About the Movement Support Program

Africans Rising’s movement support programs are initiatives designed to provide support to movements and activists who are working to solve the continent’s challenges. These programs provide the avenue for beneficiaries to receive funding, training, capacity building, recognition, solidarity and rapid response to support their objectives in various countries across the continent and in the diaspora.

Through this, Africans Rising has supported African movements to successfully execute their missions more effectively and efficiently.

Objectives

The objectives of the Movement Support Program by Africans Rising have always been built on how to provide support to the growth and sustainability of movements and activists across the continent. This can be linked to Amplify, Empower and Connect.

Training and capacity building:

to improve the effectiveness and impact of movements, Africans Rising organises regular training and capacity building programs across the continent to provide skills, knowledge and the resources they need to accomplish their goals. Some of the training is also organised in partnership with various organisations to be able to extend the knowledge to movements who are not members of the Africans Rising movement. 

 

Digital Security:

Africans Rising, in collaboration with Nothing2Hide, organises regular training sessions on digital security. This programme aims to help activists, human rights defenders and journalists deepen their knowledge of the tools, practices, and methods for securing their digital data.

Movement Exchange Program:

from the experience of engaging various movements through our field learning engagements, we identified the problem of movements working in isolation when they could gain more power if they worked together. This program provides Africans Rising the opportunity to connect and bring together social movements and build solidarity among them. This is in line with our mandate to support, amplify, connect and empower movements and activists to do their work better.

Rapid Response Support:

to provide immediate assistance to activists and movements in crisis or emergencies, Africans Rising instituted the rapid response support initiative to meet the immediate needs of movements and provide the necessary support. The support covers both finance and solidarity depending on the nature of the crisis. This also helps the movement to access quick support as against the bureaucratic means of submitting detailed proposals to solve situations in emergencies.

 

Solidarity Movement Convenings:

this is instituted as an initiative to provide a platform for movements to discuss, strategize and collaborate on social issues. The objective is to build an alliance among movements and get them to support each other in cases of crisis and emergencies. This also provides movements with the opportunity to learn from each other to build more stronger and effective social justice movements together.

Engendering African Social Movements:

This project aims at being a collaborating one, bringing together Africans Rising members and African Movements at large to critically advocate for gender equality through knowledge production, capacity building and advocacy action aiming at leaving no one behind, while unifying Africans by taking a stance on feminism and its relevance for achieving the objectives of African social movements and communities at large. In consideration of its co-creative aspect, the following expression of interest calls on African social movements to join the Feminist Task Force, a reference group to support the amplification and impact of the Engendering Social Movements Project.  

Pan-African Solidarity Action Network:

during the All African Movement Assembly hosted in 2022, one of the movement support initiatives suggested by delegates was the formation of a continent-wide solidarity network which would bring African activists and movements together to show solidarity in moments of crisis. The Solidarity Action Network as an initiative is to support individuals and organisations pursuing campaigns. This would serve as a platform to connect activists and movements to show solidarity among one another. If something is happening in one part of Africa, people in other parts of Africa should be in a position to show solidarity.

Awards and Celebration:

To support and celebrate Movements and Activists, Africans Rising instituted 2 recognition activities, Activism Awards and Invisible Giants.

  • The Africans Rising Activism Awards initiative supports and connects activists and movements in a global network of Africans engaging in non-violent actions to promote justice, peace, and dignity for all Africans everywhere. Annually, we present three awards to 9 activists and movements across the continent. The categories include Activist of the Year, Movement of the Year and Artistic Activist of the Year. 
  • The Invisible Giants is a series of events that Africans Rising organizes in partnership with the Heinrich Boll Foundation in order to celebrate the African women on the continent and in the Diaspora working tirelessly in their communities for social change.