Local Leadership Excellence Award: 57 territorial governance actors preselected 

On Friday, August 22, 2025 in Dakar (Senegal), the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy in Africa (IOPD Africa) unveiled the list of 57 shortlisted candidates for the award of the Local Leadership Excellence Award (LLI), which will be awarded to a major player in the management of local authorities. 

For this award organized in partnership with UCLG Africa and under the auspices of the African Union, the scientific committee responsible for evaluating the applications and awarding the PELL received 734 application files from 28 African countries for the six categories.   

These categories are: 1) local authorities, 2) ministries and technical departments, 3) journalists and communicators, 4) academics and researchers, 5) citizens and transformers, 6) children and young creators.   

UCLG Africa is represented in the scientific committee by Dr. Najat Zarrouk, Mrs. Rhamatouca Sow and Dr. François Yatta.   

The shortlisted candidates will take part in the learning and nominee audition conference, scheduled from September 30 to October 3, 2025.   

The three best submissions in each category will be selected.   

The winners will be rewarded during the sixth edition of the International Forum for Participatory Democracy in Africa, which will be held from 4 to 6 November 2025, in Dakar. 

‘We seek to improve the performance of local authorities. Our conviction is that the development of Africa will start from the territories. It is in the territories that solutions to the problems of the populations must be found,’ indicated Bachir Kanouté, Secretary General of the IOPD Africa.   

IOPD Africa launched this initiative on March 27, 2025 to ‘contribute to writing the narrative of Africa in terms of decentralization‘.   

Consult the summary table of the list of 57 nominees.