Addis Ababa, 11 June 2026 (ECA) — The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) today opens the inaugural Africa Development Impact Forum (ADIF), a bold new platform designed to move Africa beyond dialogue and into measurable, scalable action on the continent's most pressing development challenges.
Taking place on 11–12 June 2026 at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, the inaugural edition of ADIF brings together researchers, policymakers, investors, development partners, and industry leaders under the theme: Best Practices and Innovative Solutions for Job Creation in Africa.
Africa is not short of ideas, research, or policy frameworks. What has been missing is the system that turns them into results. Promising innovations remain isolated. Pilot programs go unscaled. Applied research sits disconnected from the decisions that shape people's lives. ADIF is designed to change that.
Spearheaded by ECA, ADIF is a direct response to the structural inertia that has stalled Africa's transformation for too long. It operates on a three-stage model that begins before the forum opens and continues long after it closes: a pre-forum Call-to-Action Challenge that co-develops problem statements and mobilizes ideas; a Policy and Strategy Hackathon during the forum that tests and refines actionable solutions; and a post-forum Implementation Clock that tracks, supports, and scales proven models.
"We want to close the gap between ideas and implementation. That is exactly why we built ADIF, to connect innovators with funders, partners, and the country systems that can turn good ideas into real impact." — Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary, ECA
Africa needs to create more than 15 million jobs every year to meet the aspirations of its growing youth population. Without a fundamental shift in how solutions are identified, tested, and scaled, investment will continue to underperform, yielding limited or unsustainable impact.
ADIF 2026 directly addresses this challenge by showcasing scalable models for job creation across sectors and regions, encouraging evidence-based policy design informed by applied research, and building consensus around replicable and fundable solutions that governments and the private sector can act on immediately.
"Africa needs to create more than 15 million jobs every year to meet the aspirations of its growing youth population. ADIF brings together researchers, policymakers, investors, development partners and industry leaders to turn ideas into industries, industries into jobs, and jobs into shared prosperity." — Mama Keita, Deputy Executive Secretary (Programme Support), ECA
Unlike one-off convenings, ADIF is designed as a recurring platform with cumulative impact. Each annual edition focuses on a specific thematic issue while maintaining continuity with previous years, building a sustained body of evidence, action, and accountability. Future editions will explore themes such as Africa's industrialization and the full implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), creating a linked and reinforcing agenda for transformation.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org