See the system beneath the structure
HCGF helps participants look beyond the organogram to understand the informal relationships, assumptions, and decision patterns that shape everyday experience and career progression.
A programme for Templars · Developed by African Women on Board & RDF Strategies
Stronger institutions start with the people inside them.
The Human Capital and Governance Framework is a structured, Africa-led programme that helps organisations understand how they actually work in practice, and build the systems that allow their people, especially women, to progress with confidence.
The framework at a glance
What this programme is designed to do.
Build structures people can trust
The programme moves from diagnosis to practical design, strengthening the systems that support clearer reporting, fairer recognition, more consistent progression, and better decision-making.
Embed governance that outlasts individuals
HCGF focuses on the routines, review practices, and leadership disciplines that allow improvement to hold beyond individual champions, leadership transitions, and organisational growth.
The Programme
Three levels.
Practical at every stage.
The course moves from diagnosis to design to institutionalisation. Each level builds on the last. Each ends with a structured brief you can apply immediately to your own context.
I
Diagnose
Diagnosing the Informal Architecture
What it covers
Every organisation runs on a mix of formal systems and informal practice: relationships, hierarchy, unwritten rules, and the realities that sit beneath the org chart. Level One gives you the tools to see both clearly.
What you walk away with
A sharper read of how your organisation actually works, and why the gap between formal structure and lived experience matters for everyone inside it.
II
Design
Redesigning Formal Structures
What it covers
Once the informal architecture is visible, the work is redesign. Level Two equips you to strengthen the systems that govern decisions, progression, recognition, and support so they hold under real-world pressure.
What you walk away with
Practical frameworks for improving the structures that shape how people are developed, recognised, and moved forward, with specific attention to how women experience those structures in practice.
III
Institutionalise
Institutionalising Human Capital Governance
What it covers
Level Three focuses on embedding governance into the growth of the institution itself.
What you walk away with
The practices, review processes, and governance disciplines that allow an organisation to improve its own standards, consistently.
How it's delivered
A continuous storyline, set inside a recognisable African organisation.
Each level is delivered through five guided missions plus an introduction and close, so you learn the framework the way you live it.
In
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5
Cl
Five guided missions, plus an introduction and close, per level.
0Levels
0Guided missions
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About the Programme
Built by two organisations with one shared agenda: stronger African institutions.
African Women on Board
An Africa-led platform working to strengthen the representation, influence, and effectiveness of women across institutional leadership on the continent. Its work spans board readiness, executive development, and the design of systems that allow organisations to perform sustainably while taking the lived experience of their people seriously. HCGF is the applied expression of that work.
africanwomenonboard.com
RDF Strategies
A research-informed advisory firm focused on governance, institutional performance, and the structural conditions under which organisations succeed. Its work integrates policy substance with practical organisational design, with a particular focus on African institutional realities. RDF brings the analytical rigour and governance architecture that runs through every level of this programme.
rdfstrategies.comThe Network
Templars joins a growing community of African organisations in the AWB Network.
Our frameworks are active across organisations spanning finance, professional services, technology, media, policy, and development. Each one contributes to a broader shift in how African institutions think about governance, human capital, and the conditions under which people thrive at work.