On 12 September, the Andean Region of the Change the Game Academy (CtGA), in partnership with the PODION Corporation, hosted the webinar “A range of experiences in local resource mobilization: voices from the South”. The meeting was attended by representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America to promote the exchange of practices and reflections about the sustainability of civil society organizations.
CESE was represented by Lucyvanda Moura, Projects and Training Advisor, CtGA Master Trainer and Coordinator in Brazil. She described the organization’s history in the field of resource mobilization, highlighting the road taken from dependence on international cooperation funds to the creation of local strategies that inspire other grassroots organizations today.
The experiences Lucyvanda presented included the Spring for Life campaign (in Portuguese), CESE’s Friends Network and the Music and Human Rights Show (in Portuguese), which weaves culture and solidarity to support social causes. She also described some experiences of the groups CESE has supported, from all of Brazil’s regions, which have mobilized resources through events, bazaars, the sale of products, digital campaigns and crowdfunding.
According to Lucyvanda, these initiatives demonstrate Brazilian grassroots organizations’ creativity and capacity for resistance:
“Mobilizing resources is not only about raising money. It’s about constructing relationships, engaging communities, strengthening identities and guaranteeing autonomy so that our organizations can continue to stand firm in the defence of rights.”
Indika Perera (Asia) and Grace Maingi (Africa) also shared practical experiences from their own contexts. At the end, Sharon Olang, CtGA Master Trainer, systematized the main learnings, emphasizing how the diversity of such experiences strengthens the construction of a common agenda for the Global South.
Closing the meeting, Natália Velasquez, representative from the CtGA’s Andean Region, noted: “This webinar has demonstrated that, despite regional differences, we share the common challenge of sustainability and the desire to innovate. This exchange between countries and continents underlines the fact that we are not alone on this path and that learning from each other is an essential part of the changes we want to enact.”
