On 14th November, our CEO Jackie Asiimwe featured as the keynote speaker at the Africa Policy Centre hosted by Uganda Christian University to talk about Community Philanthropy as the future of development financing. The Africa Policy Centre has overtime built intellectual platforms to host speakers that advance progressive ideas for development on the continent.
She challenged mainstream conceptions of philanthropy away from being a club exclusive to billionaires when she pointed out that “philanthropy is about love, not money.” She further defined community philanthropy as locally owned development, because it builds on assets that already exist within the community rather than depending on what comes from outside.
Examples of community philanthropy were drawn from the elephant trench of Bukorwe and the mushroom project of Mutanda; both cases involve community bred solutions to complex challenges.
The meeting that was attended by students and the academic staff alike interrogated the possibility that community philanthropy would be a substitute for government and state-led development but Jackie argued that the two could complement each other.
The audience was called on to re-imagine what the effect of community philanthropy would be if each one of the 60,000 villages in Uganda raised USD 300. A total of USS 18 million would be collected. Jackie Asiimwe also highlighted, "for community philanthropy to take off, it is important that African start telling the stories of philanthropy within their communities."