About the BDCG Conference

The BDCG Conference 2026 will bring together market systems practitioners, governments, financial institutions, development partners, private-sector leaders, researchers, innovators, youth entrepreneurs, and policymakers from across Africa and beyond. Under the theme “Transforming African Market Systems: Innovating Local Solutions, Inclusive Finance, and Climate Resilience,” the conference will focus on practical, scalable, and transformative solutions for resilient and inclusive market systems. It will provide a platform for structured dialogue, evidence-based learning, partnership building, and investment engagement, with a focus on achieving meaningful economic, environmental, and development outcomes.

The conference is structured around three interconnected pillars that reflect a sequential pathway for transforming African market systems. The first pillar, Productive and Resilient Market Systems, will focus on climate resilience, institutional strengthening, value-chain coordination, structured markets, and scalable technology-enabled production. The second pillar, Finance, Enterprise and Markets, will explore inclusive finance, enterprise development, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence-driven systems, and risk-sharing mechanisms that can unlock greater investment and market opportunities. The third pillar, Governance, Inclusion and Scale, will address policy coherence, inclusion frameworks, partnerships, market intelligence, research, and adaptive learning to support sustainable transformation.

Cutting across all three pillars are key enablers including technology, artificial intelligence, digitisation, data systems, and insurance-based risk mitigation. These will play an important role in advancing productivity, inclusion, resilience, investment, and scale across African market systems.