This session sets the tone for the event, welcoming delegates to Sun City and outlining the conference’s primary objectives. Chairperson Frans Baleni will share the Board’s vision for GEPF as a “Global Thought Leadership Platform”, highlighting key challenges and opportunities facing the retirement landscape and the importance of this year’s “future-focused, non-traditional content”.

Africa faces a staggering $130 billion annual infrastructure financing gap, yet less than 2% of African pension capital has historically been deployed toward the continent’s own development. This keynote moves beyond questioning if pension funds should invest in Africa’s future. It will explicitly examine the critical barriers that have stopped these investments, explore necessary structural changes, and present actionable strategies for mobilizing African pension capital to effectively bridge the continent’s infrastructure development gap.

AI doesn’t just threaten jobs; it threatens the fundamental employment contract that pension systems are built on. If automation displaces contributing workers, the membership base erodes. This session will examine the full chain of consequences, including ethical governance of AI within pension institutions, displacement risk among contributing members, and the resulting shrinkage of contribution flows. Experts will discuss what this disruption means for long-term fund sustainability in an era of rapid technological change.

Thirty years from now, pension funds will look fundamentally different, shaped by structural forces accumulating simultaneously: longevity, demographic change, regulatory evolution, new contribution models, shifting global capital dynamics, and, critically, technology. This future-focused, non-traditional session mappings credible, data-backed scenarios that pension fund leaders and policymakers should be actively planning for today to ensure resilience and security for future beneficiaries.

If dignity is not a Key Performance Indicator (KPI), what economic outcomes are we actually managing toward? This evocative panel explores what it means, in practice, to invest for dignity, centering human dignity as the governing mandate of sustainable investing. It specifically considers South Africa’s context of deep structural inequality, challenging the sector to do more to move dignity from a hoped-for outcome to the core operating mandate.

Africa’s next generation of economic growth will not come from established equities alone; it will come from entrepreneurs, SMEs, and venture-backed innovation. This session makes the case for pension funds to diversify portfolios by investing in these dynamic sectors. Experts will discuss the necessary balance of risk and reward, how to measure real reach and impact on economic development, and strategies for successfully integrating non-traditional venture capital and SME growth opportunities into pension fund mandates.

Building on the conference theme of challenging perspectives and inspiring new thinking, this panel will tackle critical transformation and equity topics relevant to the South African and global context. Content will explore progress in broad-based black economic empowerment, gender equity, and diverse representation within investment and leadership teams, emphasizing how true transformation is essential for sustained impact and future relevance.

The GEPF Principal Executive Officer (PEO) will provide a concise and strategic review of Day 1. Drawing on the primary discussions around infrastructure financing gaps, AI disruption, future-focused non-traditional content, and investing for dignity, this session consolidates critical learning and provides essential context for the upcoming Day 2 presentations, ensuring delegates start the day aligned with the conference’s overarching narrative.

The global financial architecture is fracturing, and Africa’s institutional investors face a defining question: in the reordering of global capital, do we shape the new map, or are we subject to it? This strategic panel discusses what African institutional investors’ responsibility is in building the continent’s economic sovereignty. Experts will explore if and how pension funds from emerging markets can and should leverage their capital influence to become geopolitical actors, actively driving the conversation and securing sustainable future outcomes for their members and the continent.

Most pension fund members do not truly understand their fund, leading to confusion and mistrust. This session focuses on what meaningful member engagement looks like, presenting a range of strategies from fully digital global communication models to the traditional roadshows and multilingual outreach that remain essential in South Africa’s diverse landscape. Panelists will reinforce the vital obligation common to all funds: every member deserves to understand the security being built on their behalf.

ow pension funds invest is not only a financial question; it is a social one. This speaker session explores what it means to invest for the dignity economy, specifically in South Africa’s context of deep inequality. Crucially, it situates Africa within the just transition debate, acknowledging that Africa’s sustainable investing framework must centre human dignity first, focusing on human outcomes, not simply import environmental models designed for already-industrialised economies.

GEPF turns 30 in 2026, and in this special panel, leadership tells the full story, focusing on private dialogue made public to shape the global narrative. This reflective session goes beyond sharing wins to candidly discuss governance challenges, administration pressures, the critical tension between performance and service, and the hard lessons learned from running Africa’s largest pension fund, culminating in a vision for the honest road ahead.

The Principal Executive Officer will provide the final synthesis for the GEPF 2026 conference, recapping key discussions on emerging markets as geopolitical actors, rebuilding member trust, social impact within the just transition, and GEPF’s 30-year reflective journey. This session will draw together the core threads of transforming GEPF into a global thought leadership platform, outlining the strategic actions and “honest road ahead” for leadership and partners.