Afrikan Design Thinking Convening 2026

Hosted by the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika
at the University of Cape Town (UCT)

1–3 June 2026 | Cape Town, South Africa & Online

Marking 10 years of d-school Afrika, this Convening is a moment to pause and reflect together — bringing educators, leaders, practitioners, and emerging voices into dialogue on design thinking practice grounded in Afrikan contexts and connected to wider global conversations.

The Convening will take place in a hybrid format. Online registration is now open, with a curated virtual experience designed for meaningful participation from wherever you are.

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Why we’re gathering

As we mark 10 years of d-school Afrika — the continent’s first dedicated school of design thinking, based at UCT and supported by the Hasso Plattner Foundation — we are gathering to reflect on what has been learned, what questions remain, and what practice demands next.

Over this decade, the school has grown into a thriving, purpose-designed home on UCT’s Middle Campus and engaged a wide community of participants across programmes and partnerships. This milestone is held with humility: it is both a celebration and a moment to learn, ask better questions, and shape what comes next — together.

What is a Convening

This gathering uses a hybrid, interactive convening format that prioritises collective reflection and shared knowledge-building. Keynote talks, dialogues and fireside chats with a range of expert speakers spark our thought for facilitated dialogues and deep-dive studios to harness the wisdom and will of all participants across the space.

Participants are invited to bring their questions, experiences, and tensions into conversation — across disciplines, institutions, generations, and regions.

While selected guests from d-school’s ecosystem will gather in-person in the building, we are offering a rich online experience to join from anywhere in the world. Virtual participants can expect selected live-streamed sessions and facilitated participation moments, with opportunities to engage through interactive tools and guided online dialogue.

Reflect

A communal practice of making meaning

Under the banner Reflect, the Convening creates space to look back with honesty, make meaning together in the present, and orient toward thriving futures. Reflection is understood here as a communal process grounded in place, purpose, practice, and people — not only an analytical exercise.

Remember • Reframe • Rethink • Resolve • Regenerate

These lenses guide shared inquiry: remembering roots and stories; reframing design thinking through Afrikan narratives; rethinking assumptions, practice, and leadership; resolving commitments and real-world challenges through attention to impact and evidence; and regenerating futures grounded in care, continuity, and renewal.

Thematic strands

Afrikan-Centred Design Thinking & Contextual Practice

How might design thinking pedagogy and practice be informed by indigenous wisdom, lived experience, and everyday ingenuity?

Leadership, Agency, and Complexity in Afrikan Contexts

How might design-led mindsets inform adaptive, practice-based leadership able to engage complexity, uncertainty, and systemic challenges?

Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Futures

How might design thinking mindsets drive and strengthen human-centred innovation and entrepreneurship on the continent?

Afrika in the Global Design Thinking Conversation

What does it look like for Afrika to shape and contribute to global design thinking discourse, including through platforms such as the Global Design Thinking Alliance?

A key moment within the Convening will be the launch of the Afrikan Chapter of the Global Design Thinking Alliance (GDTA) — a step toward strengthening Afrikan visibility, collaboration, and contribution within global design thinking communities.

Programme Schedule

The online programme is live and includes all sessions that willl be streamed and facilitated for all virtual participants

The virtual experience across 1–3 June will include:

Live-streamed sessions - watch the keynotes, dialogues, panel discussions and recaps
Access to digital event platform to participate in chat room, Q&A and polls as well as connecting with other registered participants
Selected interactive sessions available online with facilitated breakaway rooms

ACCESS FULL VIRTUAL PROGRAMME HERE

Register now for free virtual participation

Block off the days and participate in the whole experience. Or join for the sessions that suit your interests and availability.

Follow on your own, or gather your colleagues and students and experience it together. Even schedule this into your teaching and learning time.

Limited in-person tickets are reserved for select partners from d-school’s ecosystem and are now full.

Contributors

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Anirban Bhattacharya

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Anirban Bhattacharya is a design thinking coach and practitioner who works at the intersection of innovation, systems thinking, and business leadership. Founder of The Painted Sky, he has led programs for 100+ clients across 18 countries, helping leaders reimagine problem-solving for complex, evolving contexts, with a strong focus on sustainability, resilience, and the Global South. He currently works in indigenous design research and learning, bringing traditional wisdoms to modern classrooms.

Babalwa Ngconcolo

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Babalwa Ngcongolo is a Human-Centred Design practitioner, facilitator, and strategist working at the intersection of innovation, justice, and development. Grounded in civic leadership, education, and peacebuilding, she equips leaders and organisations to design the conditions that shape equitable systems—bridging creativity, compassion, and strategy to demonstrate how local transformation can drive global good.

Dr. Amollo Ambole

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Amollo Ambole is an urban specialist with a strong grounding in design thinking. With product design training and a PhD in Public and Development Management, Amollo brings creativity and systems thinking to urban development work across Africa. With experience spanning academia and practice over the last two decades, Amollo skillfully connects research and strategy to support resilient, people-centred African cities.

Dr. Puleng Makhoalibe

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Dr. Puleng is a dynamic leader driven by a deep passion for creativity, design thinking, and innovation. With over 26 years of experience spanning the private sector, government, and higher education, she brings a wealth of cross-industry insight to her work. She is a certified coach, speaker, and facilitator, as well as a self-published author of three books. She collaborates globally to cultivate environments where individuals and teams can think boldly and co-create meaningful solutions.

Hoda Mostafa

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Hoda Mostafa is a Professor of Practice and Director of the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. Her work sits at the intersection of educational development, digital education, and strategy. She leads multiple Teaching and Learning initiatives. A designer at heart, Hoda is a passionate design thinking facilitator, with workshops delivered internationally. Hoda also serves on the governing board of the Global Design Thinking Alliance.

Jenni van Niekerk

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Jenni, an independent consultant to d-school Afrika, is responsible for growing the Afrikan Design Thinking Network and leading our Afrikan Design Thinking Stories and Language projects. With experience across sectors and countries, a social anthropology and development studies undergrad and a MA in Communication for Development, she loves bringing people together and weaving diverse insights towards collaborative action, using relational, creative and human-centred principles. Jenni is the curator for this Convening and was for d.confestival Cape Town 2022.

Jewel Thompson

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Jewel Thompson, MBA, is an entrepreneurship educator and scholar-practitioner exploring how Africa’s diverse cultural contexts shape innovation, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem development. At Ashesi University, she leads experiential design thinking and entrepreneurship learning and helped co-develop the Ashesi Venture Incubator. Her work spans research, venture support, and ecosystem-building across the continent.

John Ngila

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John Ngila is a seasoned Design Thinking coach, facilitator, and innovation leader dedicated to fostering creativity and problem-solving. He serves as the Chairperson of the Design Thinking Association of Kenya, a network of Design Thinking practitioners, and convenes the annual Innovation Week training program. John is also the Program Lead of the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub (SEIH), where he champions social innovation, entrepreneurship, and human-centered approaches to addressing community and business challenges.

Josef Kembel

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Josef George Kembel is an educator, entrepreneur and global advisor. He co-founded the Stanford d.school, leading it from a napkin sketch into a globally influential hub for design thinking. He is now building CSCHOOL and advancing Living Learning Systems—working with leaders and investors worldwide to reimagine organizations, technologies and cultures to unlock human potential, foster resilience, and enable more adaptive, creative systems at scale.

Kasturi Behari-Leak

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Professor Kasturi Behari-Leak (PhD) is Dean of the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town, where she leads student success, curriculum transformation, and academic staff and professional development initiatives. A recognised Global South voice, she served as President of the International Consortium for Educational Development (2021–2023) and President of HELTASA (2017–2021).

Mugendi K. M'Rithaa

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Mugendi M'Rithaa is a Kenyan transdisciplinary industrial designer, educator, and researcher with a passion for Afrika, Design and Innovation. His academic experience spans Kenya, the USA, India, and South Africa, and he specialises in Human-Centred Design, Sustainability, and Universal Design. He is also active in numerous international fora wherein he champions Design Thinking as a driver of Africa's sociotechnical aspirations.

Precious Ndebele

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Precious Ndebele is a researcher with a PhD in Integrative Biomedical Sciences from the University of Cape Town. Her work at d-school Afrika focuses on the influence of Design thinking on organisational change. She is passionate about exploring how the mindsets of DT can be used as a translational tool to change ways of working and being in different settings. Her unique journey from quantitative to qualitative research empowers her to bridge disciplines, making her a rare scholar adept at translating complex ideas into impactful, real-world change.

Pumla Maswanganyi

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Bridging design, art, research, and foresight, Pumla Maswanganyi partners with global institutions (including tech giants, Fortune 500s, governments and leading art establishments) to design how they innovate. As a recognised consulting adviser and creator of the ALCD framework; she translates qualitative insights into scalable product, material, experiential, and policy systems; turning cultural intelligence into immense commercial and aesthetic advantage for the Global Majority.

Rael Futerman

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Dr Rael Futerman is a design educator and researcher based in Cape Town whose work focuses on participatory methodologies, expansive learning, and empowering learning through design in higher education. He holds a doctorate in Design and has over 15 years’ experience leading design thinking pedagogy, curriculum innovation, and coach development, with a particular emphasis on African contexts and challenge-based, experiential learning.

Richard Perez

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Richard Perez is the founding director of the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town, where he leads work in design-led innovation, creativity, and leadership development. Previously a Director at the City of Cape Town, he led Cape Town’s World Design Capital 2014 designation and pioneered the use of design for human-centered public policy and innovation. With backgrounds in mechanical engineering, innovation design engineering, and an Executive MBA, his current research explores leadership development for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and change.

Solange Rosa

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Solange Rosa is the Director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Solution Space at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town (UCT). She also teaches on the MBA, Executive Education programmes and international study tours at the UCT Graduate School of Business. She has a Doctorate in Human Rights Law from the University of Stellenbosch and a Masters degree in Human Rights Law from the University of Cape Town.

Uli Weinberg

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Prof. Uli Weinberg is a pioneer of Design Thinking in Europe and founding director of the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam, Germany. With a background in computer animation, digital media and innovation education, he has spent decades connecting technology, creativity and human-centered collaboration. He is co-founder and President of the Global Design Thinking Alliance and advises international universities and organizations on Future Skills, AI transformation and Design Thinking as a mindset for change.

Vula Youth Development NPC

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From executive boardrooms, conferences, universities, community spaces, and classrooms in underserved communities: we turn ideas into unforgettable experiences through performing arts, creative dialogue, and facilitation that makes every voice count. Every Rand generated goes to our Habitable Planet Programme developing the next generation of science and climate change leaders.

Session Moderators & Facilitation Team

Annie van Niekerk

Babalwa Ngcongolo

Dominic Preuss

Dylan Groep

Gadija Petersen

Janice McMillan

Jenni van Niekerk

Jodi Wagenstroom

Kirsten Francis

Lavinia Perumel

Maurisa Moloto

Nailah Conrad

Ntsikelelo Piliso

Olwethu Kwayiba

Precious Ndebele

Quanita Sideris

Rael Futerman

Richard Perez

Rob Kellas

Roxanne Botman

Tasneem Jhetam

Tebogo Chaka

Tiego Monareng

Verdarsha Singh

Zola Ndimande

Zulfah Albertyn

Insight Harvesting Team

Adam van Graan

Babalwa Ngcongolo

Dominic Preuss

Gadija Petersen

Hayward Barends

Jodi Wagenstroom

Nailah Conrad

Rael Futerman

Tebogo Chaka

Zola Ndimande

Zulfah Albertyn

Tasneem Jhetam

Enquiries

For enquiries, please email convening@dschool.org.za.