Ethical Storytelling: Our Event Participation in 2022
At MAMA HOPE we have an active advocacy strategy aimed at encouraging the global development sector to embrace our community-led model and engage in more ethical and effective practices across the board.
As part of the strategy, we aim to host and be represented in events, and conversations. The team this year was really lucky to host one (1) event and attend two (2). Here is a breakdown of how each event/activity went down:
Ethical Storytelling Participation
Our Impact and Learning Lead, Denis Muwanguzi, and Jane Body, our Strategy and Advocacy Lead spent a chunk of the year working with M&C Saatchi and The Hilton Foundation to develop an Ethical Storytelling toolkit. Ethical storytelling has always been at the core of MAMA HOPE’s work and we are proud to be part of providing such an important resource for the Global Development sector, and even more grateful that conversations like these ones are being embraced so deeply across the sector.
Denis is co-leading a chapter titled ‘Changing how we Measure Success’ that investigates and provides solutions for the challenge between the moral imperative to tell stories ethically, and the need to demonstrate impact to donors and to the public, which can lead to extractive storytelling practices. We’d like to pay particular thanks to M&C Saatchi for their thoroughness and thoughtfulness throughout the process.
Centering Women in Community-led Development
Maïli Gasakure & Denis Muwanguzi had the pleasure of attending the International Partner Gathering online event hosted by Mortenson Family Foundation titled Centering Women in Community-Led Development (CLD).
In her opening remarks, Maïli shared the following key points, that:
- Our Community-led Development (CLD) Model has shown us we cannot take Women out of the solution that we’re trying to implement
- Our Community-led Partners — who engage their communities through a gender lens perspective — have taught us that household sustainability and family economies are centered around one key pillar — Woman
- Our Community-led Program (CLP) considers and seeks to incorporate monetary freedom for Women; by giving them the capacity to spread knowledge — we are able to see them grow generation wealth, create safety for their families, and carry the baton for their communities
#MoreThanABuzzword Virtual Event
In October, MAMA HOPE achieved another milestone: championing community-led change for over a decade. Over the years, our focus has been on advocating, funding, and ensuring the growth of our grassroots leaders. With our goal in focus, it is still important to celebrate the steps toward community-led change. This decade-long legacy sparked much-needed conversations with our MAMA HOPE community. Here are my main takeaways:
Investing in ownership, not dependency: With flexible funds, MAMA HOPE is looking to build long-term solutions in local communities. The return on investment we are seeing after investing resources, human capital, and knowledge is a positive change that belongs to people. Over the years, our partners stand in the limelight of action when necessary. This was true during COVID-19, in spite of decreased revenues because of ownership. By investing in community-owned futures, natural resources are preserved, and household, as well as localized actions, are prioritized and resilient through time.
Community Leaders are grassroots leaders who are engaging with their local leadership both politically, and at the societal level. They are vetted by those living in the community. Grassroots leaders are founders, dreamers, and change-makers who exist everywhere in our world.
Power dynamics render community-led change ineffective. This is especially true when it is not rooted in self-reflection. We must be comfortable being inclusive, supportive, and respectful of local initiatives, and imparting abundance. By recognizing existing frameworks and capacity we can strengthen the roadmap to effective social change. And equally, community leaders must learn to be comfortable in refusing funding that is not in alignment with their principles and vision. Power can be equally shared.
We look forward to hosting and attending more events next year.
If you would like to have someone to have conversations about Shifting the Power in the Global Development sector & most importantly the community-led development model. Kindly email wambui@mamahope.org to share your interest.
