African Conference on Economic Development and Innovation
ACOEDI 2026
Hosted by IfEDI Africa in partnership with ICBMD
THEME: Advancing African Prosperity: Bridging Research, Policy, and Industry for Sustainable Economic Innovation
One Platform. Different Value for Different Audiences.
MORE THAN A CONFERENCE
ACOEDI brings together the people who produce knowledge, make policy, finance development, build enterprises and implement economic development. It creates a platform where research can move towards application, implementation experience can become reusable knowledge, practitioners can remain current, innovations can gain visibility and institutions can build implementation partnerships.
Hosted by IfEDI Africa in partnership with ICBMD
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One Platform. Different Value for Different Audiences.
ACOEDI: Different Value for Different Audiences
ACOEDI is one economic-development platform serving different parts of the ecosystem. Different participants come to ACOEDI for different outcomes: researchers move knowledge closer to application; practitioners strengthen and update their practice; leaders convert experience into reusable knowledge; enterprises showcase solutions; enterprise-development institutions strengthen their pipelines; and partners connect with a focused economic-development ecosystem.
Academic Researchers
From Research to Relevance, Application & Commercialisation
ACOEDI creates a bridge between academic research and the institutions that can use it. Researchers gain an opportunity to place their work before industry, government, development institutions, innovators, investors and practitioners who may identify opportunities for further development, implementation, adoption or commercialisation. ACOEDI also exposes researchers to real economic-development challenges facing government, industry and communities, helping identify future research questions with stronger policy relevance, practical application and commercial potential.
Benefit Highlights
- Present and publish research
- Connect research with policy and industry
- Identify real-world research needs
- Build government and industry relationships
- Explore research-to-implementation pathways
- Strengthen practical research relevance
- Explore potential research commercialisation pathways
Economic Development Practitioners
Learn What Is Changing. Adapt How You Work.
ACOEDI is a professional-development and practice-adaptation platform for people working across economic development, local economic development, enterprise development, development finance, investment, innovation and related fields. Participants engage with current policy, research, implementation cases and practitioner experience while examining how innovation, AI, data, digitisation, changing markets and emerging economic realities are reshaping economic-development practice. ACOEDI forms part of the Economic Development Adaptation Training Programme, complemented by two post-conference virtual applied-training sessions.
Benefit Highlights
- Update professional knowledge
- Understand changing economic-development conditions
- Learn from implementation cases
- Explore AI, data, innovation and digitisation
- Exchange practice with peers
- Participate in structured post-conference learning
- Strengthen implementation capability
Executives, Managers & Policymakers
Turn Experience into Knowledge Others Can Use
Some of Africa's most valuable economic-development knowledge exists not in academic journals, but in the experience of people who have designed policies, led institutions, implemented programmes, managed projects and solved practical development problems. ACOEDI provides a structured platform to document, share and preserve this implementation and tacit knowledge. Suitable contributions may be developed into structured non-academic knowledge outputs and considered for publication through the ACOEDI Africa Review, subject to applicable review and editorial processes.
Benefit Highlights
- Document implementation experience
- Preserve institutional knowledge
- Share policy and leadership lessons
- Publish practice knowledge
- Build a professional evidence portfolio
- Contribute African implementation knowledge
- Make tacit knowledge visible and reusable
SMMEs, Startups & Innovators
Showcase What You Have Built
ACOEDI gives enterprises, startups and innovators a platform to demonstrate practical solutions, products, technologies, business models and innovations to economic-development stakeholders. Participants can connect with enterprise-development programmes, policymakers, researchers, development institutions, funders, potential partners and markets while learning about economic, technological and policy changes that may affect enterprise growth. ACOEDI therefore combines exposure, learning, networking and innovation visibility.
Benefit Highlights
- Showcase products and innovations
- Connect with ecosystem stakeholders
- Build enterprise visibility
- Access learning and market intelligence
- Meet potential partners
- Engage enterprise-development institutions
- Connect with decision-makers and markets
Enterprise Development & Business-Support Professionals
Find Solutions. Strengthen Enterprise Pipelines. Build Partnerships.
ACOEDI provides enterprise-development managers, incubators, accelerators, development agencies and business-support institutions with an environment to discover emerging solutions, compare approaches and engage directly with entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers and development partners. Participants can explore practical approaches to enterprise support, innovation, incubation, market access and economic-development implementation while identifying potential partners and stronger enterprise-development pipelines. ACOEDI functions both as a learning environment and a marketplace for practical enterprise-development intelligence.
Benefit Highlights
- Discover emerging enterprises
- Discover innovations and solutions
- Compare enterprise-development models
- Identify implementation partners
- Learn from research and practice
- Strengthen incubation and enterprise-support pipelines
- Connect entrepreneurs with institutions and markets
Sponsors, Partners & Advertisers
Visibility, Thought Leadership & Targeted Access
ACOEDI offers partners access to a focused cross-sector audience spanning government, academia, industry, development finance, enterprise, innovation and economic-development practice. The platform enables organisations to build visibility, demonstrate thought leadership, showcase solutions, develop institutional relationships and participate in curated networking and commercial opportunities. ACOEDI partnership is more than logo placement — it creates opportunities for meaningful positioning within a continental platform focused on innovation, implementation, enterprise development and inclusive economic growth.
Benefit Highlights
- Strategic brand visibility
- Thought-leadership positioning
- Curated networking
- Exhibition and showcase opportunities
- Institutional relationships
- Cross-sector economic-development networks
- Knowledge positioning
Institutional Participation
Build Your ACOEDI Delegation
ACOEDI allows institutions to participate across different objectives. Send different people for different benefits — encouraging institutional delegations rather than only individual attendance.
A University may send:
- •A researcher contributing academic work
- •An innovation/commercialisation representative connecting research to markets
- •A practitioner or institutional leader engaging implementation and professional development
A municipality or government institution may send:
- •An executive or policymaker documenting implementation knowledge
- •An economic-development or LED practitioner participating in professional development
- •An enterprise/investment official building partnerships
A corporate, DFI or development institution may send:
- •Leadership for strategic engagement
- •Enterprise-development or investment professionals
- •Innovation, research or knowledge professionals contributing practice cases
More Than Conference Attendance
ACOEDI combines exposure, reflection, peer learning, structured training and practice adaptation into one integrated professional development journey.
Three Legs. One Professional Development Journey.
Conference Learning → Structured Training → Practice Adaptation
ACOEDI 2026 Conference
Conference-Based Action & Peer Learning
Participants engage current economic development challenges, policy, research, institutional experience, innovation and implementation practice through the ACOEDI conference environment.
Structured Virtual Training
Two Facilitated Virtual Training Sessions
Session 1
Applied Economic Development Practice
From Policy to Implementation
Developing practitioners' ability to translate policy, strategy and economic development intent into practical implementation.
Session 2
Innovation, AI, Data & Market Intelligence
for Economic Development Practitioners
Applying innovation, AI, data and market intelligence to economic analysis, opportunity identification and development decision-making.
Two facilitated virtual training sessions that convert conference learning into practical professional capability.
Practice Adaptation & CPD
Apply learning within your institution or economic environment
Participants reflect on what has changed in economic development and innovation, assess progress against their professional and institutional goals, and adapt priorities, practice and strategy accordingly.
Why This Training Model?
Economic development cannot be mastered through classroom instruction alone.
Practitioners need exposure to real challenges and implementation realities.
Practitioners must learn from peers, institutions and cross-sector experience.
Learning must ultimately be adapted to the practitioner’s own environment.
Why Now?
Economic conditions and development priorities are changing rapidly.
AI, data and digitalisation are reshaping economic development decision-making.
Institutions need practitioners who can move from policy to implementation.
Professional capability requires continuous learning and adaptation.
What “Adaptive” Means
The adaptive character of the programme, in three simple questions.
What is changing?
Emerging trends in economic development, innovation, markets, technology, policy and implementation.
How are we performing?
Assessing progress against professional, institutional and economic development goals.
What must we adapt?
Practice, priorities, strategy, tools and implementation approaches.
Certification + Continued Professional Relevance
Certification establishes professional competence. ACOEDI keeps it current.
ACOEDI is the annual adaptive CPD anchor within the IfEDI Africa professional certification journey — providing the space to examine emerging economic development and innovation trends, assess progress against professional goals, and adapt practice, priorities and strategy.
GET CERTIFIED ONCE. STAY RELEVANT CONTINUOUSLY.
Who Should Participate?
Economic development & LED practitioners
Government & development institutions
Enterprise, incubation & business support practitioners
Investment, infrastructure & development finance practitioners
Universities, researchers & knowledge institutions
Chambers, consultants, innovators & emerging practitioners
One Integrated Professional Development Journey
Experience → Learn → Adapt → Apply
Understand. Learn. Adapt. Apply.
Economic development is changing. The practitioner must change with it.
ACOEDI 2026 Banking Details
Use the details below to make payment for registration, sponsorship, exhibition, or organisational participation. Please use the correct payment reference so that your payment can be matched to your registration, sponsorship, exhibition, or organisational participation.
Please use the correct payment reference so that your payment can be matched to your registration, sponsorship, exhibition, or organisational participation. International delegates: use the Swift Code above.
Proof of payment may be requested for confirmation. For international payments, use the Swift Code: FIRNZAJJ.
Conference Theme
Advancing African Prosperity: Bridging Research, Policy, and Industry for Sustainable Economic Innovation
About ACOEDI 2026
ACOEDI 2026 is the African Conference on Economic Development and Innovation, hosted by IfEDI Africa in partnership with ICBMD. The conference forms part of an integrated professional development journey combining conference-based learning, structured post-conference virtual training and practice adaptation. It brings together researchers, policymakers, businesses, development institutions, innovators, practitioners and professionals to exchange knowledge, examine emerging economic development realities and strengthen implementation capability. ACOEDI forms the conference-based learning leg of an integrated annual Economic Development Adaptation Training Programme combining action learning, peer learning, structured applied training and practice adaptation. It supports IfEDI Africa's professional-body mandate by helping practitioners remain professionally relevant as economic development priorities, tools, markets and implementation environments evolve.
Venue & Dates
26 October 2026 — Welcome Dinner
27–28 October 2026 — Main Conference
29 October 2026 — Optional Technical Tour
Emperors Palace Convention Centre, Johannesburg
Conference Outcomes
These resources contribute to the knowledge and learning environment of the programme.
African Economic Development & Innovation Atlas 2026
A flagship continental publication integrating economic intelligence, strategic planning and governance systems.
ACOEDI 2026 Conference Proceedings
Peer-reviewed book chapters and journal pipeline from accepted academic papers.
Excellence Framework
A competitiveness and benchmarking tool recognising excellence in economic development and innovation.
Recognising Excellence in Economic Development & Innovation Across Africa
The IfEDI Africa Economic Development & Innovation Excellence Awards recognise outstanding professional, institutional and collaborative contributions to economic development and innovation across Africa.
Presented at ACOEDI 2026 on 28 October 2026.
How to Participate
Register for ACOEDI 2026
Submit a Contribution
Become a Conference Ambassador
ACOEDI 2026 Magazine & Implementation Review
The ACOEDI 2026 Industry & Implementation Review is IfEDI Africa's magazine-style knowledge output linked to the conference. It captures implementation themes, regional perspectives, illustrative case formats, innovation stories, institutional profiles, commercial visibility formats and future Atlas-linked learning. Issue 01 | 2026 Edition — 36 pages.
Contact the ACOEDI Secretariat
For enquiries about submissions, registration, sponsorship or the conference programme.