Francoise Moudouthe CEO of the  The African Women’s Development Fund recently challenged the philanthropic sector to rethink its role in today’s crisis driven world. Speaking during the opening plenary of  the recently ended Philea Forum 2025, Moudouthe observed the contrast between how the  philanthropy sector and feminist movements are navigating the current ongoing crises differently. She observed philanthropy’s sense of “panic” and contrasted it with the resilience and adaptability of African feminist movements  who are approaching this moment from a distinctly different approach that,

“...we’ve been here before, We’ve experienced this loss of life, loss of rights, loss of resource, loss of allyship. We’ve survived it and we’ve built back and we’ll do it again…”

Drawing from African feminist movements’ experiences, she shares what it takes to meet this  moment using  three transformative lessons from the movement  that she believes philanthropy can learn from African feminists. She notes that philanthropy needs to centre justice – social and gender justice are the foundations for the change we want to see. Secondly, to centre movements  as they are best placed to make justice happen and lastly to undertake feminist philanthropy

Watch more from Moudouthe’s submission at the Philea Forum 2025 below

For more information about the Forum visit philea.eu