Africa Launches First Sovereign Negotiators Academy to Tackle ‘Unequal Deals’

AfroChampions and the African School of Governance have launched the Sankoree Institute of Global Negotiators (SIGN), a first-of-its-kind African credentialling programme aimed at strengthening the continent’s capacity to negotiate major international agreements on mining, debt, trade, health and climate finance.

The agreement establishing SIGN was signed on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, by AfroChampions Co-Chair Paulo Gomes and ASG President Francis Gatare.

The initiative is being developed under the broader “Accra Reset” sovereignty agenda and has the backing of former and current African leaders, including John Dramani Mahama, Hailemariam Desalegn, Olusegun Obasanjo and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

According to the organisers, SIGN is designed to address what they described as the “structural asymmetry” that often places African governments at a disadvantage during negotiations with multinational corporations, international lenders and foreign governments.

The institute will provide specialised training for public officials, technical advisers and sector experts involved in negotiating transactions worth billions of dollars annually, including mining concessions, sovereign debt restructurings, climate finance agreements and technology partnerships.

Organisers said African governments frequently enter high-stakes negotiations without the institutional memory, legal precedent systems and technical preparation available to their foreign counterparts, leading to unfavourable agreements and reduced policy autonomy.

Headquartered at ASG’s Kigali campus, the programme will feature “Deal Labs” built around real-world negotiation scenarios and supported by the OCTagon Suite, an artificial intelligence-enabled intelligence platform designed to provide precedent analysis, scenario modelling and access to a sovereign negotiation case library.

Participants who complete the programme will receive Associate and Fellow designations, subject to renewal every three years, creating what organisers described as a continent-wide network of credentialled sovereign dealmakers.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the promoters of the initiative said the institute would help African countries retain more value from their natural resources and improve the quality of agreements reached in sectors such as health procurement, industrialisation and infrastructure financing.

They explained that the programme forms a core pillar of the Accra Reset initiative, a Heads-of-State-led movement advocating greater sovereign agency across Africa and the Global South.

The Accra Reset also includes programmes focused on health industrialisation, labour mobility, financial innovation and reforms to global health governance.

ASG, which was co-founded by Paul Kagame and Hailemariam Desalegn, will provide academic and accreditation support for the institute, while AfroChampions will contribute political networks, negotiation case studies and continental engagement.

The launch ceremony took place at the Kigali Convention Centre during the Africa CEO Forum.