Just beyond the city limits of Lusaka, the Chunga landfill sprawls across 24 hectares. It’s more than a final resting place for the city’s trash; it’s an active source of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas seeping into the atmosphere. Most people look away. But Barbara Nöst, co-founder of Zamkanda, looked closer and wondered: what if the very waste creating this problem held the key to solving it?
Expressions such as the need to “limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius” leave us feeling confused and inadequate. The same goes for other terms such as “mitigation pathways, NDCs and Paris alignment.”
In November of 2010 eight young feminists from Africa, Asia, The Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, The United States, and Eastern Europe gathered in Beirut, Lebanon to envision what would become FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund.
In October 2025, I spent two weeks in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of the #ShiftThePower Fellowship. The first week was the GFCF’s Community Philanthropy Symposium at …
After two weeks of massive Gen Z-led protests that toppled Nepal’s government, a right-wing political activist Durga Parsai released a video accusing Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of orchestrating …
There is something about this term “self-published” that downplays the local funding provided by communities in supporting the literary arts.
In recent years, Africa has witnessed a quiet but significant shift in the development landscape. The gradual withdrawal of traditional donors, due to shifting geopolitical priorities, domestic pressures in donor countries, or the growing critique of aid dependency, has led to many African civil society organizations confronting a stark reality, donor support is no longer guaranteed.
Movements have existed and have been organising long before “funding” and will continue to do so.
What happens when the NGO offices shut down, the donors walk away and the annual reports stop printing? If history and current events are any guide, civil society does not die. It simply changes form.
In today’s context, where international aid is shrinking and trust in global institutions like the UN and development agencies are declining, the need to reimagine development has become more important than ever.
