sobering 2025 statistic from the V–Dem Institute revealed that over 70% of the world now lives under authoritarian rule. In a year defined by conflict, climate shocks, and a deep crisis of trust, our institutions often struggled to meet the moment. Trillions flowed into military spending while the SDGs remained chronically underfunded. Hundreds of millions of children went hungry or out of school. And even the millions in school—such as in my home country of Uganda—remain far from accessing the quality education and lifelong learning that develops agency, problem–solving, and creativity to shape a better future for themselves and all of us.
Yet there’s hope. In rooms like the Education House at UNGA 80, I encountered inspiring leaders, including ministers of education from Senegal to South Africa, who are actively transforming education systems and collaborating with civil society and multilateral partners to improve outcomes for their nations' children. Across the globe, young people continue to challenge institutional failure. In Kenya and Bangladesh, Gen Z movements mounted unprecedented campaigns demanding accountability from their governments. In their communities, young people are also taking on the leadership to meet the challenges of their time. They are launching robotics programs like RoboKids Africa that teach STEM to children in communities without electricity, addressing mental health challenges for teachers and students that systems have long ignored, and developing vocational training for out–of–school youth preparing for tomorrow's jobs. From demanding better systems to constructing them directly, this generation understands that transformation requires both calls for justice and entrepreneurial leadership.
These parallel movements—civic pressure revealing where institutions fall short and local leaders building capacity in those gaps— point toward what may be the most overlooked institutional model of our time: networks that identify, train, and connect values-aligned leaders who become changemakers in their communities and drive structural change across their nations. The power of this approach lies in connecting leaders who are proximal to the gaps left by markets and public sectors—leaders who intimately understand local context, speak the language of their communities, and possess the credibility to drive lasting change. Networks enable peer learning and rapid adaptation across contexts, turning isolated ideas into shared resources for systemic change. They create horizontal scaffolding that accelerates the spread of innovation while preserving the local ownership essential for sustainability.
Networks demonstrate what's possible when ground–level innovations spread horizontally across borders. In a world of growing polarization, and eroding institutional trust, these horizontal connections offer a path forward. By resourcing such networks and creating pathways for their insights to inform institutional policy, we can bridge the gap between isolated excellence and systemic change. The future lies in connecting these leaders across borders and ensuring their innovations animate the very institutions meant to serve them. Because the light that guides us forward has always come from people. Institutions are strongest when they help that light spread.
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The power of connecting local leaders across borders
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich.
January 29, 2026
As institutions falter, cross–border networks of local leaders are emerging as a powerful force for shared learning and systemic change, writes Kassaga James Arinaitwe.
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sobering 2025 statistic from the V–Dem Institute revealed that over 70% of the world now lives under authoritarian rule. In a year defined by conflict, climate shocks, and a deep crisis of trust, our institutions often struggled to meet the moment. Trillions flowed into military spending while the SDGs remained chronically underfunded. Hundreds of millions of children went hungry or out of school. And even the millions in school—such as in my home country of Uganda—remain far from accessing the quality education and lifelong learning that develops agency, problem–solving, and creativity to shape a better future for themselves and all of us.
Yet there’s hope. In rooms like the Education House at UNGA 80, I encountered inspiring leaders, including ministers of education from Senegal to South Africa, who are actively transforming education systems and collaborating with civil society and multilateral partners to improve outcomes for their nations' children. Across the globe, young people continue to challenge institutional failure. In Kenya and Bangladesh, Gen Z movements mounted unprecedented campaigns demanding accountability from their governments. In their communities, young people are also taking on the leadership to meet the challenges of their time. They are launching robotics programs like RoboKids Africa that teach STEM to children in communities without electricity, addressing mental health challenges for teachers and students that systems have long ignored, and developing vocational training for out–of–school youth preparing for tomorrow's jobs. From demanding better systems to constructing them directly, this generation understands that transformation requires both calls for justice and entrepreneurial leadership.
These parallel movements—civic pressure revealing where institutions fall short and local leaders building capacity in those gaps— point toward what may be the most overlooked institutional model of our time: networks that identify, train, and connect values-aligned leaders who become changemakers in their communities and drive structural change across their nations. The power of this approach lies in connecting leaders who are proximal to the gaps left by markets and public sectors—leaders who intimately understand local context, speak the language of their communities, and possess the credibility to drive lasting change. Networks enable peer learning and rapid adaptation across contexts, turning isolated ideas into shared resources for systemic change. They create horizontal scaffolding that accelerates the spread of innovation while preserving the local ownership essential for sustainability.
Networks demonstrate what's possible when ground–level innovations spread horizontally across borders. In a world of growing polarization, and eroding institutional trust, these horizontal connections offer a path forward. By resourcing such networks and creating pathways for their insights to inform institutional policy, we can bridge the gap between isolated excellence and systemic change. The future lies in connecting these leaders across borders and ensuring their innovations animate the very institutions meant to serve them. Because the light that guides us forward has always come from people. Institutions are strongest when they help that light spread.
