In 2021, The Five Foundation launched a dedicated funding stream for evidence-based work by grassroots activists. In 2024, this fund evolved into something bigger, as we developed collaborations with a variety of new donors. The result is a Kenyan coalition of grassroots activists, the HER Africa Alliance, which is funded from a variety of sources including other foundations and governments.
“We simply cannot end FGM unless large donors begin to trust and fund African women. We need to speed up efforts tenfold if we are to save the tens of millions of girls at risk between now and 2030. This means not only drastically increasing the amount of funding available as core support to African frontline women’s groups, but also making sure that decisions on what interventions to fund are made locally. My hope is that this new alliance can play an important role in making sure that this happens and spark immediate changes in the response of other donors to this urgent and underfunded issue.”– Nimco Ali OBE, CEO, The Five Foundation.
“To accelerate change to end FGM in places like rural Kenya, we need to support women and grassroots movements. The long-established funding models by donors need to change too. It is time we all move beyond constraints and embrace funding mechanisms that are centered on women and girls.” – Natalie Robi Tingo, East Africa Director, The Five Foundation