Overview

Acumen invests in social entrepreneurs across the capital continuum and accompanies them on the journey to create transformational change. At Acumen Academy, we identify and prepare these leaders with the hard skills required to build scalable solutions to poverty and the harder skills of moral leadership to re-imagine and build a better world.

Our West Africa Acumen Fellowship is a transformative program that brings together a cohort of extraordinary individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset and a commitment to solve problems of poverty. We equip them with the tools and community to strengthen their leadership, scale their impact, and create meaningful change in West Africa.

West Africa is at a crossroads, with socio-political issues like conflict, insecurity, corruption, increased inflation, bad governance, and the economic fallout of COVID-19 deepening poverty in the region. Our Fellows are building solutions that redefine Education, Workforce Development, Agriculture, Energy Healthcare, and more. Solutions that cultivate dignity and present the greatest hope for the future of our society and our planet.

Transformative leadership experience

Through the program curriculum and a supportive cohort, participants peel back notions of themselves as leaders and build greater self-awareness. They hone their skills to become better team leaders, authentic storytellers, and navigate values in tension. They leave the program with the ability to negotiate across differences, motivate themselves and others, challenge traditional ways of working, and reshape the people, organizations, and systems around them. 

“The Acumen Fellowship is much more than a one-off leadership development program. It provided me with a carefully crafted set of leadership tools and is a catalyst for connection to a lifelong community of learning and support for social change work.” – Eleanor Thompson, Founder of Citizens’ Barray, 2024 West Africa Acumen Fellow (Sierra Leone) 

Application Deadline: 25 November 2025

What it takes

What makes an Acumen Fellow?

• You want to get yourself and your work to the next level. You’re looking for people to support you on your journey. You have a bold vision for yourself and your work. You want to develop yourself as a credible and inspiring leader in pursuit of the lifelong practice of moral leadership and gain a nuanced understanding of how you can be of the greatest service to yourself, your work, and the world.
• You believe the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth, it’s dignity. Your organization gives people living in poverty the dignity of choice – in jobs, education, products, and services. You are using the tools of business to build scalable, market-based solutions to solve problems of poverty and you are improving lives.
• You have a sense of urgency to make a contribution to the world. You’ve grown impatient with the status quo – both within yourself and in the world. You have a burning ambition to scale your proven solution, and are searching for the tools and community to build impact.
• You are ready to join a global community of peers who are passionate about solving problems of poverty and will walk alongside you. You want to connect with others who have been where you are and join a community to give and receive and where it’s okay to define success differently, and put people and the planet at the center. 

Program details

About the Fellowship

Our program is grounded in two decades of experience accompanying social entrepreneurs on the journey from seed to scale. The Fellowship provides new leadership frameworks and through a supportive cohort, Fellows pressure test the new skills they’re learning in real time, and build peer relationships that keep them accountable to their values and commitments as they grow and scale their impact.  

Curriculum

Polarity Management

Learn to operate in a world of opposing views and to cross lines of difference to mobilize others towards a shared cause or problem.

Good Society Readings

Explore the meaning of a just society and the moral and historical foundation of social change through classic and contemporary texts by thinkers such as Plato, Ursula K. LeGuin, Chimamanda Adichie, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Amartya Sen.

Adaptive Leadership

Learn to understand stakeholders, map their needs, and navigate uncertainty to catalyze change.

Authentic Voice

Learn to tell stories that compel and inspire others to take action in pursuit of a bold idea. Build audience awareness to improve your pitch, talk to investors, form partnerships, and make connections.

Structure

Fellows remain in their jobs and participate in a 6-month hybrid program consisting of virtual sessions, in-person immersives, and self-paced learning.

This is a high-level program overview:

• One 3-day virtual Orientation
• Two 5-day full-time in-person immersives (8 hours of assignments for each immersive consisting of self-paced learning and group calls)
• Four Learning Labs  (4 hours each along with assignments)  
• The power of community to reflect, build, and scale

We believe the hard work of changing the world can’t be done alone. It must be done in relationship with yourself, with others, and the world. 

Our Foundry have impacted 50 million lives in 71 countries, and are just getting started. Their businesses and organizations are redefining the future of food, education, climate, healthcare, workforce development, and more. 

For more details, Visit Official Website Here