NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Overview
The Global African Women’s Sustainability Conference 2.0 is a platform that empowers women of African descent across the continent.

The Global African Women’s Sustainability Conference 2.0 is a pioneering platform that empowers women of African descent, across the continent and the diaspora, to lead the charge in building a sustainable and inclusive growth.

Hosted by ImpactHER

Time: 8 am – 6 pm WAT

Overview
A two-day Nairobi summit connecting Africa’s high-potential startups with investors, partners, and ecosystem leaders.

The AfricArena Nairobi Summit 2026 is a two-day conference dedicated to Fintech (Day 1) and Climate Tech (Day 2), connecting 30+ African startups with 100+ investors from across the globe.

Hosted across two of Nairobi’s most distinctive venues: Nairobi Street Kitchen (29 April) and Amani Gardens (30 April), the summit brings together founders between Seed and Series B with VCs, LPs, corporates, and ecosystem builders for keynotes, panel discussions, pitch challenges, and an awards ceremony on each day.

This is the Nairobi stop of the AfricArena 2026 Africa Tour, building momentum toward the annual Grand Summit in Cape Town. Previous editions have drawn 700+ attendees, 60+ speakers, and facilitated over $900 million in impact.

What’s on the programme:

Day 1 (29 April) | Fintech: The state of fintech in Africa, insuretech scaling, stablecoins and cross-border payments, the anatomy of a fintech breakout, and the path to exit.

Day 2 (30 April) | Climate Tech: Capital stacking for climate startups, rethinking the VC model in Africa, carbon markets, Africa’s emerging EV market, and an investor reverse pitch.

Each day features two startup pitch challenge tracks, keynotes from founders and investors building at the frontier, and closes with an awards ceremony.

The week also includes:

Founders’ Venture Retreat (26–27 April): a residential bootcamp at Maasai Lodge for selected startups
Wired Speed Connect (28 April): curated 1:1 LP-GP and GP-startup meetings
3. VC Night (29 April, 6 PM): exclusive networking at Nairobi Street Kitchen for up to 100 curated participants
Confirmed speakers include: Claire van Enk (Farm to Feed), Maxime Bayen (Catalyst Fund / Africa: The Big Deal), Ted Pantone (Turaco), Dario Giuliani (Briter), Agnes Aistleitner (First Circle Capital), Paul Breloff (Shortlist), Florence Githinji (Yellow Card), Diana Maranga (Octavia Carbon), and Toukam Ngoufanke (Persistent Capital).

For updates, follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube @africarena Visit www.africarena.com

Time: 9:00 AM-6:00 PM

Advancing MNCH: National Priorities, Partnerships, and Pathways to Impact

Join Jhpiego live on Wednesday, April 29th to hear directly from Ministries of Health about what is working well, what can be adapted, and what is needed to advance national MNCH priorities. Senior Ministry representatives will share insights into effective strategies, remaining challenges, and opportunities for meaningful partnerships and investment.

The discussion will highlight country-led approaches and illuminate the path forward for collective action to improve MNCH outcomes.

The Nordic Africa EV Summit is a working platform connecting Africa’s electric mobility transition with Nordic leadership in transport, energy systems, and battery energy storage. Through twin-city convenings in the Nordics and Africa, the Summit brings together governments, utilities, fleet operators, financiers, and technology providers to move electric mobility from pilots to scalable deployment. With a focus on trade corridors, public transport, fleet electrification, and storage-backed charging infrastructure, the Summit aligns policy, investment, and real-world implementation to enable reliable, low-carbon transport systems even where grids are constrained.

WHY AFRICA NOW?
Africa’s electric mobility market is moving decisively from pilots to platforms, and faster than many expected. More than 200 e-mobility companies are already active across the continent, leading markets are projected to reach meaningful EV penetration well before 2030, and large-scale deployments are underway, from electric BRT fleets in Dakar and Addis Ababa to rapid two-wheeler electrification backed by nine-figure investment rounds. Global OEMs are accelerating entry, with major manufacturers expanding aggressively across Southern and Eastern Africa. Together, these signals point to a structural shift. The next phase of growth will be defined by actors who can integrate grid readiness, battery energy storage–enabled charging, enabling policy, and heavy-duty fleet deployment into bankable, scalable systems that can operate reliably at corridor and city scale.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming a foundational technology shaping development outcomes across sectors, from agriculture and health to financial inclusion and public service delivery. AI now sits at the intersection of geopolitics, public policy, and ethics. Governments and institutions are grappling with how to regulate AI while remaining competitive, as questions of sovereignty, accountability, and international cooperation become more prominent. Increasingly, AI governance is recognized as essential not only to manage risks but to ensure trust, legitimacy, and responsible use.\

At the same time, the uneven distribution of data, infrastructure, and capabilities raises concerns about deepening global inequalities. For many countries, especially in the Global South, the challenge lies in leveraging AI for development without reinforcing dependency or exclusion. As AI moves from experimentation to real-world deployment, the focus is shifting toward building practical, context-aware, and ethically grounded solutions that deliver meaningful impact across diverse environments.

This webinar will explore a set of key questions:

– How is AI reshaping global power dynamics and international cooperation? How should countries in the Global South navigate this?
– How should countries and development actors balance innovation with regulation, risk, and local ownership? Does every country need or can practically have local computing and indigenous models?
– What does the cost-benefit of AI look like? Can low and middle-sized institutions in the Global South afford it, and does it guarantee benefits? How can institutions move from AI hype to building practical, scalable, and responsible solutions?
– Is AI reinforcing existing inequalities, or can it be a tool for bridging them?
– What are the key lessons from deploying AI in real-world development contexts?

Time: 9:00 AM EST