Move Afrika: Lagos featured a workforce comprised of 90 percent local crew members and relied on 95 percent locally sourced equipment, collaborating with regional vendors for technical production, staging, and event design. In preparation for Move Afrika 2026, initiatives are being developed to enhance job opportunities and broaden the youth employment accelerator
scheme. The upcoming 2026 edition of Move Afrika seeks to build on last year’s citizen-led advocacy initiative, which called for improved health systems across the African continent. By leveraging the influence of live music to bolster the creator economy and enhance healthcare accessibility, Global Citizen plans to work with local partners prior to each event to encourage African governments to enhance primary care, sexual and reproductive health services, invest in health resilience, and eliminate financial hurdles to public health. To align with Move Afrika 2026, the Music Economy Development Initiative (MEDI), which was launched during last
year’s campaign, will unveil new research developed in collaboration with Global Citizen, Universal Music Group, and IFC. This research aims to promote music policy reform and position music funding as an essential element in fostering sustainable growth within Africa’s creative economy. MEDI offers data, substantiated evidence, and insights that clarify the landscape of the music
industry and strategies to bolster its support.
This initiative aims to harness the economic power of music on a global scale, facilitate strategic investments aimed at empowering creators, elevate underrepresented communities, and connect local music with international audiences. Move Afrika represents Global Citizen’s pan-African touring initiative, which seeks to counter disparities worldwide by generating employment and entrepreneurial possibilities for the continent’s emerging generations through a series of annual live music events. By showcasing Africa’s finest talent on an international platform, Move Afrika fosters transformative investments in local communities, involving local artists, vendors, agencies, and crews while creating pathways for on-the-job skill development and training. Move Afrika is set to redefine the standards for touring entertainment events, increasing interest from both international and regional artists keen to tour within the continent while building local capacities in host cities throughout Africa. Each year, the tour is expected to expand, incorporating more countries into the circuit as Move Afrika scales across the continent over the next five years. Global Citizen appreciates the backing of major media organizations such as BellaNaija, EIB Network, Rolling Stone Africa, TIME Africa, TimesLIVE, and Vanguard Media. The 2026 edition of Move Afrika builds on past efforts by Global Citizen across Africa, including the 2025 edition in Kigali, the Lagos edition headlined by John Legend, the inaugural 2023 event in Rwanda featuring Kendrick Lamar, the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2018, featuring artists like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Ed Sheeran, Usher, Eddie Vedder, and Chris Martin of Coldplay; Global Citizen Live: Lagos, where artists Davido, Femi Kuti, and Tiwa Savage performed at Fela Kuti’s New Afrika Shrine in 2021; and the Global Citizen Festival: Accra, which welcomed Usher,
SZA, Stormzy, and TEMS to the Black Star Square in 2022.
