World Communities Forum embrace community led solutions to challenges

The World Communities Forum has launched an initiative that seeks to eliminate middlemen and work with CBOs and grassroots leaders in implementation of projects.

The new move aims at eliminating the high table meetings that don’t represent the voices of the vulnerable people on the ground

The inaugural World Communities Forum launched the first of a first-of-its-kind global development event that will flip the dynamics of traditional high-level events that focus on the global elite, instead amplifying the voices of local leaders on the front lines of vulnerable communities around the world.

Currently the forum is already serving 160 groups working in communities globally and 40 groups in Kenya.

“What we want to do is to raise the issues of these grassroots leaders so that they can get support. We want more funding going to the grassroots leaders directly,” said Kennedy Odede Founder and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO).

The event has been programmed from the grassroots up, with local practitioners from Kenya and around the world, designing the stage content.

With the launch of the Forum the Community Based Organisations (CBOs) will now be in charge of the funds for the projects they are undertaking therefor eliminating middlemen in project implementation

Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation says that the pandemic has brought the need for a global re-examination of the stark power structures and social inequities that continue to leave marginalized communities, particularly Black and brown people, behind.

“Philanthropists have a moral duty to step up and do more to protect everyone’s right to a just recovery and we can guarantee this by lifting up local leaders of color as a crucial first step” said Walker 

Odede adds that CBOs and Local leaders are working so much and nobody is solving their problems he however is optimistic that with this change in policy like funding their initiatives won’t go unnoticed.

The inaugural event will feature groundbreaking conversations and interactive showcases from practitioners who are driving impact in marginalized communities, where traditional, top-down interventions are falling short.

Programming is pairing high-profile leaders, including Chelsea Clinton, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Darren Walker, Samantha Power, Cecile Richards, Nick Kristof and Cheryl Dorsey as interviewers who will listen and learn from community-based leaders sharing insights and solutions from their paradigm-shifting work on the front lines of inequality and social change.