Kenya to host new Continental Centre as AUDA-NEPAD moves to close Africa's human capital gap
The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) has set out plans for a Continental Centre of Excellence for Human Capital and Institutional Development, to be hosted in Kenya, positioning it as the agency's central answer to one of the continent's most pressing economic problems: the widening gap between the millions of young Africans entering the workforce each year and the far smaller number of jobs and opportunities available to them.
The proposal was placed at the heart of the inaugural AUDA-NEPAD Human Capital, Social and Institutional Development Week, which opened in Nairobi on 11 August 2026. Framing the initiative, AUDA-NEPAD Chief Executive Officer H.E. Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas was emphatic that the Centre is intended to be an engine of delivery rather than another layer of bureaucracy.
"Not another institution. A platform for execution," she told delegates, describing a body designed to help member states move "from research to application, policy to implementation, successful experience to scale, and knowledge to investment."
The Centre, centred on industrial adaptation for development, is envisaged as a hub connecting governments, universities, industry and development partners around the specific capabilities Africa needs to industrialise and compete. Crucially, Bekele-Thomas argued, it should make South-South Cooperation "practical, measurable and scalable" rather than confining it to dialogue and study visits.
Originally published by African Business.