“Local philanthropy, localization and power: Communities driving their own development” is a virtual conference taking place from Tuesday 21 – Thursday 23 September 2021 (two hours each day). The conference is open to anyone interested in conversations and debates around the role of local philanthropy in driving community-owned development and the international development sector’s “localization agenda.”
The conference builds on a joint initiative undertaken over the past year by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), the GFCF and STAR-Ghana Foundation aimed at fostering community philanthropy and local ownership of development work, as well as exploring potential ways for funders to get funds quickly and transparently to local civil society in Africa. The project, which has combined research and piloting of alternative approaches in West Africa is being conducted in cooperation with the NEAR Network and Save the Children Denmark as part of a larger initiative, “Innovation for Localization”, with support from Danida.
The objectives of the conference are to:
- Present findings on the state of the debate on the “localization agenda”, community-led development and #ShiftThePower, among civil society and local philanthropic actors in Africa.
- Support efforts to build robust regional connections between actors from the global south around shared interests relating to localization, philanthropy and #ShiftThePower.
- Enable stakeholders from the global north and south to define concrete and feasible pathways to promote the #ShiftThePower and localization agendas.
A taste of each day’s programme, as well as registration links, are provided below. Join us for one day, or the whole programme!