Unlocking the Taps: Building a United Front for Water Justice in Harare

Harare, the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe, is experiencing rapid urban sprawl and population growth, with 1.6 million people spread across the 45 municipal ward boundaries of the city. As the population surges, so to do the demands on the water infrastructure of the city. Furthermore, all of this is happening in a region where persistent droughts are already threatening water supplies. 

Driven by Communities: Participatory Systems Mapping for Climate Justice grantmaking

Our past and current partners in Kenya alongside our board members and staff recommended individuals and groups in Kenya and Tanzania to be a part of this pilot’s journey. We held an introductory meeting about the proposed approach with prospective Tanzanian collaborators in Arusha on the margins of the Community Based Adaptation Conference in May 2024. It was crucial for us to create grantmaking processes that fostered genuine collaboration and centred our partners’ expertise and experience to map systems, identify and prioritise points of leverage, and bring in other collaborators.

Learning by doing: Testing New Models for Participation

Participatory grantmaking is a growing ethos in philanthropy, where funders cede power over funding decisions to the people affected by those decisions. It may include a wide range of practices, such as co-creation of strategy and priorities, diversification of grant committees and review panels, or even crowd-sourced decisions and voting by large groups.

Cultivating Community for Climate Resilience

Latin America’s history is a history of migration—people moving between territories, from rural areas to cities, seeking opportunities. In Mexico City, this movement often leads to fragmentation, where individuals must fend for themselves, and neighbors remain strangers despite living side by side. This disconnect makes communities more vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity, as they lack support networks.