We recently concluded our Global Strategy Meeting’2016 in Tanzania. The plans are assertive, the team is determined and the future very bright. Our CEO talks about the takeaways from the meeting.
“Having recently returned from several weeks in East Africa, there is much to acknowledge and recognize in support of the communities we serve. While there are always many stories from the field, I am sewing this post to communicate some of the organizational achievements and key areas of focus.
Key organization message
Sync between Maturity and Growth = Big Impact and Success.
The Best Yet — Annual Global Board Meeting
This year’s annual mission alignment and strategy meeting was hosted by the Tanzania team for staff and Boards from Kenya, Tanzania, and USA. It marked a definitive inflection point in the evolution of Asante Africa’s maturity and growth towards an East African centric organization. What began with a collective discussion three years ago stimulated by the Price Waterhouse Cooper global governance and implementation plan, is now becoming a reality and is being embraced for what it means to be an East African centric organization. This is occurring at the staff level and at the Board of Directors level. Everyone appreciates the challenge in front of us and all are committed to navigating the course.
An excited team after a successful meeting
The 2020 Vision of One Million Lives Impacted — Assertive and Doable
The program staff, refined and presented the road maps for each program for the next four years. While our plans have always been forward looking and aggressive, all of us now believe and collectively agree on the guide posts between today and the goal. All are energized and ready for the opportunity.
Staff presenting focus areas and road maps
Program Highlights and Achievements
- The theme is definitely data, data, data
- We have received recognition by other ‘sister and funding’ organizations for our Sustainable model. We do not treat our youth as beneficiaries but as active participants in Future problem solving of their community needs and challenges. We encourage active knowledge application and transfer through ‘Paying It Forward.’
- The Government Officials (MoEVT-TZ) and Corporate partners (P&G), recognize our model of TRULY engaging educational stakeholders and community members. This means that the parents’ voices are essential, the school principal’s voice is critical, and the community makes the decisions, while we at Asante Africa Foundation facilitate the process and create a transparent process for all.
- Our East African Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship Incubator Program has a 5 year Impact Study, Qualitative and Quantitative, underway. The includes real time data collection in the field conducted by 20 of our staff and youth alumni and an orchestrated analysis effort in concert with Savannah State University and Statistics Without Borders team.
- We have completed the final phases of the MasterCard Foundation funded program for Advancing the Learning in Rural Classrooms. This program has been underway for the last three years with exceptional findings and results. As you may remember, our collective team presented to a global community at the 2016 CIES conference in March. Now we are in the midst of a 3rd party evaluation.
- We have completed Analysis for our Girls Advancement Program for 2015–2016 P&G program. We have over 6000 girls across Kenya and Tanzania who have vocally shared their newest learnings about bodies maturing, how their voices matter, and how to use their voices against abuse, rape, FGM, and getting their needs met. And the results are staggering. — 91% of the girls are staying in school. Young Girl pregnancies are down by 98% over prior year. Parents are actively engaging in tough conversations with their children about sex, and staying safe.
We have so many more stories to share with you. I do hope you will take a moment to read a few of the recent BLOG posts from our youth in the field and our staff.”
– Erna Grasz
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