Empower African Girls and Women as Global Leaders

Greetings, and thank you for your continued support of the Africa Matters She is Empowered program throughout 2023. As we end the year, we are excited to present the final ShE program GlobalGiving report for 2023. This report summarises the impactful milestones and collective achievements made possible by your generosity and commitment to empowering African women and girls. 

We are happy to share some exciting program updates and discuss the areas we are developing and preparing for the upcoming year.

Participant Updates:

The Africa Matters' ShE Empowered program participants continue to make us proud through their active dedication and engagement in program activities. Presently, we have seventeen (17) ShE leaders from Malawi (5), South Africa (1), Sierra Leone (2), Zimbabwe (3), Kenya (1), Ghana (4), and Tanzania (1) actively participating in the program.

Capacity-Building Updates: 

On 21 November 2023, we successfully concluded the capacity-building component of the ShE program, where we presented Module 17- Project Management (Monitoring and Evaluation) Pt 2, which focused on monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This module is significant in our ShE leaders' journey as it emphasises the importance of monitoring and evaluation in their community engagement projects. This ensures that they are equipped with the necessary information and tools to effectively and accurately evaluate the impact of their CEPs and any future projects they take on.

Throughout these modules, the ShE leaders consistently demonstrated their commitment to the capacity-building component, and they attended their sessions in numbers, communicated in time when unable to participate and participated in robust dialogue and engagements in the sessions. Notably, sessions that covered African Feminism, Social Entrepreneurship, and the Project Management series (sessions 1–3) drew the highest levels of engagement from the cohort. We encourage ShE leaders to utilise the lessons learnt in their personal and professional development to ensure that they become effective leaders of society. 

As we prepare for the 2024 cohort, our team has been actively discussing the successes and challenges of each module and the overall capacity-building component. We're committed to refining and enhancing this component to empower and upskill our ShE leaders. Over the next few months, we will focus on re-evaluating the modules and addressing any identified gaps to further strengthen the program.

AMI Mentorship Program Updates:

The Africa Matters Mentorship Program aims to provide ShE Leaders and Africa Matters Ambassadors an opportunity to engage with experienced and accomplished professionals to assist in their personal and professional development as leaders. We facilitate the creation of successful relationships between Mentors, Leaders and/or Ambassadors outside of the AMI community.

Within this program, participants have found support in diverse areas, including personal development, career strategies, networking, entrepreneurship, and higher education. The partnership has been mutually beneficial, proving successful and enriching for both sides.

In August, we hosted an AMI Mentor Meet & Greet in collaboration with the Africa Matters Ambassadors program. The aim was to formally welcome mentors into the program, introduce them to the flagship and mentorship program, and offer a platform for them to share expectations and areas where support is needed. Additionally, it served as a networking opportunity for mentors. Looking ahead to 2024, we plan to host more of these gatherings to expand the network of mentors and foster networking among them.

While it was challenging, we had one of our mentors withdraw from the program due to personal reasons and changes in availability. During our debrief call, the mentor expressed appreciation for the chance to collaborate with AMI and saw the mentorship program as an ideal way to partner with us. They also shared valuable insights and suggestions for improvement, which our team is actively considering as we prepare for the 2024 cohort.

Africa Matters seeks mentors to provide guidance and support to our Leaders and Ambassadors to manage their learning in order to maximise their full potential, develop their skills, and improve their performance throughout their program. As we continue to upskill and empower youth to better their communities, we believe mentors are key to the developmental growth of our youth today. Mentors are the stepping stone to providing young leaders with the right skills, tools, support, and platforms to engage in this competitive world. Please complete the following form if you are interested in joining our mentor network.

We thank all our mentors for their commitment to supporting the next generation of African leaders!

Community Engagement Project Updates:

We are excited to announce the commencement of the Community Engagement Project (CEP) component, where participants are either launching or finalising plans for their respective CEPs.

The ShE Leaders, after months of preparing their community engagement projects, incorporating lessons from the capacity building component and their mentorship programs, are now actively implementing projects that aim to address challenges within their communities. The CEPs focus on the following themes: mental health, SRHR-related issues, promoting girls' education, skill development, entrepreneurship, water management, and environmental sustainability and are set to continue until early 2024, focusing on applying the skills and knowledge acquired throughout the program.

Examples of projects include: 

Climate  Action: The Environmental Conservation Community of Tanzania (ECCT) is dedicated to empowering young girls and women to become leaders in green initiatives. These initiatives include advocating for green energy, implementing green economy practices, recycling projects, planting tree seedlings, and providing green education. Focused on developing leadership skills amongst climate activist to increase their knowledge of climate change, its impacts, and ways to mitigate and adapt to its effects. This project also aims to build a network of empowered young women and girls who can support and learn from each other and collaborate to advance climate justice, advocate for policies and practices that support a sustainable future and ensure that young women's and girls' voices are heard in decision-making processes related to climate change.

Skills development: The project was created due to widespread of early pregnancies, sexual harassment, and scarce educational resources, causing many young girls to leave school in Malawi. Its aim is to empower women and girls by teaching them sewing and design, enhancing their financial prospects. They'll sell these creations daily, fostering financial independence while also supporting others. Through this initiative, these individuals will gain self-sufficiency and advocate for their rights. The training includes diverse designs, encouraging these young women to craft a livelihood. A fashion show will showcase their creations, spotlighting the cause of girls' rights and integrating them into the community.

Additionally, the ShE program, in collaboration with the Matters Ambassadors Program (AMAP), hostedworkshops dedicated to supporting program participants with CEP expectations and providing additional support for their CEPs. This included tools for fundraising and sustaining their CEPs beyond their participation in the programs. The first workshop was hosted on 11 October 2023. It was focused on sustainability and scalability, while the second and last one was held on 7 December 2023 and focused on monitoring, evaluation, and reporting requirements of their CEP. 

The distribution of seed funding for the CEPs is also currently underway, and instructions on how to effectively utilise these funds, along with guidance on accounting for them, will be provided to the ShE leaders. This forms an essential part of our training, aiming to instil a sense of accountability in our future leaders.

AMI Merchandise Updates:

As part of their participation in the program, participants receive merchandise packs that they can use during the implementation phase of their community engagement projects.  The merchandise also flies the African Matters brand high amongst the participants. For the 2023 merchandise packs, the ShE leaders received three t-shirts, one for themselves and two for their volunteers, and an Africa Matters branded tote bag and button. The merchandise was sent to each participant in their respective countries via the DHL/PostNet postal services. 

Thirteen (13) packages were shipped on the 7th of November, 2023, and the remaining four were sent on the 23rd of November, 2023, from our Africa Matters Initiative head offices in Cape Town. As it currently stands, all seventeen (17) participants have received their merchandise. Click Here to see our ShE leader, Zanaib Koroma from Sierra Leone, unboxing her merchandise pack. 

2024 Recruitment Cycle

The 2024 recruitment process was officially launched on 26 October 2023, when applications were opened to recruit the next cohort of ShE. Before launching the applications, we took on stakeholder engagement by conducting a country search on social media, allowing our community to choose eligible countries for the 2024 recruitment cycle. The applications were open for five weeks and officially closed on  3 December 2023. The original application deadline was 26 November 2023. However, we extended the deadline to allow more applicants to complete their applications.

We received over 1,141 applications for the 2024 cohort,  but only 116 applicants completed them. We are currently reviewing applications with the help of the Africa Matters team, mentors and ShE Alumni.  We received applications from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Egypt, and South Africa. The review process is expected to conclude on 20 December 2023. The next step in the recruitment process is to contact applicants who have made it to the next stage of the recruitmentfor interviews, which are expected to take place in early January 2024.

Closing Remarks

The Africa Matters ShE is Empowered Program would like to thank all our donors, partners, GlobalGiving, facilitators, mentors, ShE Alumni  Africa Matters team and our She leaders for your invaluable and continued support throughout 2023. We could not have come this far without you. We appreciate your support more than words can convey.

We wish you a joyous festive season, and we look forward to continuing our journey together in the new year!

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!

Thank you once again for your continued support. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to support and connect with us in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us at she@africamattersinitiative.com 

Yours sincerely,

Africa Matters ShE Team