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SIVIO Connect Newsletter May to August 2024

Welcome to our 2nd Issue of SIVIO Connect Newsletter for 2024. Our SIVIO Connect Newsletters are designed to give you a quick recap of the key activities the SIVIO Institute team has been involved in during the season under review. This issue is focused on May to August activities.

We launched our SIVIO Connect Blog Site earlier this year. Since then, we have been curating our journey with updates, blogs, opinion pieces and magazine articles on the blog site. In case you missed them, here is a review of some of our most poignant blogs between May and August.

Blogs

  1. Africa Giving More Than Just an App
  2. Corruption amplifies social pathology in Zimbabwe: a call to action.
  3. Africa Giving Impact Stories – Enlight Abilities
  4. South African elections are a warning sign for democracy.
  5. Digital inclusion and African startups- has the internet really helped to promote access?
  6. Our first issue of the SIVIO Connect Magazine
AfricaGiving more than just an App
South African Elections are a warning sign for democracy
Corruption amplifies social pathology in Zimbabwe: a call to action
Digital Inclusion and African startups- has the internet really helped to promote access?
Africa Giving Impact Stories – Enlight Abilities
Our first Issue of the SIVIO Connect Magazine

Research and Knowledge Generation

Our team worked to modify the suggestions from the Policy Advocacy Lab of 2023 to 2024 converting the policy actions listed by citizens into policy briefs. The team developed 3 policy briefs on corruption, unemployment, and price stabilization between July and August.  We concluded our work with the Mozilla Foundation by publishing 4 reports including a combined index report covering Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia. This is after we published the individual country reports assessing levels of inclusion in the first term of 2024. Here are the publications from the term:

  1. Investment and Job creation: A framework of Employment Creation Through Strategic Investment in High Growth Industries
  2. Transparency And Accountability: A Framework for Anticorruption Reform
  3. Addressing Price Instability to Achieve Macroeconomic Stability In Zimbabwe
  4. Financial Inclusion Index Report: An Assessment of Digital and Traditional Financial Inclusion of MSMEs in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia

Dialogues and Convenings

Between May and August, we hosted several dialogues, and we have been invited into numerous spaces for conversations around civic engagement, philanthropy and democracy.  Click on each image to discover more about the convenings.

We hosted 27 Community Foundation leaders in Zimbabwe, facilitating their journey of establishing a network of Community Foundations in Zimbabwe.
The Centre for Philanthropy and Communities coordinator participated in the Mozambique launch of the #ShiftThePower movement as part of her fellowship
We attended a dialogue on Data Driven Advocacy for improved accountability in mining in the earlier part of the year which was followed up with a meeting with members of the Youth Parliamentary Caucus at the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
We also participated in the fifth African Philanthropy Conference hosted by the Centre for African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI) in Victoria Falls. The SIVIO team is also working alongside CAPSI to research the role of Non-profits in promoting youth employment alongside several other development partners in partnership with Mastercard Foundation.
The programs manager travelled to Ghana with the Charter Project Africa where she presented on the African Citizens Watch platform and our success with tracking government performance.
In June, we attended a Ford Partners meeting organized by the Ford Foundation Southern Africa Office, with 200 participants. Our Executive Director shared insights on coalition governments, aligning with the 2024 South Africa’s presidential election outcome. The meeting also offered networking opportunities for future collaborations. 
The Africa Giving team hosted a fundraising dinner and art auction for Africa Giving to commemorate Africa Day and activate the Africa Giving initiative in Zimbabwe. The dinner was a culmination of the 100 for $100 campaign where we sought to raise $10,000 by targeting 100 people to give $100 each. This initiative was successful with $9,300 raised through the campaign.  In addition, we assisted Happiness Foundation (formerly Victory Adullam Launch its foundation in Zimbabwe) an organisation that focuses on providing scholarships for underprivileged children from primary school to university and also supports research on breast cancer.

Communications and Visibility

In the second term we published new episodes of the What If podcast on SIVIO-TV, we were invited to In Conversation with Trevor Ncube a podcast that focused on current affairs, we attended a radio show on Capitalk100.4fm #SheDiaries and participated in the CAPSI podcast on conversations around African Philanthropy. Access the podcasts here:

What If – A look at local governance
In conversation with Trevor
What If – There is an alternative Part One
Nontsikelelo Nzula at  Capitalk 100.4FM #SheDiaries talking about being a development practitioner and highlight the work being done with Africa Giving 
What If- There is an alternative Part Two
Ubuntu Giving Podcast: Cross-Cultural Comparisons – How African Practices Compare and Connect with Global Giving Traditions, Bidemi and Tendai Murisa
What If – Land and Agrarian Reform
Conversation on African Philanthropy podcast, Professor Moyo sits with our Executive Director, Tendai Murisa

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