The voices of African citizens are growing and are slowly but surely starting to reshape politics and socio-economic factors in their respective countries. This issue of GREAT Insights have gathered perspectives from African thought leaders in the area of governance, such as Mo Ibrahim, and “doers”, including George Mukundi Wachira and Kojo Busia. The cases of individual countries – Kenya, Burkina Faso, Madagascar – are also looked at, while specialists on citizen participation and organisation give their views on progress in the civic field.