PR Profession in Africa: A New Standard for Communication

The PR profession in Africa is entering a new chapter. On World PR Day 2026, leading professional communication associations, institutes and bodies across the continent announced The Africa Declaration on the Professionalisation of Public Relations and Responsible Communication. International partners also joined the initiative.

16 July 2026

In a profession where anyone can claim to be a practitioner, where ethical failures carry no professional consequence, and where a continent experiencing rapid economic and democratic transformation has lacked any shared standard for responsible communication practice - Africa's professional bodies have united to change that.

A new standard for the PR profession in Africa

On World PR Day 2026, a coalition of Africa's leading professional communication associations, institutes, and bodies (spanning the continent and supported by key international partners) today announced The Africa Declaration on the Professionalisation of Public Relations and Responsible Communication.

Building a shared professional standard

The Declaration is a founding charter: a collective commitment to shared standards, ethical accountability, and the professionalisation of public relations and communication practice across Africa, built from African experience and designed to endure.

The Declaration does not attempt to import a framework from elsewhere. It is built from the ground up - shaped by the realities of Africa's communications environment, the diversity of its regulatory landscapes, and the hard-won experience of professional bodies that have navigated the journey from voluntary association to statutory recognition. It establishes eight founding principles, six areas of institutional commitment, and a ten-point collective action plan with accountable leads across the signatory community.

Federated Approach to Professional AccountabilityFederated Approach to Professional Accountability

The African Responsible Communicator Standard

Central to the Declaration is the African Responsible Communicator Standard (ARCS) - a continental recognition framework that converts the Declaration's commitments into a visible, verifiable credential. Through ARCS, any practitioner who holds active membership of a signatory professional body, meets shared continuing professional development requirements, and commits to the shared code of ethics, carries that recognition across every signatory market. The credential is portable, renewable, and employer-facing - designed to make professional standing visible to clients, governments, and the organisations that hire communicators.

The African Public Relations Association (APRA), as the continent's umbrella body for public relations associations, will play a central coordinating role in the initiative - driving continental engagement, supporting the expansion of the signatory base across regions, and representing the collective African voice in global professional forums.

"Africa's communications landscape is one of the most consequential in the world. It shapes public discourse, influences democratic participation, and tells the continent's story to itself and to the world. Yet for too long, that landscape has had no shared standard for who practises in it or what responsibility they carry. The Africa Declaration changes that - not by importing a framework from elsewhere, but by building one from within, rooted in African experience, shaped by African institutions. Africa is not professionalising its communications industry to catch up with the world. It is doing it to lead."

Bradly Howland, Co-Lead of the Africa Declaration

The Africa Declaration, Immediate-Past President of Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA)

“A continent that commits to a developmental programme such as the African Union’s Agenda 2063 cannot operate disparate standards of communication principles and practices. Therefore, this pronouncement is not just auspicious, it is reasoned, it is seminal and indeed an accountable demonstration of commitment to iterating the centrality of responsible communication to human progress, by those who have lived and understand the spectrum and intricacies of the African story.”

Dr Omoniyi Ibietan, Secretary General

African Public Relations Association (APRA)

"Africa has been at the heart of the Global Alliance since its foundation, with African leaders and professional bodies playing a vital role in shaping our organisation and strengthening the global public relations and communication profession. For more than 25 years, the Global Alliance has proudly amplified Africa's voice on the international stage, and it is particularly fitting that the World Public Relations Forum 2026 will be hosted in Nigeria this November —bringing the world's leading communication professionals to the African continent under the theme Responsible Communication: The Voice of the World. The Africa Declaration on the Professionalisation of Public Relations and Responsible Communication is a landmark achievement that will resonate far beyond Africa. It demonstrates the continent's leadership in advancing ethical practice, professional standards, and responsible communication at a time when these values have never been more important. As the global voice for more than 360,000 public relations and communication professionals across 126 countries, the Global Alliance is proud to support this historic initiative and to help showcase Africa's leadership and innovation to the world."

Prof. Justin Green, President & CEO

Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management

“As a founding signatory of the Africa Declaration, PRISA stands firmly behind a vision of communications built on integrity, accountability and shared professional standards. This is a defining moment for our profession, one PRISA is proud to have helped catalyse by bringing together the conversations that made it possible. Professionalising our craft is how we safeguard public trust, strengthen ethical practice, and ensure communicators across South Africa and the continent are recognised as the strategic, values-driven professionals they are.”

Dr Caroline Azionya, President

Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA)

Nigeria's journey from voluntary association to statutory recognition as proof of what is possible; how the Declaration builds on that model at continental scale; NIPR's commitment to sharing what it has learned with bodies across Africa.

Dr. Ike Neliaku, President

Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR)

Public Relations (PR) has evolved from a communication support function into a strategic leadership discipline that shapes decisions, protects reputation, builds trust, and creates lasting value. Today, strategic communication is no longer optional, it is indispensable. The Zambia Institute of Public Relations and Communication (ZIPRC) reaffirms its commitment to professionalism, ethical practice, continuous learning, and excellence in PR practice.

Patricia Luhanga, President

Zambia Institute for Public Relations and Communication (ZIPRC)

"For 55 years, PRSK has carried the voice of Kenya’s communicators, proving that trust is not a luxury but national infrastructure. By joining the Africa Declaration, we are not simply adding Kenya’s name to a list of signatories. We are anchoring Africa’s communications profession in law, ethics and accountability. Kenya’s journey toward statutory recognition is a signal to the continent: professionalization is not about catching up; it is about leading. In a world where misinformation destabilizes democracies and erodes investor confidence, Africa must show that its communicators are guardians of truth. This Declaration is our collective promise that the story of Africa will be told with integrity by professionals who are accountable to the societies they serve."

Arik Karani, President

Public Relations Society of Kenya

"At ICCO, we believe the future of the communications profession depends on strong ethical standards, professional accountability and collaboration across borders. The Africa Declaration is an important milestone, demonstrating how African leadership can help strengthen the profession while contributing to higher global standards for responsible communication."

Massimo Moriconi, President

International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO)

"The Declaration reflects many of the principles the PRCA has championed for years around ethics, professional standards and raising the profile of public relations as a recognised profession. It strikes the right balance between ambition and practicality, setting out a clear vision for ethical, accountable communications across Africa. By focusing on standards shaped by the realities of the African communications industry, rather than adopting approaches developed elsewhere, it has the potential to become an important milestone in strengthening and advancing the profession across the continent." 

Jo Brophy MPRCA, Head of International Membership

The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) 

"In endorsing the Africa Declaration, Lesotho takes its place alongside sister nations committed to a shared belief that communication carries responsibility. Across our region, misinformation and eroding trust know no borders, and neither should our resolve to practice our craft ethically and with accountability. Guided by the Declaration, Basotho communicators pledge to uphold honesty, serve the public interest, and strengthen the integrity of our profession. This is solidarity in action, and Lesotho is proud to answer the call."

Mamoabi Ralebitso-Phori, President

PRISA Lesotho Chapter

Federated approach to professional accountability

ARCS operates on a federated model: enforcement authority remains with national professional bodies operating under their own governance frameworks. In countries where statutory recognition has been achieved, ARCS recognition is contingent on compliance with the legal requirements of those jurisdictions. The Declaration is designed to complement and amplify existing national frameworks - not to compete with or supersede the authority of statutory bodies such as the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) or the Zambia Institute of Public Relations and Communication (ZIPRC).

Launching the Africa Declaration

Today's announcement marks the formal beginning of the Africa Declaration initiative. The founding signatory group will continue to grow as engagement across the continent progresses. The Declaration will be formally signed and launched at the World PR Forum (WPRF) in Abuja, Nigeria, in November 2026 - providing the runway for all signatories to endorse the document, for working groups to be constituted, and for the initiative to be properly activated before it goes live across the continent.

Professional bodies, associations, and institutions across Africa wishing to engage with the Declaration ahead of the formal launch are encouraged to make contact through any founding signatory body or through APRA.

The initiative is co-led by Bradly Howland, Immediate-Past President of PRISA, and Irene Lungu Chipili, Chairman of the Africa Regional Council at Global Alliance.

Corporate Reputation: The New Rules of Reputation Strategy

#WPRD26: Corporate reputation is statecraft now

By Bradly Howland, CEO, Alkemi Collective

In April, Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau responded to the threat of a 25% United States tariff on South African auto exports with something notably absent from the modern communications playbook: he asked for a meeting. It was not a statement, campaign or rebuttal thread. Just a request to get South African and American officials into the same room before either side tried to win the argument in public.

It is a small detail, easy to miss amid louder tariff news. But it is also, in miniature, the whole argument of this piece: that corporate reputation now behaves like statecraft, and that most of the profession is still equipped for something else.

Corporate reputation now behaves like statecraft

The rest of the year has borne this out in real time.

The US Supreme Court struck down the 30% tariff on South African goods in February 2025. Within a day, a separate authority imposed a 10% baseline tariff. The African Growth and Opportunity Act was renewed for a single year rather than the multi-year term South Africa had wanted. Washington has since imposed a new 12.5% tariff following a forced-labour enforcement finding that Pretoria disputes, and government is now weighing retaliatory duties of its own.

None of this has been resolved through messaging. It has been resolved, when it has been resolved at all, through negotiation, leverage and the careful management of a difficult relationship that nobody expects to become friendly, only survivable.

Why traditional PR strategy is struggling

Most public relations practice was not built for difficult relationships. It emerged in a media landscape with a stable, largely trusted gatekeeper in the middle and an audience that was broadly willing to listen once reached. Say it well enough, often enough, to enough people, and belief would follow.

That assumption is the quiet foundation under most of what the profession calls strategy: messaging architecture, share of voice, campaign reach. Public affairs and crisis specialists will rightly object that their corners of the profession have always known this. The objection rather proves the point: they remain corners.

The assumption no longer holds and there are numbers behind that claim.

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer found that seven in ten people globally are now unwilling or hesitant to trust someone who holds different values, comes from a different background, or draws on different sources of information. Trade wars rank among the events that have done the most damage to trust over the past five years, behind only inflation, misinformation and the pandemic.

The institutions people are walking away from are precisely the ones PR has traditionally used to reach them: trust in national government leaders and in foreign business leaders has fallen sharply, while trust in neighbours, colleagues and immediate circles has risen. People are not becoming harder to reach. They are becoming harder to reach at a distance, through institutions, by people who do not already have standing with them.

Diplomacy never assumed a captive, well-disposed audience. It assumes the opposite… an audience that may be indifferent or actively opposed, and that requires years of relationship-building rather than persuasion in a single cycle. Three of its habits translate directly and are worth stealing outright.

Three lessons PR can take from diplomacy

First comes deterrence over persuasion. Sometimes the goal is not to convince anyone of anything. Instead, the goal is to make an action too costly to take against you. A strong reputation can do more than create goodwill. It can raise the cost for anyone considering action against you. That is close to how AGOA now operates for South Africa. Both sides maintain the relationship because they understand the cost of losing it.

The corporate version is unglamorous: the company no campaigner or short-seller bothers to target, because its record is documented, dull and already priced in.

Next comes alliance-building over stakeholder mapping. A stakeholder map is a snapshot, drawn up and activated when a crisis lands. An alliance is mutual and maintained whether or not you currently need it.

China's response to American tariff pressure is instructive. Rather than relying mainly on retaliatory tariffs, it has deepened trade relationships with emerging markets. It has also used its position in critical minerals as leverage.

The leverage is structural and no company can replicate it; the behaviour, building reciprocity before it is needed, is available to anyone. That is alliance-building deployed as strategy by an actor with every reason to simply posture in public instead.

Finally, there is calculated ambiguity rather than the pressure to always have a statement ready.

Minister Tau's own language through the AGOA saga has been notably careful: welcoming the renewal while pointedly flagging its short duration, a diplomatic parenthesis rather than a declaration. PR culture treats silence, or qualified language, as a failure of communications. Diplomats know it is sometimes the only accurate way to describe an unresolved position.

Why This Matters for Africa

This matters more in Africa than the trade press coverage suggests, and not only because of goodwill.

AGOA-linked exports from the continent fell 32% in the year to November 2025, with South African auto exports alone down almost 75%. Local automakers still posted a record overall export year by finding buyers beyond the US. That does not rebut the point. It shows the second habit above, alliance-building, executed under duress.

That is not an abstract trust deficit. It affects jobs and GDP. Both move with how the diplomatic relationship is managed. The underlying trust environment is not the one most PR training assumes. In last year's barometer, South African trust in business sat at a relatively strong 68%, while trust in media sat far lower, at 46%. PR has traditionally used the intermediary to reach audiences, but that intermediary is not the trusted party here.

Reputation strategy belongs at the top table

None of this means communications teams should become junior diplomats. It argues for something more specific: that reputation strategy belongs in the room with legal and government affairs, with the same seniority and the same access, and that the professionals doing it need to be trained to read power and leverage, not only narrative and tone.

The organisations that adapt fastest to this will not be the ones still perfecting their messaging. They will be the ones that learned, the way government has been forced to learn this year, that some relationships are never won. They are only managed, continuously, for as long as they matter.

Howland is the CEO of Alkemi Collective, and is the immediate past President of PRISA.

PR Industry in South Africa: Shaping the Future

Why agencies must help shape the future of communication

South Africa's PR industry operates in a world where trust is increasingly fragile, misinformation can spread faster than the truth, and the value of credible communications is under real pressure. The role of our industry has never been more critical.

The Role of South Africa's PR Industry

South Africa’s communications professionals sit at the intersection of business, government, and society. They help brands build and maintain trust, shape the stories that inform public understanding, and hold themselves accountable to ethical practice in a space where the stakes are high.

Despite this importance, the structures that support and professionalise the field often need strengthening. Industry bodies like the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) play a vital role in this work, and agencies cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.

PRISA has served as the home of the communications profession in Southern Africa for decades. This is not about legacy for its own sake, but about real, present-day relevance.

Today, PRISA’s work is essential in addressing some of the biggest challenges facing the industry. Its commitment to ethics is crucial in an age of disinformation, AI-generated content, and declining media trust.

The PRISA code of ethics is not just a symbolic document, but a practical framework for navigating complex client demands, public scrutiny, and the responsibility to the truth.

“Ethics is not negotiable,” says Bradly Howland, CEO of Alkemi and President of PRISA. “Our industry is under the microscope in ways it has never been before. We must be able to show clients and the public that we hold ourselves to real standards. Without that, our credibility collapses.”

Education and professionalisation are equally important. The sector faces a serious skills challenge, and PRISA’s role in accrediting programmes, supporting continuing professional development, and promoting professional standards directly improves the quality of work agencies and practitioners deliver. Transformation remains a core priority as well. A diverse, inclusive industry is not only fairer but smarter, better able to serve a country as varied and complex as South Africa.

When Howland accepted the role of PRISA President in June, it was with the conviction that the industry cannot keep doing things the same way.

“We have to be more professional, more accountable, and more relevant to business and society,” he says. “That means updating what PRISA offers, making sure it is financially sustainable, and building real value for members while advocating for standards that protect our industry’s reputation.”

“This is not work any one person or organisation can do alone. It needs buy-in from the entire industry, and especially from agencies that help set the tone for how we practice. At Alkemi, the commitment to this work is deliberate and active,” Howland adds.

He explains that supporting the industry is smart business.

“We invest time mentoring the next generation of practitioners because we want a strong talent pipeline. We have worked to revitalise the PRISMS because our industry needs a credible, aspirational showcase of excellence. We also believe in using our own platform to drive conversations about ethical practice and the evolving role of communications.”

Howland adds that this is not charity, but strategic thinking. “If the industry is healthier, we are all better off. Clients see more value in our work, talent stays in the sector, and standards rise across the board.”

“If you work in an agency, run one, or call yourself a professional in this field, the challenge is clear. Get involved. Support the work of your respective professional bodies. Offer your expertise. Help hold our industry to higher standards,” he says. 

“We often tell clients we are their strategic partners. We need to be strategic partners in shaping the future of our own industry too. If we do not do it, someone else will - and we may not like where it ends up,” says Howland.

South African PR Agency | Public Relations

Questions and Answers

By Bradly Howland
CEO: Alkemi Collective

Tell us a little bit about your PR company?
At Alkemi Collective, we see ourselves as more than just a PR agency, we’re an integrated marketing communications partner.

From PR to content marketing, social media, and brand strategy, we help brands tell real, human stories that build trust and drive business results. With offices in Cape Town and Joburg, we’re proudly independent and proudly South African.

What industry does your company provide PR to?
We work across multiple sectors, including financial services, health, technology, and public sector. We’re sector fluid, but people-focused, because at the end of the day, every industry comes down to relationships.

What does being in the PR sector mean to you?
For us, it’s about helping businesses earn their voice and their place in society. It’s not just about reputation management, it’s about building trust, shaping narratives, and helping organisations show up in authentic, credible ways.

What do you love most about being in the PR sector?
The impact. When done right, PR is invisible infrastructure, quietly enabling businesses to operate, governments to connect, and communities to engage. It’s also a sector that constantly evolves, keeping us sharp, creative, and human.

What does this year’s World PR Day theme ‘Building Bridges & Navigating Polarisation’ mean to you?
This year’s World PR Day theme is a clear call for communicators to step up. Our profession has a responsibility to move beyond hype and performative slogans. We’re in the business of making sense of complexity, creating clarity, and helping organisations behave in ways that earn trust. That requires us to think critically, act ethically, and commit to work that matters.

What do you love most about being in corporate communications in Africa?
Africa is a continent of complexity and possibility. What we love most is the need to constantly adapt,  understanding local contexts, navigating cultural nuances, and helping African brands tell their stories both locally and globally. No two days (or campaigns) are ever the same.

How does your PR organisation have a role to play in shaping business, governance, and society?
We believe communication is a strategic tool. Whether it’s helping a business secure its social licence to operate, supporting government agencies with public education, or managing crises, our role is to help organisations engage transparently and meaningfully. The work we do builds trust, and trust builds economies.

How important are platforms such as Bizcommunity to you and your clients' presence in the business media?
Platforms like Bizcommunity are essential. They give us access to industry peers, decision-makers, and the broader business landscape. For our clients, Bizcommunity offers a credible platform to share thought leadership, insights, and celebrate their milestones.

What has been your company’s greatest achievement to date?
Every client win matters to us,  from launching national campaigns to securing hyperlocal media stories that shift perception. But if we had to choose, our greatest achievement is staying true to our values while evolving as an agency. In a fast-changing industry, that’s something we’re proud of.