The Shaping Futures: African-European Network on Development and Sustainability with its Academy (Shaping Futures Academy) is a dialogue and training program targeted at early to mid-career professionals from participating African (Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Togo, and Zambia) and European (EU+) countries. The Shaping Futures Academy aims to empower future leaders on both continents by bringing together like-minded peers to reflect on their roles in their respective communities and institutions. They jointly develop strategies on how they can induce or support change processes for a transformation to sustainability in the present and future contexts.
The Shaping Futures Academy welcomes participants from various sectors (civil society, academia and think tanks, public administration, business and media) to encourage transdisciplinarity and to promote networking and knowledge exchange.
The Shaping Futures Academy is hosted by the German Institute for Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The programme is conducted in English.
Format and Content
The Shaping Futures Academy is grounded on three essential elements that contribute to capacity development: knowledge, action and leadership.
The Shaping Futures Academy targets early to mid-career professionals from participating African (Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Togo and Zambia) and European (EU+) countries.
Potential participants of the Shaping Futures Academy should:
The innovative dialogue programme takes place in block format from 5 May to 21 November 2025. It combines three digital and two in-person modules in Germany and Ghana.
