Civic Leadership Institute

22/05/2026

We warmly congratulate our Treasurer and Grounded Civic Architect, Ms. Permanent Ngoma , on receiving the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award.

This recognition is a fitting tribute to her excellence, service, and enduring contribution to leadership and public life.

We celebrate you, Ms. Ngoma.

Civic Leadership Institute
Serving those who serve our communities.

21/05/2026

Leadership transitions are not merely moments of departure but transitions into something. They are a test of leadership

In Part 7 of The Art of Letting Go, our CEO Dzikamai Francis Bere reflects on the architecture of successful leadership transitions, drawing lessons from civic leadership, founder transitions, succession planning, and the discipline of preparing institutions to live beyond individual leaders.

The central argument is clear: successful transitions are not the product of individual heroism. They are the work of institutional architecture. At the Civic Leadership Institute, this question is at the heart of our work on leadership accompaniment, institution building, and the long-term renewal of civic leadership.

How do leaders leave with integrity?

How do institutions prepare for continuity?

And how do we move from heroic leadership to multiplied leadership?

https://theciviclens.org/the-art-of-letting-go-part-7-the-architecture-of-successful-leadership-transitions/

11/05/2026

🚀 Announcing Leadership LaunchPad Edition 3: Values Edition

The Civic Leadership Institute is pleased to announce the third edition of the Leadership LaunchPad, our children’s leadership accompaniment programme for young leaders aged 8 to 13.

This edition focuses on values.

Over five days, young leaders will explore the values that shape how they live, relate, make choices, and lead. They will learn that leadership is not only about titles, awards, or speaking in front of people. Leadership begins with character, daily choices, relationships, and the kind of person a child is becoming.

📅 Dates: 24–28 August 2026

⏰ Time: 8:00 AM daily

💻 Platform: Online via Zoom

🎯 Age Group: 8–13 years

The Leadership LaunchPad: Values Edition will help young leaders reflect on honesty, kindness, courage, respect, responsibility, discipline, care, teamwork, and the daily choices that make these values visible.

Leadership begins early. Values shape the leader.

Spaces are limited to keep the class small, interactive, and supportive.

🔗 Register here: https://forms.gle/QQ5oxLj55XjDhM4k6

📩 For inquiries, email: [email protected]

Civic Leadership Institute

Serving those who serve our communities.

06/05/2026

06/05/2026

New month, new developments. We are about to launch something new, but let’s see if you can guess it first.
Clues:
● It is not a webinar
● It is not a press statement
● Definitely not another PDF you will “read later”

It sounds like real stories, feels like truth-telling and it puts young women at the forefront of telling their stories. Think: Women's voices amplified mining, climate, economic and feminist conversations.

What do you think we are cooking?

06/05/2026

: Main Feature

The Journey Continues: TRC@30 Reflects on Africa’s Unfinished Work of Truth Recovery

Thirty years after South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission held its first hearings, scholars, former commissioners, activists, survivors, and civil society actors gathered in Cape Town to reflect on the past, present, and future of truth recovery.

The TRC@30 Symposium was a reckoning with what truth commissions make possible, what they leave undone, and what kind of civic responsibility must continue after formal processes have ended.

The discussions moved from South Africa’s unfinished business to Uganda, South Sudan, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Colombia, Taiwan, South Korea, and beyond.

Across these contexts, one lesson became clear: Truth must travel.

It cannot end with testimony, reports, or archived memory. It must enter public memory. It must move through education, art, litigation, media, organising, reparations, institutional reform, and everyday civic practice.

As former truth commissioner Yasmin Sooka said, " The journey continues. And it continues because there is a constituency to carry on."

Read more in CLI Dispatch #2: The Leadership That Carries the Journey:

https://clidispatch.substack.com/p/cli-dispatch-2-the-leadership-that?r=815742&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

04/05/2026

On Saturday 2 May 2026, the Civic Leadership Institute concluded the Second Edition of the Leadership LaunchPad.

This five-day virtual leadership experience introduced young leaders to the foundations of self-leadership, focus, responsibility, resilience, and purposeful action.

Across the programme, children reflected on their goals, the distractions that stand in the way, the habits needed for growth, and the importance of bouncing back when things do not go according to plan.

One young leader captured the spirit of the programme powerfully:

“Anything can distract you from anywhere, and you have to learn to defeat it.”

Leadership begins early. It begins when children learn to lead themselves, take responsibility for their choices, and practise the habits that help them grow.

Read the full report here https://lnkd.in/dqF-EXaB

If you are interested in the next edition of the Leadership LaunchPad, you will find more information here https://lnkd.in/dfcPaEdv

03/05/2026

Today, we mark Press Freedom Day.

A free press is part of the institutional architecture that makes accountability possible. It is through the disciplined work of journalism that truth is surfaced, power is examined, and public trust is sustained.

In many contexts, this work is carried under constraint and uncertainty. Yet it continues.

Because institutions do not sustain themselves. They are strengthened by those who ask difficult questions, verify facts, and refuse to let the truth disappear.

Press freedom must therefore be protected, not only in principle, but in practice.

We recognise the work of journalists and media institutions who continue to carry this responsibility.

Happy Press Freedom Day.

Civic Leadership Institute
Serving those who serve our communities.

03/05/2026

: What are you reading this weekend?

In the Second Edition of , From the CEO’s Desk, we reflect on leadership from several lenses on The Civic Lens.

We share three new instalments from Dzikamai's Art of Letting Go series, focusing on The Accompaniment and Giants in the Shadows. He also draws lessons on leadership, succession, and transition from Apple’s succession story.

These reflections offer a weekend digest of ideas for leaders seeking to serve with excellence, integrity, and foresight.

Read more here:

https://clidispatch.substack.com/p/cli-dispatch-2-the-leadership-that?r=815742&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

01/05/2026

Dispatch: Leadership Notes from the Field

Excellence or Nothing: Mark Heywood on Why Social Movements Must Refuse Mediocrity

“Excellence is not cosmetic. It is not perfectionism. It is not the polished language of professional organisations trying to impress funders.
Excellence is political. Excellence is an act of defiance.”

In this Leadership Note, CLI reflects on Mark Heywood’s powerful challenge to civic leaders and social movements: that good intentions are not enough. In difficult times, excellence becomes part of the discipline of struggle.

Read more in CLI Dispatch #2: The Leadership That Carries the Journey:
https://lnkd.in/dxVmNpTw

30/04/2026

CLI Dispatch Second Edition is now out.

The Leadership That Carries the Journey

This edition reflects on TRC@30, Africa’s unfinished work of truth recovery, institutional excellence, leadership accompaniment, succession, and civic sustainability.

At the centre of this edition is a question that continues to shape civic leadership across the continent:

Who carries the work when the formal process ends?

Read and subscribe here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/clidispatch/p/cli-dispatch-2-the-leadership-that?r=815742&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Civic Leadership Institute
Serving those who serve our communities.