From 30 September to 3 October 2026, Dr. Weihang Liu, the postdoctoral researcher at our school, attended the conference "Envisioning Africa's Futures: Governance, Leadership and South-South Partnerships" hosted by the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and visited the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town.

The conference aimed to build on the discussions initiated at the 2025 Africa-China Conference, critically examining the governance dilemmas, leadership crises, and development pathways facing the African continent, while deepening South-South cooperation and promoting sustainable development that serves all African people. Participants engaged in extensive discussions on a wide range of topics, including governance transformation and leadership building in Africa, the nature of the state and nation-building, bridging knowledge production and policy practice, green industrialization and regional integration, policy debates and South-South cooperation on critical minerals, the role of development finance institutions, implementation pathways for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), cross-regional comparative experiences (the European Union and ASEAN), the roots of belonging and insecurity, and the prospects for Africa's future prosperity.

Dr. Weihang Liu engaged in extensive exchanges with fellow participants and delivered a presentation on green industrialization and regional integration in Panel 4 of the conference. At the closing ceremony, Professor Cheryl Hendricks, Director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the School of Government at Nanjing University and the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance. Following the conference, Dr. Weihang Liu, as the school's representative, held talks with Professor Cheryl Hendricks and relevant staff members of the school, during which the two sides reached preliminary intentions for cooperation on future joint research, conference preparation, and exchange programs.