Africa LEADS [Learn. Adapt. Scale.]

📅 05 – 09 May 2025
Lomé, Togo

The overlapping crises of climate change, food insecurity, pandemics, and conflict demand a transformative approach to international development. The World Bank Group (WBG) is addressing these challenges through the WBG LEADS [Learn. Adapt. Scale.] Program, a collaborative global initiative led by Development Impact under the Chief Economist, in partnership with Regional Management and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The LEADS Program aims to maximize the impact of development investments by embedding high-quality evidence into project design and implementation.

The program is built on three core pillars:

• Learn: Foster mutual learning through rigorous impact evaluations and research.
• Adapt: Enable projects to adopt high-impact solutions informed by evidence.
• Scale: Expand proven approaches across regions and globally.

Using real-time data and evidence to resolve real-world challenges, LEADS equips projects with tools to achieve greater and more measurable development outcomes.

Scaling to Western and Central Africa (AFW)

LEADS was successfully launched in Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) in May 2024. A workshop in Cape Town brought together over 250 participants from 30 projects managing $12.8 billion in investments. The LEADS Program is scaling to Western and Central Africa (AFW).

The AFW program will start with the AFW LEADS Workshop on May 5–9, 2025 (dates TBC), in Lomé, Togo, focusing on advancing regional priorities and delivering evidence-based development solutions.

This invitation-only event will convene pre-selected World Bank and IFC-financed projects, with thematic focus areas of:

• Agriculture and Water Security
• Domestic Revenue Mobilization
• Adolescent Girls’ Education and Skills
• Energy (IFC only)

Cross-cutting areas include Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV), Gender, Digital Development, and Jobs. Eligible projects have been selected from countries across the AFW region to represent a diverse range of priorities and challenges.

Following the workshop, selected projects will continue to receive tailored support throughout project implementation to optimize project design through evidence, analytics, and randomized controlled trials and to rigorously evaluate resulting project impacts. Lessons and experiences will continue to be shared across the AFW LEADS community of practice.

Registration