In this second issue of Africa’s Quest, we turn our attention to one of the continent’s most enduring yet often under-recognised sources of resilience, the generosity that begins at home.

Across Africa, communities have long sustained one another through everyday acts of giving, mutual aid, faith-based support, savings circles, burial societies, diaspora contributions, youth networks, and grassroots organising. These practices are not peripheral to development; they are part of the social infrastructure through which people respond to crisis, share risk, build trust, and imagine futures on their own terms.

This issue, themed Giving From Within: Community Philanthropy and Local Futures, asks us to look beyond formal institutions and donor frameworks to the relationships, values, and accountability systems that already exist within communities. At a time when external funding is uncertain, and development models are being questioned, locally led generosity offers more than a stopgap. It invites a deeper conversation about power, legitimacy, dignity, and who gets to define progress.

The stories and reflections gathered here, spanning Zimbabwe and Malawi, explore community philanthropy as both practice and possibility. They examine how trust is built, how resources are shared, how decisions are made, and how solidarity-based systems respond not only to immediate need but also to long-term inequality and transformation.

As editors, we hope this edition encourages readers to recognise the intelligence, care, and leadership embedded in local giving practices. We also hope it challenges practitioners, funders, and policymakers to listen more closely to communities, not as beneficiaries of generosity from elsewhere, but as authors of their own futures.

May this issue open space for reflection, dialogue, and renewed commitment to forms of development rooted in solidarity, reciprocity, and collective care.

At a time when external funding is becoming less certain, many communities continue to rely on long-standing traditions of generosity, shared responsibility, and collective care. Across Africa, informal giving networks, savings circles, faith communities, burial societies, and local fundraising efforts remain central to how people support one another.

This theme explores the power, complexity, and future of community-led giving and what it means for building more grounded and accountable forms of development.

Welcome to the conversation.  

Emeldah Takaona

Communications Officer | SIVIO Institute