2009 Program Highlights

Southern Africa

Synergos is helping improve health services in Namibia, strengthening local capacity to help orphans and other vulnerable children in Mozambique and South Africa, and strengthening community philanthropy across Southern Africa.

Key Accomplishments

• The African Public Health Leadership and Systems Innovation Initiative in Namibia is focusing on improving maternal health as a high-leverage strategy. Prototype projects have reduced response times for ambulances in Windhoek and wait times for ante-natal visits by expecting mothers. Three clinics, including one completely new facility, are bringing ante-natal services to women in remote areas. Supporters of this work, which engages government at the highest levels, include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• In South Africa and Mozambique, we are helping to provide sustainable care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis. In partnership with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in South Africa, the Foundation for Community Development in Mozambique, and Synergos board member Kim Samuel-Johnson, this effort combines traditional and Western practices to enable communities to reduce the isolation and vulnerability of children in distress, and maximize the social inclusion of children and caregivers.
• The Leadership and Innovation Network for Collaboration in the Children’s Sector (LINC), which is developing leadership capacity to improve services for orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa, has expanded to eighty Fellows and formed thematic teams to design and pilot initiatives.
• The Southern African Community Grantmakers Leadership Cooperative, which consists of twenty-eight community grantmakers and grantmaking trusts, has emerged as a significant network in philanthropy in the region.

Middle East & North Africa

Our Arab World Social Innovators program supports talented women and men from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Palestine who are leading social ventures. With the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other donors, Synergos helps innovators increase the capacity and impact of their organizations to serve more people in their communities and beyond. At the same time, we are connecting our networks of Innovators, philanthropists, and Senior Fellows in the region to create new collaborations.

Key Accomplishments

• First class of 22 Social Innovators was inducted at the regional convening in Amman, Jordan.
• Innovators received technical assistance on strategic planning and organizational design from Booz Allen Hamilton, as well as grant support to scale-up their programs to serve more constituents. Their programs are expanding at a much faster rate when equipped with these services and seed funds.
• Social Innovators participated in international and regional events – including the Skoll World Forum, the World Economic Forum in the Middle East, and briefings Synergos organized with USAID, the US State Department, universities and foundations – generating interest and support for our program and the growing field of social entrepreneurship in the Arab region.  
• Documentation is underway of Innovators’ programs delivering services to thousands of women, youth, and people with special needs.

India

Synergos is helping the Bhavishya Alliance, a groundbreaking multi-sectoral partnership we helped establish, to create sustainable, systemic solutions to child undernutrition.

Key Accomplishments

Latin America

Synergos strengthens social-justice philanthropy and provides capacity-building services to the NGO sector in Latin America. We also seek to promote greater community participation in development programs, particularly in cooperation with our Senior Fellows and members of the Global Philanthropists Circle.

Key Accomplishments

• In Mexico, Synergos worked with several members of the Global Philanthropists Circle, as well as groups such as the Americas Business Council, and Poder magazine, on a series of events aimed at strengthening the role of philanthropy in a time of social and economic challenges.
• In Colombia, we helped Global Philanthropists Circle member María Eugenia Garcés and her family’s AlvarAlice Foundation increase international participation in a groundbreaking symposium on microfinance and peace. The event resulted in widespread attention among the Colombian public and government on the potential of microfinance to help ensure stability in that country.
• In Brazil, we worked with a partnership in Rio de Janeiro to increase community participation in public policy.

Canada

Synergos is working through the Aboriginal Leadership Initiative to improve the ability of Aboriginal communities, government agencies, businesses, and nonprofit organizations to collaborate on projects that improve the quality of life for indigenous peoples.

Key Accomplishments

• Local projects are moving ahead with three Nuu-Chah-Nulth communities on Vancouver Island: The Ahousaht community is developing an ecotourism project around their Walk the Wild Side hiking trail; the Tsheshaht community has established an artists’ market; and the Ehattesaht community is developing pre-employment training for youth.
• The Initiative has built self-esteem, respectful and equitable partnerships, and respect for culture and traditions among the members and partners of the First Nation communities, according to an evaluation conducted this spring.

Synergos Services

In 2009, Synergos launched an advisory service for global corporations seeking creative and sustainable ways to invest and operate in the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The aim is to better enable companies to realize both financial and societal return on investment. Synergos’ service offerings include stakeholder-mapping and situation research, corporate team field learning visits, strategy development for social engagement, partnership design and management, and program implementation.

Key Accomplishments

• Organized two field learning visits in sub-Saharan Africa in which corporate executives interacted with consumers and other stakeholders to deepen their local knowledge.
• Provided ongoing consultation to business leaders on innovative ways to work with government, civic groups and other stakeholders related to malnutrition in the developing world.
• Discussions underway with more than 20 prospective clients.

Global Networks

Synergos’ networks allow members to learn from each other, make new connections, develop their skills, and take their work to new levels. We support two global networks: the Senior Fellows network of more than 100 civil society leaders from more than 30 countries, and the Global Philanthropists Circle, a collection of more than 75 families (including about 250 individual philanthropists), from more than 25 countries.

Key Accomplishments