Sub-Saharan Africa
Community-Driven Impact: Fueling A Localization Movement
Dr. Janet Surum, an African educational psychologist and researcher, wants to understand why some African students succeed in the classroom despite challenging conditions that set them up to struggle in school, especially on a continent where many young people have difficulty finding work. This led Dr. Surum to dedicate her work to exploring and promoting the factors that fortify academic resilience among students in underserved areas.
But her journey to conduct her research hasn't been easy. “As the sole breadwinner, I had to juggle between funding my research and taking care of my family's needs,” Surum says.
Janet's story and challenges are not surprising. More than 80% of locally led education researchers in Africa struggle with inadequate funding and only 3% of the world's research output is produced in Africa. It's a stark reality that hampers the progress of scholars and leaders like Dr. Surum, who are working to better support people in their own communities. These funding gaps also go beyond research, impacting locally led solutions at large.
In the face of this, we're seeing and fueling a growing shift in the philanthropic space toward solutions that are designed and implemented by local organizations and leaders closest to the work happening in their communities. From the successes of our local partners to our collaborations with other funders to elevate local solutions, we're encouraged by the progress that we saw on multiple fronts:
- Our research funding consortium tripled to 12 institutional funders. Collectively, the consortium has mobilized more than $15 million in locally led education research funding, expanded the research portfolio to 14+ local research organizations and kickstarted a collaborative visioning process with 100+ researchers. Moving forward, we are excited to continue building on these successes, bringing on additional funders and galvanizing action towards supporting local research.
- The first phase of Assessment of Life Skills and Values's (ALiVE) initiative, aimed at creating the first African-led framework and toolkit for measuring socio-emotional learning, came to a close in 2023 with the inaugural Africa Social Emotional Learning conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference brought together more than 250 people, including senior government officials, researchers, teachers, funders and other stakeholders to move the program from the toolkit stage to the next phase of implementation and influencing curricula across six different countries in East Africa.
- Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), a grassroots movement based in Nairobi, is not only leading the charge in developing a blueprint to transform urban poverty for Kenya and beyond, but it is also pushing the field to take a more localized approach. SHOFCO spearheaded the Global Alliance for Communities to elevate the voices and perspectives of leaders of color who demonstrate outsized impact but are systemically locked out of policymaking and funding opportunities.
- Firelight Foundation joined forces with us to launch an initiative aimed at fostering development and youth resiliency in Kenya. Working with seven deeply embedded community-based organizations, the project started with a focus on community research and engagement to co-create a community-led plan for youth development. As we move to implementation, the collaborative cross-sharing fostered throughout the process will be important to ensure that the interventions are effective, sustainable and ultimately owned by the community.
- The African Visionary Fund (AVFund) is unleashing breakthrough impact by driving resources to high-impact social impact organizations. They are tackling inequities and righting the power imbalances in philanthropy by offering unrestricted, unburdensome funding to African visionaries. In 2023, AVFund welcomed 12 new partners to their portfolio. These partners join AVFund's network of 24 portfolio partners across 10 African countries; these community-driven organizations are 100% African-founded, African-based and African-led.
The bottom line is that unleashing the full power and potential of a community and achieving real sustained change is possible when local organizations and leaders drive solutions. And, this much-needed shift is just beginning.
Adopting A Gender-Responsive Lens
Based on our experiences and learnings pulled from conversations with our partners and local communities, we adopted a gender-responsive lens in our investment strategy to be more intentional about advancing equitable outcomes for young girls and women. This decision was a direct result of our learning and adaptation practices, which help us stay flexible and agile in adjusting our approach based on what emerges.
In parallel, we investigated gender frameworks that help drive our impact. Recognizing that we did not need to reinvent the wheel, we leveraged a framework by our peers at the Stanford Center for Gender Equity supported by Echidna Giving and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a base. We sought feedback from our partners on the framework and made adaptations based on what we heard and what made sense for our own work.
As part of our 2023 learning process, we dove deep into understanding the challenges faced by young girls in urban and rural areas who are triply burdened by their roles as caretakers, income providers and community members. We also engaged with our portfolio organizations to learn how they incorporate a gender equity lens throughout their work, from program design to implementation. This has led us to opportunities like co-funding Shujaaz Inc. and MTV Staying Alive Foundation to actively evaluate the power of media in shifting gender-related norms and behaviors.
While we have made substantial progress, we are excited about the work ahead. At the same time, we also recognize that being responsive to gender equity is a first step of a long journey to change entrenched norms and behaviors toward girls and women.
Partner Highlights
13,000
Youths interviewed in 7 years
Shujaaz Inc. released a groundbreaking report called “Young & Kenyan: 7 Years, 13,000 Interviews with Kenya's Most Important Generation” to help elevate the voices of Kenya's biggest age demographic. The report is the culmination of honest, meaningful conversations held over the last seven years between Shujaaz and a group of more than 2,000 Kenyan youths. It provides crucial data for changemakers, government officials, and others who are trying to impact the lives of young people by creating more effective policies and programs. For example, when asked what youth need most, young Kenyans expressed they want their voices to be heard, more access to capital and help building skills and expanding their networks.
East Africa's largest youth skills provider, Educate!, is making progress towards its goal of impacting 400,000 new youth by 2025. This year, in Kenya and Uganda, Educate! welcomed new institutional partners to begin scaling livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, empowering rural young women to secure dignified employment. Additionally, Educate! partnered with the Tanzania Institute of Education to support the design of a new compulsory secondary subject, Business Studies, with the aim of making learning practical and aligned to Africa's labor market. In Rwanda, Educate! scaled its teacher training model to every secondary school across Rwanda — an initiative that will impact over 160,000 students annually. They also collaborated with the Rwandan government and partners to roll out a national comprehensive assessment system, allowing teachers to continuously track their students' progress and make improvements.
15,000
Youths graduated
Sand Technologies (previously known as African Leadership International) aims to develop three million ethical and entrepreneurial leaders by 2035, while creating opportunities for Africa's youth and solving the global shortage of talent in the technology sector. In 2023, Sand Technologies enrolled more than 200,000 learners in their software engineering program and expanded across 29 hubs in eight African cities. The organization graduated 15,000 youth, placed 16,000 in work and created over 3,000 entrepreneurs. Sand Technologies' tech hubs drive peer learning and engagement while supporting learners with infrastructure such as electricity and internet to enable their persistence in the programs. Its blended learning program further infuses a “leadership core” training into all of its tech training programs, ensuring learners and young people develop holistic and well-rounded talent to help solve the most in-demand tech challenges locally and globally.
SmartStart, a social franchise model for early learning in South Africa, now runs over 9,000 community-based franchises and reaches more than 80,000 children. In the last seven years, SmartStart has harnessed the power of partnership, community and collaboration to provide a unique National Delivery Platform that addresses the lack of affordable, quality early learning programs, the shortage of pre-schools and the dire need for trained and licensed practitioners. In 2023, SmartStart CEO Grace Matlhape became a top 10 finalist for the Africa Education Medal, Africa's most prestigious education award.
3.5M
Children
Imagine Worldwide (Imagine) is bringing its innovative tablet-based equity-focused program to Malawi on a national scale, reaching approximately 3.5 million children. Recently recognized as a top global education innovation by HundrED Global Collection 2024, the model is designed to work in any environment (school, home, community center, refugee camp), with solar power, and without internet connectivity. To support the program, Imagine is providing technology training at every level of the education system, including training for over 60,000 teachers. This model not only promises to enhance children's learning experiences but also has the potential to transform Malawi's education system and drive innovation throughout the country.
SPARK Schools' campus in Soweto, South Africa won the top award for Community Collaboration in the prestigious World's Best School Prize. The school network now reaches over 25,000 students in South Africa. Serving as inspiration for other affordable school models, SPARK Schools not only provides quality education to its students but also benefits the community through initiatives addressing local challenges ranging from waste pollution to bullying to gender-based violence.
Up Next
Brazil
Supporting Black and Indigenous advocates, we leaned into the opportunities that 2023 created to make meaningful policy advancements around racially affirming education and explore philanthropy’s role in anti-racist advocacy.
United States
We saw those with lived expertise increasingly gain power and influence to shape change this year, despite facing significant challenges in the early childhood and postsecondary education systems.