CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – ACF ACADEMY
BOOT CAMP #3 | LEWO 1 PROGRAM

APPLICATION SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Africa today is full of young artists and cultural entrepreneurs who evolve on the job, and very often in the informal sector. Among this batch, a large number is made up of women who find it even more difficult to make their voices heard on the continent.

The urgency today is to strengthen the leadership and empowerment of women in Africa, but also to create favorable conditions for their freedom of expression and their participation in public life. This will promote the emergence of women leaders and officials capable of claiming their rights. Women in leadership positions will thus become influencers and leaders of change in their respective societies.

For the emergence of our societies, we need to give women a voice to express themselves and assert themselves.
It is in this logic that the African Culture Fund has chosen to launch the pan–African program LEWO (Leadership and Empowerment for Women), dedicated to the professionalization and capacity building of women artists and cultural entrepreneurs in Africa, with a view to strengthening their leadership and contributing to their empowerment, by providing them with the tools necessary for access to international markets.

LEWO is a continuation of the ACF ACADEMY program, launched in July 2021 and which has so far enabled the incubation and capacity building of 20 cultural managers from West Africa and 12 young visual artists from North Africa.

Thus, the African Culture Fund is launching a call for applications, in partnership with the Institut Kôrè des Arts et Métiers (IKAM Ségou), with a view to selecting 16 female artists and cultural entrepreneurs from West Africa and Central Africa to take part in BOOT CAMP #3 scheduled in Ségou from March 2023.

Call objectives

This call aims to contribute to strengthening the leadership and competitiveness of 16 female artists and cultural entrepreneurs from West and Central Africa through the organization of a professional training camp including capacities in cultural management, leadership, personal branding, and emotional intelligence (which will be followed by a mechanism of mentoring and coaching for one year).

Beneficiaries of the ACF ACADEMY program are certified by the Institut Kôrè Institut des Arts et Métiers (IKAM) of Mali. To this end, participants will benefit from a Professional Aptitude Certificate called Kôrè–Qualité at the end of the ACF ACADEMY training, providing them with the skills necessary for the professionalization of their profession. The Kôrè–Quality Certificate is recognized by the IKAM network and its partners in all regions of Africa.

Content of Bootcamp #3 | LEWO 1 Program

This third boot camp (training camp) of the ACF ACADEMY, will offer participants innovative educational content, coaching, and mentoring adapted and focused on specific leadership skills, during 2 weeks, in the creative city of Ségou (Mali).

In the program, there will be thematic workshops, practical case studies, and scenarios, but also one–to–one sessions with recognized African personalities in the field of culture and entrepreneurship.

This boot camp will provide young professional entrepreneurs in art and culture with tools and keys adapted to contribute to their empowerment.

At the end of the boot camp, the program will grant a scholarship of 2,000 euros to each of the winners and the monitoring of their development will be done for a year in the form of mentoring, provided by experienced professional men and women, great managers and leaders from all parts of Africa.

General eligibility conditions