As we step further into 2026, it’s tempting to frame the year ahead around ambition, bigger goals, faster growth, and more innovation. But if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that progress is not only about how quickly we move. It’s about whether what we build can actually hold.
Across global development, business, and public systems, the conversation is shifting, quietly but decisively. The focus is moving away from pilots and novelty and toward durability. Away from individual brilliance and toward institutional strength. Away from urgency as a virtue and toward discipline as a necessity.
“Too often, organisations treat institutions as containers rather than as systems that need intentional design. The result is familiar: promising pilots that never integrate, parallel reporting systems that exhaust teams, and well-funded initiatives that struggle to survive leadership transitions.”
This shift matters, particularly in a moment of constraint.
Funding environments are tightening. Expectations are rising. Governments are under pressure to deliver more with less. Organisations are being asked not just to perform but to justify their relevance, coherence, and long-term value. In this context, momentum alone is no longer enough.
What we are seeing instead is a growing premium on maturity.
Maturity is not passive; it is designed.
Maturity is often misunderstood as stagnation or risk aversion. In reality, it is an active choice. It shows up in how systems are designed, how decisions are made, and how trade-offs are managed.
Mature institutions prioritise alignment over activity. They invest in shared standards rather than parallel tools. They build governance structures that outlast individual leaders. They reward continuity, not just speed.
This is not glamorous work. It rarely trends on social media. But it is where impact becomes scalable and defensible.
In my own experience working across health systems, digital platforms, and multi-country partnerships, the most meaningful progress I’ve seen recently has not come from launching something new. It has come from strengthening what already exists, integrating tools into government workflows, clarifying decision rights, simplifying complexity, and building trust where fragmentation once lived.
These are not technical challenges alone. They are institutional ones.
Scale fails when institutions are treated as an afterthought.
One of the clearest lessons of recent years is that scale does not fail because of a lack of ideas. It fails when institutions are not ready to hold those ideas.
Technology does not scale on its own. Capital does not deploy itself effectively without governance. Innovation does not sustain itself in environments where roles, incentives, and accountability are unclear.
Too often, organisations treat institutions as containers rather than as systems that need intentional design. The result is familiar: promising pilots that never integrate, parallel reporting systems that exhaust teams, and well-funded initiatives that struggle to survive leadership transitions.
In contrast, institutions that endure are those that invest early in clarity: clarity of mandate, of partnership models, and of how decisions are made and revisited over time.
This is particularly relevant in Africa, where the conversation has evolved beyond inclusion. The question is no longer whether African-led solutions are credible. It is whether global systems are prepared to adapt to them.
Across digital health, climate-resilient infrastructure, and youth-led innovation, the centre of gravity is shifting. The most compelling models today are not imported frameworks but context-rooted systems with global relevance. Institutions that recognise this and are willing to adjust their operating assumptions will be the ones that remain relevant.
Leadership in a constrained world looks different.
This moment also calls for a different posture of leadership.
Earlier in many careers, leadership is often equated with visibility, being everywhere, responding to everything, and driving momentum through sheer force of will. But institutional leadership, especially in complex environments, demands something else.
It demands the ability to hold tension without rushing to resolution. To say no without closing doors. To convene diverse actors and then step back, allowing systems to function rather than centring individuals.
In practice, this means fewer but more intentional commitments. It means investing time in alignment before execution. It means recognising that trust, between partners, between institutions, and between leaders and the systems they steward, is not a soft asset. It is a core one.
Leadership at this stage is less about volume and more about coherence.
What 2026 invites us to do differently
Looking ahead, the opportunity of 2026 is not to move faster, but to move with greater clarity.
For organisations, this means asking harder questions: are our structures fit for the scale we seek? Are our partnerships designed to share risk, not just visibility? Are we measuring what institutions can sustain, not just what projects can deliver?
For leaders, it means embracing a more disciplined form of ambition, one that values durability as much as growth and stewardship as much as innovation.
And for ecosystems as a whole, it means recognising that constraint, while uncomfortable, can be catalytic. It forces prioritisation. It surfaces what truly matters. It distinguishes between what is merely exciting and what is actually essential.
If the past decade was defined by expansion, the next will be defined by consolidation, not as retrenchment, but as maturation.
The work ahead is not about doing less. It is about doing what matters well enough, long enough, that it lasts.
And that, ultimately, is how institutions, and the impact they enable, endure.
Ota Akhigbe is a global business and development leader with over 17 years of experience working at the intersection of health systems, digital innovation, and institutional strategy across Africa and international markets. She serves on executive leadership teams and advises governments, funders, and organisations on scaling durable, system-embedded solutions.
