Southern Africa Trust

16/06/2026

As South Africa marks Youth Day today, we celebrate a legacy that was shaped by youth. Fifty years ago, young people proved that they aren't bystanders to the future, they're the ones who build it.

That legacy lives on across Southern African today. At the Dariro Scenario Skills Labs, civic actors from across the region came together to imagine and shape the future of:
🔹Human Rights Defence
🔹Feminist Organising
🔹Youth & Climate Leadership

Across all three, youth voices were central to defining what comes next. In the Youth & Climate Futures Lab, young people mapped named where they stand now and mapped a bold vision for 2030:
🔹From tokenism participation to leading climate policy implementation and accountability
🔹From exclusion in decision-making to meaningful representation in national climate governance
🔹From data systems that ignore them to AI and climate tools accessible in local languages
🔹From isolated rural communities to strong, connected youth networks across the region
🔹From financing that bypasses young people to youth-led and youth controlled green finance solutions

Youth Day reminds us that young people have always been central to the struggle for justice. Today, they continue to lead the work of building inclusive, climate-resilient and democratic futures.

Happy Youth Day!

In partnership with: Ford Foundation, Oak Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Comic Relief, and Irene M. Staehelin (IMS) Ford Foundation

14/05/2026

We’re hiring. 📢

The Southern Africa Trust is looking for two experienced professionals to join our team in Johannesburg:

🔹 Head of Programmes & Impact – senior leadership driving programme strategy, grantmaking, and regional impact |📍Southern Africa Based (Remote)

🔹 Senior Operations Officer – ensuring effective governance, compliance, and organisational systems | 📍Johannesburg Based (Hybrid)

We’re looking for people who lead with integrity, humility, and a genuine commitment to inclusive, feminist, people-centred development.

3-year fixed term | Competitive remuneration | Closing: 25 May 2026

Find out more and apply: https://tinyurl.com/3xzvx8tw

14/05/2026

We're hiring. 📢

The Southern Africa Trust is looking for two experienced professionals to join our team in Johannesburg:

🔹 Head of Programmes & Impact – senior leadership driving programme strategy, grantmaking, and regional impact

🔹 Senior Operations Officer – ensuring effective governance, compliance, and organisational systems

We're looking for people who lead with integrity, humility, and a genuine commitment to inclusive, feminist, people-centred development.

📍 Johannesburg | 3-year fixed term | Competitive remuneration | Closing: 25 May 2026

Find out more and apply: https://tinyurl.com/3xzvx8tw

28/04/2026

88.6%.

That is the share of all care work across Southern Africa that goes entirely unpaid.

The work that feeds children before school. That sits with the sick through the night. That holds communities together when systems fail. Performed overwhelmingly by women. Counted by no economy. Compensated by none.

Across 5 SADC countries — Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe — our research found that the labour sustaining entire economies is being extracted for free.

This is not a gap in the data. It is a policy failure. And on 29 April, we are bringing the evidence to the table. Join us.

🔗Register now: https://lnkd.in/dNBCT2vf
🗓️Wednesday 29 April | 2:00pm (SAST)

In partnership with: Ford Foundation, Oak Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Comic Relief, and Irene M. Staehelin (IMS) Foundation

27/04/2026

Although it often goes unseen, care work is everywhere.

In the quiet early hours, as children are bathed for school. In the round-the-clock effort to keep elders comfortable. In the meal cooked over firewood. In the water drawn from a borehole miles away. In the hours spent checking homework. It sustains life. It holds economies together. And in Southern Africa, it is overwhelmingly done by women and girls - unpaid, unrecognised, and unprotected.

On 29 April, the Southern Africa Trust invites you to a webinar bringing the unseen into view. It is not only a webinar. It is a solidarity moment and a call to action to centre care, count it, fund it, and fight for it. We will be launching our regional Care Scoping Study, platforming the voices of care workers and their lived experiences, and co-creating an advocacy product that threads together your narratives and advocacy demands for care work in your region.

🔗Register now: https://lnkd.in/dNBCT2vf
🗓️ Join us on Wednesday 29 April | 2:00pm (SAST)

In partnership with: Ford Foundation, Oak Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Comic Relief and Irene M. Staehelin (IMS) Foundation

31/03/2026

📣 Final Call for service providers across SADC

We're expanding our vetted supplier database across professional services, creative & communications, operations, and governance. We're looking for partners who believe in community-led change and are committed to advancing climate, economic, gender, and social justice across Southern Africa.

Women-led, youth-led, and community-rooted service providers are strongly encouraged to apply.

📅 Deadline: On a rolling basis

📧 Subject line: Database EOI – [Service Category]

🔗 Full details: https://southernafricatrust.org/service-providers-call/

Join us as we work towards a Southern Africa where all people live empowered and fulfilled lives.

26/03/2026

Today we open a deliberate regional space to confront Gender-Based Violence (GBV) at the intersections of economic and climate justice.

We are live from The Southern Africa Trust Gender Justice Platform. The space is bringing together parliamentarians, traditional and religious leaders, civil society, youth leaders, researchers, and partners from across Southern Africa in one room, with one shared purpose.

GBV is not an isolated issue. It is rooted in economic inequality, climate vulnerability, and the exclusion of young people from the spaces where decisions are made. This Platform is our space to confront those intersections together.

As our CEO Alice D. Kanengoni reminded us in her opening: “If we are to truly break the cycle of violence, we must transform the systems that sustain it, together.”

Two days. One region. A shared commitment to ending GBV through economic justice, climate action, and youth leadership.

💬 Follow the conversation and join us online:

🔗link in stories
Meeting ID: 876 8141 4977
Passcode: 857393

We convene in partnership with: Ford Foundation, Oak Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Comic Relief, and Irene M. Staehelin (IMS) Foundation

20/03/2026

Join us now live on X: https://tinyurl.com/29ffnj2z

Meet the voices shaping the conversation at our Youth X-Space Dialogue: Building a Southern Africa Just Transition Narrative.

🎤 Clariss Masiya | Livelihoods and Sustainable Food Systems Lead, Green Governance Zw. A gender-responsive development expert with seven years experience working alongside youth and women to strengthen local economies and challenge extractivist models.
X: |

🎤 Sibusiso Mazomba | African Climate Alliance. A youth climate justice activist, UN Secretary-General Youth Climate Advisor, and UNFCCC Youth Negotiator on Loss and Damage. He brings a powerful combination of scientific insight and grassroots-centred perspectives to global climate policy spaces.
X:

🎤 Sara Rodrigues | Founder, Better World. A climate activist from Mozambique whose journey began at 15, mobilising peers in the aftermath of devastating cyclones. Today she leads a youth-driven initiative centring women and children in the Southern African Just Transition.
X:

🎤 Beatus Msamange | Creative Director, 13 Films. A Malawian filmmaker and storyteller using film, theatre, and spoken word to spark dialogue on climate justice, youth empowerment, and sustainability across communities.
X:

📅 Friday, 20 March 2026 | 🕑 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (CAT)
Join the conversation here: https://tinyurl.com/29ffnj2z

19/03/2026

Meet the voices shaping the conversation at our Youth X-Space Dialogue: Building a Southern Africa Just Transition Narrative.

🎤 Clariss Rufaro Masiya | Livelihoods and Sustainable Food Systems Lead, Green Governance Zimbabwe. A gender-responsive development expert with seven years experience working alongside youth and women to strengthen local economies and challenge extractivist models.
X: |

🎤 Sibusiso Mazomba | African Climate Alliance. A youth climate justice activist, UN Secretary-General Youth Climate Advisor, and UNFCCC Youth Negotiator on Loss and Damage. He brings a powerful combination of scientific insight and grassroots-centred perspectives to global climate policy spaces.
X:

🎤 Sara Rodrigues | Founder, Better World. A climate activist from Mozambique whose journey began at 15, mobilising peers in the aftermath of devastating cyclones. Today she leads a youth-driven initiative centring women and children in the Southern African Just Transition.
X:

🎤 Beatus Ble Msamange | Creative Director, Equinox 13 Films. A Malawian filmmaker and storyteller using film, theatre, and spoken word to spark dialogue on climate justice, youth empowerment, and sustainability across communities.
X:

📅 Friday, 20 March 2026 | 🕑 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (CAT)
Join the conversation here: https://x.com/i/spaces/1dKrPEaRwnlJX/peek?s=20

FeministClimateAction SouthernAfrica

19/03/2026

Join us for a youth-led dialogue to define what a Just Transition looks like from an African perspective, and to build the narrative that will take it into regional policy spaces.

Hosting and moderating our Youth X-Space Dialogue: Building a Southern Africa Just Transition Narrative:

🎤 Inonge Sakala | Youth Engagement Lead, Southern Africa Trust. A climate and social justice expert with over seven years of experience developing and implementing climate advocacy strategies for civil society organisations and youth movements across the region.
X:
🎤 Yande Banda | Global gender justice activist and mobilizer. From earning a standing ovation at the Generation Equality Forum at 16 to chairing UN ECOSOC sessions and representing African girls at the African Union, Yande has spent over seven years ensuring marginalized voices shape global agendas.
X:

🎤 Christian Hounkannou | Energy Coordinator, Power Shift Africa. A renewable energy and climate justice advocate with over a decade of experience working with grassroots communities across Africa, particularly in the Francophone and West Africa regions.
X:

🎤 Michael Mwansa | Climate and human rights activist, ActionAid Zambia. With over 15 years in climate policy and advocacy, Michael has contributed extensively to the sector and authored leading publications on just transition, extractives, climate finance, and human rights across the SADC region.
X:

📅 Friday, 20 March 2026 | 🕑 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (CAT)
Join the conversation here: https://x.com/i/spaces/1dKrPEaRwnlJX/peek?s=20

FeministClimateAction SouthernAfrica