Source: Alliance Magazine
Thirteen foundations, including six international ones, participated in national meetings of foundations in Mozambique in July and September, the first meetings of this kind in the country.
The July meeting was convened by the Lurdes Mutola Foundation (FLM) and the Foundation for Community Development (FDC). The Synergos Institute identified Rebecca Raposo, a member of Synergos’ Senior Fellows Network from Brazil, to prepare the agenda as well as facilitate the meeting. Synergos has played a long-standing role in the capacity-building of Mozambique’s philanthropic sector, and its Senior Fellows have provided technical assistance to this and other innovative initiatives that are building partnerships to address poverty and social injustice.
Opportunities for exchanging knowledge and experiences are much needed in Mozambique, given the weak tradition of philanthropy and the dominant ‘learn as you go’ approach to grantmaking, but few Mozambican foundations had previously participated in such forums. In the course of the meeting, the participating foundations realized that they were not isolated – many had not realized so many foundations were active in Mozambique. They were able to identify common goals and values, which they saw as a first step towards joint action in the future. They also discussed the opportunities for establishing a permanent working group and its potential impact on the foundation sector in Mozambique.
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