Moghalu To Speak At Harvard Global Policy Forum

Nigerian economist Kingsley Moghalu is set to speak at Harvard Kennedy School’s Global Empowerment Meeting (GEM26) in May 2026.

Hosted by Harvard Kennedy School’s Centre for International Development (CID), the 17th annual GEM26 will take place on May 4-5, 2026.

The event will bring together leading global thinkers and practitioners to address one of the defining questions of the moment, how to reimagine international development in an era marked by shifting geopolitics, tightening resources, and changing global power structures.

The high-level forum is expected to generate fresh, actionable ideas on growth, equity, sustainability, and cooperation at a time when traditional development models are under increasing strain.

Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a prominent voice on economic governance and institutional reform in Africa, is the founder and president of IGET Academy, a public policy think tank and executive education platform for African leaders with bases in Abuja and Washington, DC.

He will feature as a panellist on Panel 2, titled “Doing Development Differently”, scheduled for Tuesday, May 5, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. US Eastern Time.

The session forms part of GEM26’s broader theme, Reimagining International Development, which seeks to interrogate how development practice must evolve in response to aid constraints, market volatility, and increasing geoeconomic fragmentation.

In their invitation, CID Faculty Director Asim Ijaz Khwaja and Executive Director Fatema Z. Sumar praised Moghalu’s contributions to economic and policy discourse across Africa and beyond.

“Your leadership in advancing economic governance, institutional capacity, and policy innovation across Africa including through your work in central banking, international policy, and leadership development has helped shape important conversations about Africa’s role in the global economy,” they noted.

Responding to the invitation, Moghalu described the forum as timely and consequential.

“This is a discussion with potential outcomes that could reshape the trajectory of many developing countries, especially in Africa.

“I am honoured to join this gathering and look forward to robust exchanges on practical, context-aware approaches to development,” he said.

GEM26 will also feature a strong line-up of global academics, policymakers, and development leaders.

These include Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein; Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy Dani Rodrik; Nobel laureate James Robinson of the University of Chicago; Nobel laureate Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Others on the roster include Samantha Power, former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development; Yuen Yuen Ang of Johns Hopkins University; Khalil Shariff, Chief Executive Officer of the Aga Khan Foundation; and Rachel Glennerster, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Global Development.

The meeting continues CID’s longstanding tradition of convening evidence-based dialogue that bridges theory and policy practice, with selected sessions expected to be livestreamed to a global audience.