The Africa Governance Centre (AGC), in partnership with the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures (CoSPAL), will convene the inaugural Strategic Legislative Governance Forum (SLGF) on 7 October 2026 at the East African Legislative Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania.

Held alongside the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Forum will bring together African parliamentary leaders and legislators under the theme “Legislative Statecraft and Economic Transformation in Africa” to examine the role of legislative institutions in the continent’s economic transformation.

The Forum will introduce legislative statecraft as a framework for examining how parliaments exercise their law-making, budgetary and oversight responsibilities in relation to economic development. Discussions will consider where legislative action can make the greatest contribution to economic transformation, how parliamentary authority can be exercised more effectively, and the institutional capabilities required for legislatures to engage with increasingly complex economic policy.

Regional economic integration will also form part of the discussions, including the role of national parliaments in translating continental commitments such as the African Continental Free Trade Area into domestic law and implementation. The Forum will further examine a persistent challenge in African development: how countries sustain long-term national priorities across electoral and governmental change while preserving democratic competition and accountability. Legislators will consider where continuity is necessary, what must remain open to political contest, and the role parliaments can play in building sufficient agreement around long-term national interests.

The inaugural programme will feature a keynote plenary, a Speakers’ Roundtable on “African Legislative Statecraft: Parliament’s Role in Economic Transformation” and a high-level panel on “The Politics of Transformation: Parliament, Consensus and Long-Term Development.”

The Arusha meeting will also launch the Strategic Legislative Governance Platform, a continuing AGC programme for research, comparative analysis, parliamentary dialogue and institutional exchange on legislative governance and economic transformation in Africa. The Strategic Legislative Governance Forum forms part of AGC’s work on African institutions, governance and the public-policy systems required to support the continent’s long-term development.

About the Africa Governance Centre

The Africa Governance Centre (AGC) is a pan-African governance and policy think tank working on institutional development, public policy and Africa’s long-term transformation. AGC undertakes research, convenes policy dialogue and works with institutions across the continent on governance and development.