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Synergos in Southern Africa

Context

Synergos is building upon Southern Africa's deeply rooted traditions of ubuntu (“ a person is a person through other persons ”) and harambee (“ all pulling together ”). In consideration of these traditions, Synergos also fosters the African aspirations for broad-based community empowerment to meet the challenges of poverty and social injustice.

In general, Synergos works for systemic change by strengthening collaborative leadership and by supporting partnerships that promote equitable access to basic human rights and services - with particular emphasis on health and nutrition, the wellbeing of women and children, and education.

Working with partners throughout Southern Africa since 1990, Synergos has been a leading force in reducing poverty, increasing equity, and advancing social justice in the region.

Regional Programs

The Imbeleko Partnership
(Southern African Regional Orphans and Vulnerable Children Initiative)

Formed in 2008, the Imbeleko Partnership was created with the purpose of cooperating in a cross-border project that strengthens the ways communities in the region address the needs of orphans and vulnerable children – especially to the ways in which those communities reduce the isolation of children in distress, reduce their vulnerability, and maximize the social inclusion of children and caregivers.

By supporting on-the-ground community-based services in rural communities, cross-border learning exchanges, applied research, and documentation, the Imbeleko Partnership is striving to expand and advance a sustainable, Afro-centric model of care that builds on community assets, culture, traditions, and patterns of mutual help.

Southern African Community Grantmakers Leadership Cooperative

The Cooperative is a unique, vibrant partnership that harnesses the collective capacity of 23 independent development trusts and community grantmakers. The Cooperative was launched in 2005 to advance, build, and strengthen sustainable community-based development in Southern Africa.

With a growing membership of 35 grantmaker leaders from across the region, the Cooperative is a leadership and learning network committed to social justice grantmaking as a powerful vehicle for change. Synergos provides convening, secretariat services, financial and other support to Cooperative members.

Country-Level Programs

Over its twenty-year history working in Southern Africa, Synergos has worked with individuals, government agencies, and civil society organizations from countries including Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Current Synergos country-level programs in Africa include:

• African Public Health Leadership and Systems Innovation Initiative –Namibia
• National Alliance for Food Nutrition (NAFIN) –Namibia
• Leadership and Innovation Network for Collaboration in the Children’s Sector (LINC) – South Africa
• The Imbeleko Partnership – South Africa and Mozambique

African Participation in Synergos’ Global Networks

In addition to participation in programs specific to the Southern African region, African membership has also grown within Synergos’ three international networks.

• The Arab World Social Innovators Program is made up of 22 exceptional individuals who are each transforming a powerful idea into a growing social venture in fields including education, microenterprise, youth employment, arts and culture, environmental protection, civic engagement, and peace building. They collectively represent the vast pool of entrepreneurial energy and talent in the Arab World with members from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine.

  Synergos offers each Innovator a financial award, leadership development, capacity-building services, media exposure, and strategic connections to leaders in philanthropy, business, and civil society. As part of a broader, long-term effort to empower leaders and organizations in the Arab World, the Innovators Program aims to increase the capacity of its members and their ventures to ultimately strengthen the capacity of civil society to meet the needs of those who are poor and marginalized.

• The Global Philanthropists Circle (GPC) is a dynamic network of leading philanthropic families and individuals from across the world committed to fighting global poverty and social injustice. Founded in 2001 by Synergos’ Global Chair, Peggy Dulany and her father, David Rockefeller, the GPC increases the impact of members' philanthropy and allows them to become more effective social investors by offering opportunities for learning and collaboration. The Circle includes a growing contingent of members in Southern Africa that, with Synergos, endeavors to strengthen collaboration, the culture of giving and social change philanthropy.


Senior Fellows from Jamaica and the Philippines were resource people at a workshop on philanthropy for environmental protection hosted by the Namibia Nature Foundation in Windhoek, Namibia in 2002.

• The Synergos Senior Fellows Program is comprised of distinguished international civil society leaders committed to collaborative efforts that address the underlying causes of poverty and inequity. Launched in 1999, the Program links extraordinary civil society leaders in a worldwide learning, service, and action network. The network aims to strengthen the capacity and opportunities of its members to address the systemic causes of poverty, and promote sustainable social change through partnerships.

  The Senior Fellows network contributes to leadership development, peer-to-peer learning and service, global and regional networking, convening, and collaboration. Among this global network of leaders, Synergos supports a high-powered, growing group of 31 African Senior Fellows.