Africa Day 2025: Building Towards a Just Future

Africa Day 2025 

Africa is a complex and diverse continent, with over 1.2 billion people speaking over 3,000 languages in 54 countries. Although there are some commonalities, each African nation faces its own unique challenges, but each year, the African Union chooses a theme to help guide nations towards a common goal. This year, the theme for Africa Day is "Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations." It has also been designated the theme of the year. In conjunction with AU’s Africa Day, UNESCO presented Africa Week leading up to the day under the theme "Global Solidarity for the Restitution and Restoration of African Heritage through Culture, Education and Sciences”.

For over 20 years, we have been working with local African communities to help them meet their challenges head-on. Although our work does not directly address reparations, justice for the African people is at the heart of each of our programmes. We are committed to supporting communities through programmes that demonstrate our three strategic pillar priorities: Climate Resilience, Emergency Response and Recovery, and Civil Society and Inclusive Governance. That is why we work to provide the tools and knowledge to empower African communities and other civil society organisations in places like Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Sudan to address the challenges that matter to them.

Climate Resilience: Community-Driven Solutions for Climate Justice

Climate justice requires developing strategies that address the climate crisis and environmental protection while simultaneously working toward a fairer, more equitable, and balanced society. To this end, our programmes promote communal management and maintenance of the lands and waterways on which the people we work with depend. 

In Ethiopia, we've supported people with training in electromechanical and water supply systems, transforming rural water access across communities where 33% of water sources are non-functional. Graduates like Bezawit Fiseha gained technical skills and hope to encourage other women to pursue similar paths. This initiative strengthens Technical, Vocational and Education Training (TVET) colleges while addressing critical infrastructure gaps, ensuring consistent access to clean water and building community resilience in the face of climate challenges.

In Angola’s Huíla province, the Chitanda Project strengthens local food systems by supporting small farmers in adopting climate-smart practices, such as innovative farming techniques and agricultural processing technologies. By providing training through Farmer Field Schools and introducing biodigesters, we foster sustainable agricultural practices that improve food security while reducing environmental impacts. These actions are rooted in community participation, ensuring that solutions are tailored to local conditions and capacities.

Our work in Zambia's Western Province demonstrates our commitment to forest conservation and sustainable food security through community-led approaches. Working alongside the World Wildlife Fund, we've secured 90,400 hectares of land under rangeland and forestry management, established three Community Forestry Groups, and revitalised management systems. To reduce deforestation driven by the need for coal and wood for cooking, we're promoting eco-briquettes and improved cookstoves through partnerships with local organisations like Mumwa Crafts Association, creating economic opportunities while preserving vital forest ecosystems.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we're addressing food insecurity intensified by conflict and displacement. Our project in the Nyantende area supported rural populations, particularly pregnant and breastfeeding women, with agricultural tools, market garden seeds, and training in sustainable farming techniques. Participants helped improve farming practices and savings groups in their communities, enabling them to grow nutritious food and generate income. In the eastern part of the country, with generous funding from the USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), we have been supporting local farming communities with various vegetable seeds and farming tools, ensuring long-term food production and aiding in the fight against malnutrition.

In Sidama, Ethiopia, we've supported farmers through training in sustainable farming practices. Through soil revitalisation techniques, water conservation methods, and crop diversification, we've helped farmers turn barren land into thriving farms. This approach has improved individual livelihoods and promoted community cohesion as farmers work together to rehabilitate degraded watersheds, creating shared resilience against climate challenges.

Through these initiatives across Africa, we're demonstrating that effective climate justice integrates environmental protection with community leadership, supporting sustainable solutions that respond to local needs while building global resilience. By focusing on knowledge sharing, community ownership, and inclusive decision-making, particularly involving women, we're helping communities adapt to climate challenges while improving livelihoods and food security in ways that respect local expertise to enact lasting change.

Locally-Led Emergency Response, Recovery, and Development

Everyone deserves to live in peace and safety. Sadly, this is not the reality for many throughout the African nations where we operate. Emergency response and recovery to a crisis does not only mean immediate action following a crisis. It also includes long-term, community-led development that leads to justice and equality. We support community-led efforts to build resilience, emphasising collaboration with local communities to address their unique needs in times of crisis and beyond.

Addressing the complex challenges posed by conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we work directly with displaced populations to strengthen their community structures. In North and South Kivu, where millions of people have been recently displaced, our teams collaborate with local health workers and organisations to improve health and nutrition. Our support includes health personnel training, malnutrition treatment, and community health and nutrition awareness sessions. In order to meet displaced communities' most urgent needs, we also provide emergency cash assistance and food distribution. These approaches centre on effective and long-term community-led responses to health crises, leading to local ownership of recovery efforts.

In Western Zambia, the majority of our efforts focus on nutrition and drought response. Ongoing droughts have resulted in dusty fields, dangerously low crop yields, and drastically decreased water access. Through our programmes, we train health workers to treat malnutrition, especially among young children, and provide health and nutrition training to communities. Promoting sustainable nutritional solutions, the Pass on Scheme within our Livestock Integration Initiative enables communities to transform livestock into resources for long-term progress. The programme operates on a simple principle: residents begin with in-calf heifers, nurturing these animals while passing on mother stock to other households as calves are born. This creates a chain of mutual support for communities, particularly women who make up 70% of participants, addressing long-standing barriers to resource access.

In Northwestern Zambia, we're collaborating on a research project with Musika to strengthen market systems along the Lobito Corridor, focusing on honey, cassava, and pineapple value chains. This work connects smallholder farmers to larger economic opportunities while emphasising skills development through Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TEVET).

In Ethiopia's war-torn Central Tigray region, we're supporting justice for students with the restoration of access to education after conflict left thousands of children without classrooms. Working with local partner Heal Our People, we've renovated facilities and provided educational materials and teacher training to offer both academic support and vital psychosocial care. Engaging local educators and community members ensures that rebuilding efforts are sustainable and responsive to children’s needs, reflecting our commitment to supporting stable environments where learners can thrive despite their past trauma. 

Justice through Civil Society and Inclusive Governance

We know that justice and equality cannot be achieved without civil society and inclusive governance, as they promote participation and the protection of rights for all, especially those in marginalised groups. These systems ensure that everyone’s voice matters and encourage transparent decision-making that reflects the needs and rights of all citizens. Ultimately, a vibrant civil society with inclusive governance is essential for building just societies where every individual has the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from social, political, and economic development, which is why we support civil society organisations (CSOs) throughout our programmes across Africa.

Locally driven partnerships are key to strengthening civil society. In Sudan, where nearly 13 million people have been displaced since violence erupted in 2023, we partnered with AWAFY to support them in filling critical gaps in humanitarian response. As the only NGO working in Western Sudan, AWAFY’s team provides emergency assistance in displacement camps, focusing on cash assistance, which allows families to purchase what they need and support local markets. Due to their own experiences and deep understanding of local needs, our collaboration represents the significance of supporting humanitarian workers and organisations that often emerge from difficult situations in the communities they serve. Most recently, we partnered with the organisation Zero Waste Sudan to support them in their efforts to meet the rising emergency demands for WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), and we continue to assess how and where we can support Sudanese communities and organisations.

In Zambia, our LEAD project with the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection takes a different but complementary approach to strengthening democratic engagement. Our 36-month EU-funded initiative operates throughout five provinces using our Organisational Capacity Assessment Tool, enabling organisations to conduct their own internal evaluations and develop targeted improvement strategies. Early results show organisations like the Zambia Social Forum and the Zambian Association on Employment for Persons with Disabilities gaining clarity on their operational capacities, better positioning them to monitor key national initiatives, including the 8th National Development Plan and Vision 2030. Both projects underscore how effective civil society support requires recognising that local organisations possess essential knowledge about their contexts, with external partners playing a facilitative rather than directive role in strengthening their capacity to advocate for good governance and respond to community needs.

African Solutions to African Problems

As we celebrate Africa Day, we take stock of all we have achieved together. While we work hard in Africa, we do not work alone. Throughout our programmes, we have seen time and again that working with Africans to address their challenges is the only way to achieve sustainable results. We must bury the cliché of "helpless people" because the theme here is one of Africans taking action, from Angola to Zambia. 

Join us in wishing Africans everywhere a happy Africa Day!