July 27, 2015
The Foundation For Tomorrow invests in building the capacity of our team. Attending conferences is one way to stay current in the space of philanthropy and development across Africa.
The African Grantmakers Network (AGN) is a continent-wide network of grant making organizations and other philanthropic groups. It was established in July 2009 to facilitate African philanthropic institutions to network and learn from each other.
I attended the third AGN assembly in Arusha, Tanzania on July 1st-3rd 2015. The assembly focused on three critical areas: people, policy, and practice. Participants left with a new revelation of philanthropy in Africa. This post will be the first of a series and will detail my take-aways from the “People” section.
The people programme emphasized that the growing field of African philanthropy must include the contributions, ideas, and experiences of critical constituents such as women, youth, and other marginalized groups of African citizens. Dialogues were held on the involvement of women-focused philanthropies in addressing challenges facing women in Southern Sudan. We also discussed the movements of raising women into power in Liberia, as well as emergency responses of women-focused philanthropies in crisis areas: such as in rebel areas in Eastern Congo, in war zones in Sudan, and in the responses during the Ebola Virus outbreak in western Africa. Women-focused philanthropies have played a great role in addressing most of these challenges in the communities; however, because their efforts have gone unpublished, the world is not yet aware of their contributions. Additionally, some youth-focused philanthropies shared how they engage youth in influencing the changes in their communities, especially through art and the use of information technology. An example of this is the Magamba team in Zimbabwe, who have been using television programs (Zambezi News in National Television) and music concerts to encourage youth to engage in development and political change.
As we take this in, our team is also looking at the contributions and ideas our scholars and the vulnerable populations we serve provide and also how they can play a role in changing the course of their own lives. There is always a fine line between empowering and enabling, and as we continue this blog series, we will dive deeper into Policy and Practice and how NGOs and philanthropy throughout Africa can continue to build and empower. TFFT has always believed systemic change happens from a community level, and we’re thrilled to see more and more Africans taking the reins for solutions for to the problems that exist in this area.