The Five Foundation launched a dedicated funding stream for evidence-based work by grassroots activists in 2021, which is led by Natalie Robi Tingo, based in Kisumu, Western Kenya. From 2024, this fund has evolved 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 70 million girls at risk over the next eight years. 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 The Five Fund 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 centred on women and girls.” – Natalie Robi Tingo, Kenya Consultant, The Five Foundation