The Executive Committee of the pan-African organisation United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) has officially appointed Mr. François Menguelé as Secretary General.
Following a rigorous and competitive international recruitment process launched in September 2025, Mr. Menguelé stood out among the three finalists during interviews in January 2026. He succeeds Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, following his official assumption of office on March 19, 2026, on the eve of the organisation’s elective General Assembly held from March 23 to 25, 2026, in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
The new Secretary General is firmly committed to restoring UCLG Africa’s reputation.
“We will work to ensure that our organisation regains its former prestige. My ambition is for African local governments to be recognised as leading actors, both within the architecture of pan-African governance and on the global multilateral stage. The goal is also to enable our youth to regain hope and play their rightful role in shaping their future,” he said following the General Assembly.
Biography of Mr. François Menguelé
A recognised expert, practitioner, and passionate theorist in the field of sustainable development, Mr. François Menguelé has an exemplary academic and professional background.
He holds a master’s degree in Urban Engineering and Regional Planning from the Technical University of Dortmund (Germany), and has also attended a Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein (South Africa) and earned a specialist degree in Public Affairs Management from Quadriga University in Berlin. As a holder of the “Net Zero Carbon Emissions Leader” (CNZ™) certification, he is also accredited by the Chartered Institute of Professional Certifications based in Singapore.
With 30 years of experience, he has led long-term assignments on behalf of GIZ, the European Union, and the African Union in numerous countries (Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Cameroon, Mali, Egypt, and Togo).
Notable achievements
- Urban policies: He played a key role in shaping South Africa’s post-apartheid urban renewal and housing policies, helping to build 12,000 decent homes for low-income households.
- Pan-African institutional frameworks : As facilitator of the ministerial conferences, he played a central role in the establishment of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Urban Development (STC08) and in the adoption of the African Charter on Decentralization and the Niamey Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation.
- Key Areas of Expertise : His areas of expertise include institutional development in the panafrican context, decentralization, local governance, resilience to climate change, sustainable urban development, local economic development, and regional integration.
Awards
He was knighted as Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Valeur (in 2015) by the President of the Republic of Cameroon, and he also holds an honorary doctorate conferred by the CVPT in Tunis and the IARPA. Since March 2026, Mr. François Menguelé has been managing the General Secretariat of UCLG Africa, headquartered in Rabat, Morocco.