AFR I LABS
KUBATANA MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2022
COMMUNITIES, NOT BUBBLES: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES TO DRIVE IMPACT
ensure that there are actions put in place after listening. Some of the most successful programs at AfriLabs to date have been birthed from our several “listening initiatives” like the AfriLabs City Meet-ups, AfriLabs Listening Tour, AfriLabs Virtual Town Hall Meetings and, of course, the catch-up calls with the community. Committed to capacity building: For any network organisation, your success relies heavily on the impact and growth of your community. As a community manager, you have to consistently come up with programs and strategies that are targeted at increasing the capacity of your community. It is why we have the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme and other capacity- building-centred projects. Empathy: When all is said and done, a network organisation cannot have an actively engaged community if it does not constantly empathise
with its members. This is the key element that gives members a sense of belonging, thereby making them vested in the overall growth of the network. As a growing network of over 350 hubs in 52 African countries, these key points have helped ensure that we are building a thriving and sustainable community that is making an impact on the continent, one that doesn’t fade with time and bursts as bubbles.
THERE IS NO BETTER WAY OF DEVELOPING THE AFRICAN ECONOMY THAN BY HARNESSING THE POWER OF THE COMMUNITY.
BY KENECHUKWU CHUKWU, Member Services Manager, AfriLabs
Transparency: This is a very key element in building an engaged community. Over the years at AfriLabs, we have ensured that we were always transparent with the community on all our processes, which has led to community members developing an unwavering loyalty to the network because they understood our processes. Making all voices count: This phrase might remind you of the concluded HIVOS-sponsored program AfriLabs was a part of. However, it best defines a key and essential element for the growth of any diverse community. To successfully make all voices count in a network, you have to not only listen but
There is no better way of developing the African economy than by harnessing the power of the community. A community is known as a group of people who have common interests and share the same/similar ideas and belief systems. UBUNTU is an African term that qualifies oneness and places emphasis on the interconnectedness of all life. AfriLabs, a pan-African network organisation, believes in and operates on the Ubuntu philosophy, and this did not happen overnight. We had to build trust and provide a sense of belonging to our community, and here is how we achieved it:
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