Giving for Change Giving for Change is a project funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Power of Voices funding scheme. The project is led by an international consortium consisting of the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF), Africa Philanthropy Network (APN), Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) and Wilde Ganzen (WG). These organisations are brought together by their shared vision on community-led development through community and domestic philanthropy. The Giving for Change Alliance also includes national anchor institutions in eight countries (Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Palestine). Micaia Foundation is the national anchor in Mozambique. 

The Giving for Change programme sets out a bold vision for transforming how “development is done” by focusing specifically on the recognition and importance of domestic resources in increasing local ownership, unlocking agency and strengthening communities’ ability to claim entitlements from different actors, especially government. Underlying all of this is the larger issue of power: while there is an explicit focus on strengthening rights and claiming capacities of communities in relation to public government structures, another dimension of the programme relates specifically to overcoming power dynamics and establishing more equitable practices within the international development system itself. Giving for Change operates in three Domains, and there are specific objectives in each both at the level of the Alliance and in each country. In the central domain, in Mozambique, we aim to enable local communities, represented by Civil Society Actors, to express their opinion through community philanthropy. Specific objectives are a) increased involvement of local communities by CSAs in determining their priorities and lobbying other stakeholders to realise them; b) Increased capacity of CSAs to build local constituencies and voice their constituencies’ needs; c) more community resources mobilized, stewarded and utilized; and d) more participation of CSAs in networks and citizen engagement platforms/ mechanisms.

The second domain is at the national level, and here the specific objectives are a) to increase the awareness of the Mozambican government on the importance of facilitating donations to CSAs and to adopt laws and regulations that enable domestic philanthropic giving, and b) to increase awareness of donors (both institutional and individuals) on the potential of giving as a driver for social and systems change and increase donations to CSAs that drive community-led development and promote respect for human rights.

The third domain is international, and the objective is to increase awareness of international donors on the negative effects of their present practices and recognition and interest in the advantages of community philanthropy models tested where top-down, vertical structures meet more emergent, horizontal ones that allow people to drive their own development. Micaia’s objective in Mozambique in regard to the third domain, is to engage international donors and NGOs that are active in Mozambique in the Giving for Change and #Shiftthepower discussions.