We were never in the dark

Africa has long been painted with broad strokes, we are often seen as  the “dark continent”, a place of unending challenge. And yes, we do know hardship. You could argue that the ubiquity of struggle has toughened us and has potentially made us more adaptable. But even by those standards, the past few months have been seismic.

The withdrawal of funding by one of the biggest global contributors to health, education, and social development, USAID and PEPFAR, has sent ripples across the sector. As a cornerstone of the U.S.’s soft diplomacy, their funding has always come with strings attached. Its sudden absence has left all of us asking: what now?

We explored some of these impacts in a recent blog –  read more here but the focus of this piece is to look at what comes next. Who writes this sector’s recovery plan? And how do we go about rebuilding the damaged social justice ecosystem and get on with the work of meaningful social change?

This time, the pen must be in our hands

At Southern Hemisphere, we believe that Africans must lead the way in reimagining how we fund, structure, and sustain the critical work being done across the continent.

Sure, USAID might return one day, but we cannot wait for that. We must look to new global partners, yes, but we must also look to ourselves, not just for survival, but for sovereignty, for pride and for possibility.

For too long, development narratives have been imported and shaped elsewhere. If there was ever a time to change that, it’s now. We need to write the recovery plan, right here.

Africa needs to be tethered to the world

While our roots will always be in Africa, we’re connectors and believe in interdependence and love cross-continental collaboration. We believe in adhering to internationally recognised standards in monitoring and evaluation but we want to be part of the conversation and we don’t want African expertise to be overlooked in favour of imported models rather to build a shared view of both the problems and the solutions. There is considerable expertise here and we want to spotlight and celebrate the projects, people, and possibilities that exist right here. 

Africa is not a monolith, it is a vast continent with 54 countries and over 2 000 languages spoken and yet many operating outside of this continent see it as one.

It is our 25 years of experience as an African Development Consulting firm that has completed over 300 projects across the African continent that allows us to:

  1.  Understand African context and culture

Those of us that live here know that Africa is diverse and the opposite of homogenous, we know when we embark on a project in Rwanda that there will be an entirely different set of social, cultural and political factors from say Ethiopia. So, what sets our team apart isn’t just geography. It’s perspective.

We believe that context matters and we bring local understanding, cultural nuance, and lived experience into every project.

  1. Develop trusted connections 

In the course of the 25 years since we first started as a small consultancy in Cape Town, we have established and solidified meaningful partnerships across the continent. 

What this means in practical terms is that we have a trusted team of seasoned, experienced and reliable consultants in most territories in Africa and have been called upon to assist in many Pan-African projects, most recently for Love Alliance but also for APRHC and Imaginable Futures, MIET Africa and AWESOME for Womenkind Worldwide.

  1. Create and innovate the African way

Africa as the birthplace of humanity is a fountain of creativity.  Think Black Coffee, Miriam Makeba, Youssou N’Dour, Tems and most recently Tyla who have in the past and who are in the present, reshaping global culture. 

We see our work the same way. Creativity and rigour aren’t opposites. We blend adaptive thinking with internationally respected methods to find solutions that are both imaginative and effective. African creativity at work.

African hands and African voices for African futures.

From strengthening health systems in Malawi to designing education programmes in Kenya, from youth initiatives in Zimbabwe to ECD evaluations in South Africa, our footprint stretches across 20+ countries. But we’re not outsiders working in Africa, our business was born here, we live and work here.

Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing case studies, lessons learned, and insights from our work across the continent. We’ll show what it looks like when local voice and international excellence come together and we’ll reflect on what we’ve learned from calling this place home.

If you’re curious about how African-led practice can shift thinking, shape strategy, and spark real change, we hope you’ll join us for the journey.

About Southern Hemisphere.

Southern Hemisphere is a female owned business that focuses on strengthening the impact of development projects through applied research, monitoring, evaluation, learning and program design and strategy. 

Southern Hemisphere was born in Cape Town, South Africa, 25 years ago. Today, we remain deeply rooted in the continent and committed to amplifying African voices for African futures.