms a simple conviction: Africa already has the women and men capable of profoundly transforming public action. Our responsibility, either with our partners, is to give them, at pan-African level, a space in which to compare experience, build common solutions and bring forward a new generation of public policy. With this second cohort, we want to accelerate the move from ambition to execution, in particular on digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence, two decisive issues for sovereignty, for the effectiveness of the state and for value creation across the continent,” says Amir Ben Yahmed, President of the Africa CEO Forum.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Africa is set to make history as it hosts the World Public Summit for the first time, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, welcoming global leaders and changemakers from July 29–30, 2026, for the landmark gathering under the theme “New World: Africa in Shaping a Shared Future.”
The inaugural African edition of the World Public Summit marks a significant milestone in the continent’s growing role in shaping international dialogue on governance, sustainable development, human-centred leadership and global cooperation.
Hosted by the World Peoples Assembly in partnership with African and international organisations, the summit will convene government officials, diplomats, business leaders, academics, journalists, youth representatives, civil society organisations and cultural leaders from across Africa and around the world.
According to Andrey Belyaninov, General Secretary of the World Peoples Assembly, “the Summit is not just a meeting—it is a space for unity. A space where the ‘values that unite us’ come to life: respect for people, openness to the world, responsibility for the future, and a commitment to creation.
“Today, we understand more clearly than ever: the future cannot be built alone. It is born in dialogue, in trust, in the ability to listen to one another and to act together.”
The programme begins on July 29 with a series of high-level roundtables and expert discussions covering Pan-African economic integration, civil society, education, scientific cooperation, cultural diplomacy and humanitarian partnerships.
The opening plenary, “Values, Development and Partnership as the Basis of a Sustainable and Just World,” will explore how African values—including Ubuntu—can help shape a more inclusive and sustainable global future. Discussions will also focus on youth leadership, innovation, civil society, ethical AI, public initiatives and international partnerships.
The summit will also showcase Africa’s creativity and innovation through the “Innovations for the Future” exhibition, the contemporary African art exhibition “Unity,” and the international exhibition “The World Paints Happiness.”
Another featured initiative is “The Zambezi River: Economy, Society, Soul,” an international interdisciplinary project exploring the river’s socioeconomic importance across Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, highlighting the shared heritage and development potential of one of Africa’s most important waterways.
The event will conclude with the adoption of the African Communiqué, reflecting the summit’s shared vision for stronger international cooperation, sustainable development and people-centred leadership.
Tsegaye Chama, General Secretary of the Global Black Centre, promised that, “The Summit will be delivered with exceptional distinction, reflecting the magnitude and spirit of the World Peoples Assembly. It embodies a unity that is not transactional, but purposeful and conscious, a unity that shapes new contours for a world that works for all peoples of the World.”
As delegates prepare to arrive in Addis Ababa, anticipation continues to build for what promises to be one of Africa’s most significant international gatherings of 2026—one that will place the continent firmly at the centre of global conversations about the future.
