From Proposal Chasing to Agenda Setting: Key Takeaways from the Africa at the Centre Pre-Convening Webinar

By Charles Kojo Vandy­ck

On Thurs­day, 23 July 2026, civ­il soci­ety lead­ers, devel­op­ment prac­ti­tion­ers, fun­ders and change­mak­ers from across Africa and beyond came togeth­er for the first Africa at the Cen­tre pre-con­ven­ing webi­nar. The dis­cus­sion explored one of the most impor­tant ques­tions fac­ing African civ­il soci­ety today

How do we move beyond donor-dri­ven fund­ing mod­els and build fund­ing ecosys­tems that are equi­table, trust-based, local­ly led and capa­ble of shift­ing pow­er?

Mod­er­at­ed by Jimm Chick Fomunjong (Head of Knowl­edge Man­age­ment and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at WACSI), the webi­nar fea­tured two out­stand­ing speak­ers, Degan Ali (Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Adeso) and Mohammed Awal Alhas­san (Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Nor­saac).

The con­ver­sa­tion was hon­est, prac­ti­cal and, at times, uncom­fort­able. It chal­lenged many of the assump­tions that have shaped inter­na­tion­al devel­op­ment for decades and offered hope­ful alter­na­tives for the future.

Here are some of the key lessons that emerged:

1. The current funding model is no longer fit for purpose

One mes­sage came through clear­ly through­out the dis­cus­sion: the tra­di­tion­al aid sys­tem is under enor­mous pres­sure.

For many years, African civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions have relied heav­i­ly on exter­nal donor fund­ing. While this sup­port has enabled organ­i­sa­tions to deliv­er impor­tant pro­grammes, it has also cre­at­ed sig­nif­i­cant depen­dence. Too often, organ­i­sa­tions find them­selves adjust­ing their pri­or­i­ties to fit donor calls for pro­pos­als instead of respond­ing to the needs iden­ti­fied by the com­mu­ni­ties they serve.

The speak­ers argued that this approach is becom­ing increas­ing­ly unsus­tain­able. As glob­al fund­ing declines and donor pri­or­i­ties con­tin­ue to shift, organ­i­sa­tions that rely on a sin­gle source of income face grow­ing uncer­tain­ty.

The future requires organ­i­sa­tions to think dif­fer­ent­ly, not sim­ply about rais­ing more mon­ey, but about build­ing stronger and more resilient insti­tu­tions.

2. Financial independence is about more than money

One of the strongest mes­sages from Degan Ali was that finan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty is close­ly linked to organ­i­sa­tion­al free­dom.

When organ­i­sa­tions depend entire­ly on exter­nal fund­ing, they often have lim­it­ed space to inno­vate, take risks or invest in their own long-term devel­op­ment.

True inde­pen­dence comes when organ­i­sa­tions have the flex­i­bil­i­ty to make deci­sions based on their mis­sion rather than donor require­ments.

This means explor­ing dif­fer­ent ways of gen­er­at­ing income, includ­ing:

• Build­ing endow­ment funds that pro­vide long-term finan­cial secu­ri­ty.
• Devel­op­ing social enter­pris­es that gen­er­ate both income and social impact.
• Strength­en­ing local fundrais­ing and African phil­an­thropy.
• Invest­ing in assets that cre­ate sus­tain­able rev­enue over time.

Finan­cial diver­si­fi­ca­tion is there­fore not sim­ply about sur­vival. It is about pro­tect­ing an organ­i­sa­tion’s abil­i­ty to remain true to its pur­pose.

3. Communities should not simply have a seat at the table, they should help design it

For many years, devel­op­ment organ­i­sa­tions have spo­ken about com­mu­ni­ty par­tic­i­pa­tion. How­ev­er, the webi­nar chal­lenged par­tic­i­pants to think beyond par­tic­i­pa­tion.

Mohammed Awal Alhas­san argued that com­mu­ni­ties should not sim­ply be invit­ed to con­tribute ideas to pro­grammes that have already been designed else­where.

Instead, com­mu­ni­ties should be involved from the very begin­ning.

Rather than ask­ing peo­ple to join an exist­ing table, per­haps it is time to allow com­mu­ni­ties to design a com­plete­ly new table.

This means recog­nis­ing local knowl­edge, expe­ri­ence and lead­er­ship as equal­ly valu­able to tech­ni­cal exper­tise. It also means allow­ing com­mu­ni­ties to define suc­cess, shape pri­or­i­ties and influ­ence deci­sions through­out the entire pro­gramme cycle.

4. Accountability should begin with communities

Anoth­er impor­tant dis­cus­sion focused on account­abil­i­ty.

Many organ­i­sa­tions spend con­sid­er­able time report­ing to donors, pro­duc­ing finan­cial reports, mon­i­tor­ing frame­works and lengthy eval­u­a­tions.

While these remain impor­tant, the webi­nar remind­ed par­tic­i­pants that organ­i­sa­tions also have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to the com­mu­ni­ties they exist to serve.

True account­abil­i­ty asks dif­fer­ent ques­tions.

• Are com­mu­ni­ties influ­enc­ing deci­sions?
• Do they under­stand how resources are being used?
• Can they chal­lenge deci­sions when nec­es­sary?
• Are organ­i­sa­tions mea­sur­ing suc­cess in ways that mat­ter to local peo­ple?

Strength­en­ing down­ward account­abil­i­ty helps rebuild trust and ensures that devel­op­ment remains cen­tred on peo­ple rather than projects.

5. The Reverse Call for Proposal offers a different way of working

One of the most inno­v­a­tive ideas dis­cussed dur­ing the webi­nar was the Reverse Call for Pro­pos­als, devel­oped through the RINGO ini­tia­tive.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, donors issue calls for pro­pos­als and organ­i­sa­tions com­pete to align their projects with donor pri­or­i­ties.

The Reverse Call for Pro­pos­al turns this process around: Com­mu­ni­ties first iden­ti­fy their own pri­or­i­ties, whether these relate to water, agri­cul­ture, edu­ca­tion or liveli­hoods. They then invite donors and part­ners to sup­port those local­ly defined pri­or­i­ties.

This sim­ple shift changes the bal­ance of pow­er. Instead of organ­i­sa­tions chas­ing fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, fund­ing begins respond­ing to com­mu­ni­ty pri­or­i­ties.

It rep­re­sents an impor­tant step towards gen­uine­ly local­ly led devel­op­ment.

6. Practical examples already exist

The dis­cus­sion also high­light­ed encour­ag­ing exam­ples that demon­strate what is pos­si­ble.

One exam­ple shared by Degan Ali was the Dur­dur Water Com­pa­ny in Soma­lia.

Instead of repeat­ed­ly fund­ing emer­gency water inter­ven­tions, phil­an­thropic resources were invest­ed in build­ing a local­ly owned water util­i­ty. Today, the sys­tem pro­vides clean drink­ing water to rur­al com­mu­ni­ties through a finan­cial­ly sus­tain­able mod­el. The rev­enue gen­er­at­ed main­tains the infra­struc­ture, reduc­ing depen­dence on exter­nal aid.

Per­haps the great­est achieve­ment is not sim­ply the pro­vi­sion of water.

It is that com­mu­ni­ties now have greater con­trol over an essen­tial ser­vice. When repairs are need­ed, they do not have to wait for an inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tion to respond. They have the sys­tems, resources and own­er­ship to solve prob­lems them­selves.

This illus­trates what local­ly led devel­op­ment can look like in prac­tice.

7. The next few years will be critical

Per­haps the strongest mes­sage from the webi­nar was the urgency of the moment.

The inter­na­tion­al devel­op­ment land­scape is chang­ing rapid­ly.

Many tra­di­tion­al donors are reduc­ing aid bud­gets. Gov­ern­ments are becom­ing more inward-look­ing. Com­pe­ti­tion for fund­ing con­tin­ues to increase.

The speak­ers sug­gest­ed that African civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions have a rel­a­tive­ly short win­dow to rethink their busi­ness mod­els and strength­en their resilience. Wait­ing for the old sys­tem to recov­er is unlike­ly to be enough.

The organ­i­sa­tions that thrive over the next decade will be those that invest today in stronger gov­er­nance, diver­si­fied income, trust­ed part­ner­ships and local­ly root­ed legit­i­ma­cy.

Looking Ahead to Africa at the Centre

This webi­nar was the first in a series of two con­ver­sa­tions lead­ing to the Africa at the Cen­tre Con­ven­ing, tak­ing place in Accra, Ghana, from 1–3 Sep­tem­ber 2026.

The con­ven­ing will bring togeth­er civ­il soci­ety lead­ers, phil­an­thropists, fun­ders, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, researchers and devel­op­ment prac­ti­tion­ers to explore how Africa can shape a more equi­table, resilient and local­ly led devel­op­ment ecosys­tem.

The con­ver­sa­tion remind­ed us that the future of African civ­il soci­ety is not sim­ply about replac­ing one donor with anoth­er.

It is about chang­ing the way we think.

It is about mov­ing from depen­den­cy to part­ner­ship.

From imple­ment­ing oth­er peo­ple’s pri­or­i­ties to set­ting our own agen­da.

From chas­ing pro­pos­als to build­ing insti­tu­tions that are trust­ed, sus­tain­able and root­ed in the com­mu­ni­ties they serve.

That jour­ney has already begun.

To learn more about the Africa at the Cen­tre Con­ven­ing and reg­is­ter to par­tic­i­pate, vis­it:
https://africaatthecentre.org

The con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues, and we invite you to be part of shap­ing a future where Africa’s lead­er­ship, knowl­edge and insti­tu­tions are at the cen­tre of Africa’s devel­op­ment.