Claiming Agency

Claiming Agency. Reflecting on TrustAfrica�s First Decade takes an in-depth look at an African-led foundation that set out to do things differently. Founded in 2006, when solutions to Africa�s challenges were often developed outside its borders, TrustAfrica sought to practice a kind of philanthropy that both benefits Africans and actively supports their agency. Now, at the ten-year mark, the book asks, what does this kind of philanthropy make a difference? If so, how? What are its unique ways of working? The answers are found in chapters that reflect on how TrustAfrica and its partners advanced a range of issues – from women�s rights, small-holder agriculture, and democratic reform in Liberia and Zimbabwe to international criminal justice and illicit financial flows. In a clear-eyed look at money and power, the authors observe that donor funds all too often come with strings that constrict African agency – and recommend ways in which donors from Africa and the global north can foster independent action and strengthen movements for change.