DiBadili Institute Connect

Imagine this..

You are walking to work one morning.
The path is familiar. The air is calm.
Your mind is already racing ahead to meetings, deadlines, and the long list waiting for you.

Then you notice something.
A small pond by the path.
And inside it… a child.
The child is struggling, with arms flailing and
ater splashing.

You panic and stop in your tracks.
You look around and realise no one else is there.
Without hesitation, you step into the water.
Your shoes are ruined, and your clothes are soaked.
Your day is suddenly disrupted.

A very important thing has happened though,
You saved a life.
You may not see yourself as a hero, but to that child, you are.
When suffering is right in front of us, responsibility feels obvious.

The uncomfortable reality though is that,
across the world, millions of children are drowning in slower waters.
Not ponds.
Systems.
Systems that deny them education.
Systems that deny them healthcare.
Systems that trap families in poverty generation after generation.

The drowning is quieter.
But the risk is just as real.
It happens through policies and broken institutions.
Through decisions made in rooms far away from the people they affect.
Where unfortunately, there is far less urgency.

Why?

Because the pond is not in front of us.
It is not on the road we take to work every day.
We do not hear the child calling for help and sadly, their suffering becomes a statistic.

This is The Drowning Child Theory.

It asks a simple question many societies struggle to answer.
If we feel morally compelled to save the child we see, why do we feel far less compelled to save the children we do not?
Distance should not change the value of a life.
But sadly, it changes our psychology.
Our empathy is strongest for what is close.
What is visible.
What interrupts our path.
And that is why many of the greatest failures in societies are not failures of knowledge.
They are failures of proximity.

The problem is obvious.
But it feels far away.
So people keep walking.

This is where systems thinking becomes important, because systems thinkers understand something many people overlook.

Many drowning children are not accidents.
They are outcomes of policies, of incentives.
and leadership choices.

When systems are poorly designed, suffering becomes predictable.

So let me ask you something honestly.

What ponds are we walking past today?
Who is responsible for stepping into the water when the pond is no longer in front of us?
How do we remember that distance does not cancel responsibility?
How do we stop walking past both the visible and invisible ponds around us?
Because systems only begin to shift when enough people decide they will step into the water, even when it is inconvenient.

Become Change.

THE SILENT THEORY PRINCIPLE

In the course of my work and leadership journey, I’ve often watched people compete for attention.

They want to speak first, speak the longest,
sometimes the loudest and repeat their point several times just to make sure it lands.
In earlier days, in some ways, I was also one of “those people.” 😃

With time, exposure, experience, and careful observation, I began to notice something interesting.

The person who truly holds influence in the room is rarely the one speaking the most.
They are usually the one listening and watching the conversation unfold.
They notice the tensions others ignore and allow people to fully express themselves.

Then something happens.

When they finally speak, the room shifts.
They do not raise their voice, but their words are always clear. People listen.

This is The Silent Authority Principle.

Authority does not come from dominating the room but from developing the kind of clarity and consistency that makes people pause when you speak.

Over the years, working across different leadership spaces, I have noticed something consistent.

People who have not yet mastered authority tend to over explain.
They defend their position constantly, and feel the need to fill every silence because silence makes them uncomfortable.

Leaders with grounded authority have taken time and are intentional about understanding things deeply.

Silence is not weakness, but discipline.
In silence, leaders listen.
In silence, they form insight.

The goal of leadership is not to prove you are the smartest person in the room but rather, to create the conditions where the right decisions can be made and acted upon.

Sometimes that requires speaking.
Other times it calls for restraint.
The leaders who understand the difference shape culture and systems without forcing issues.

Real authority does not chase attention, but attracts it and uses it for sustainable influence.

Become Change

The Public Health Crisis After The Floods

The floodwaters in Nairobi are receding, but more danger lurks. As families are navigating streets still soaked with contaminated, trying to salvage what they can from damages in their homes, there is still use of displaced waste, and overflowed drainage systems.

Beneath the visible destruction lies serious, life threatening risks. As per yesterday, the death toll reported was 43, with Nairobi recording 26 of those deaths. Atleast 50, 000 people have been dispaced. Many are still missing, while others are unaccounted for.

Now, as people try to salvage what they can of their lives and properties, we have to focus on the bigger issue of public health that might kill even more people and leave more serious, life long challenges for many.

Floodwaters don't only carry rain. They mix with sewage, waste, chemicals, and debris. When this water enters homes, markets, and communities, it creates conditions where disease can spread quickly.

Waterborne illnesses.
Contaminated drinking water.
Poor sanitation.
Increased risk of cholera, typhoid, and diarrheal diseases.
For vulnerable communities, especially those already facing limited access to sanitation infrastructure, these risks can escalate rapidly.

Public figure Eric Omondi has called on Kenyans to come together this Saturday for “Fagia Kenya”. A collective effort to clean up neighbourhoods affected by the floods.
It is a powerful reminder that resilience is not only built through policy and infrastructure but also built through collective responsibility.

Community action matters, but moments like this should also push us to think beyond the clean up. While communities can help restore order after disaster, the deeper responsibility lies in ensuring that systems prevent these risks in the first place because flood disasters expose more than infrastructure gaps.
They reveal the intersections between urban planning, sanitation systems, public health, and governance.

If drainage fails, sanitation fails.
If sanitation fails, health systems come under pressure, and that's why development must do more than build cities. It must build systems that protect human dignity, public health, and community wellbeing. We must build proactive systems that protect lives before disaster strikes.

As Nairobi begins the work of cleaning up, there is also an opportunity to reflect on the deeper question facing many rapidly growing cities across Africa.
Are we building environments that safeguard health and resilience
or environments that leave communities exposed when disasters strike?

Pauline Abiola-Oshunniyi

When Development Creates Disaster

In all development programs and projects, we must always critically consider consequetialism and ask, does the end truly justify the means?

In growing cities, development is measured by what is visible.

New buildings, often highrises.
New highways, especially the kind that "weave around each other".
New commercial districts, because social and economic benefits are the goal.
New housing estates to cater for the growing population and meet decent housing needs of liveable communities.

However, the systems that make growth sustainable are often invisible.

Drainage systems.
Stormwater channels.
Sewage infrastructure.
Protected wetlands.
Urban planning enforcement.

When development moves faster than these systems, something dangerous happens and that oday’s progress quietly becomes tomorrow’s crisis.

A road built without adequate drainage becomes a future flood corridor.
Housing built on wetlands becomes a future disaster zone.
Cities that ignore natural water pathways eventually learn the same lesson.
Water always remembers where it used to flow.
Development should reduce risk.

Too often it does the opposite and creates pressure that only reveals itself when the next disaster happens.

This is why responsible development is not only about building more, but more importantly, about building wisely.

It requires leadership that asks difficult questions before the crisis comes.

What systems must exist before expansion begins?

What natural protections must remain untouched?

What infrastructure must grow alongside the city?

We should never forget that the true test of development is not how impressive a city looks today but whether that development is sustainable in the long run.

As our cities expand at unprecedented speed, the responsibility should be clear. Development must stop creating the conditions for future disasters and must start building the systems that prevent it.

What The Nairobi Flood Disaster Revealed About Our Cities:

The Nairobi floods may have devastated us last week, but the truth is that this disaster was doomed to happen years ago in the systems we failed to properly build.

Every urban disaster is a leadership test.

A test of planning.
A test of governance.
A test of whether development was guided by foresight or by short term expansion.

The Nairobi floods raise five uncomfortable questions every rapidly growing African city must confront.

1. Are our cities growing faster than our systems?

Housing expands. Roads expand. Construction expands. But drainage and sewage systems often remain the same size they were decades ago.

Growth without systems is delayed crisis.

2. What natural protection have we destroyed?

Wetlands, floodplains and river corridors are often treated as empty land. In reality they are infrastructure.

When they disappear under concrete, the water eventually returns to reclaim its space.

3. Who carries the greatest risk?

Floods reveal the inequalities embedded in our cities. Informal settlements are often located on the most vulnerable land.

When disaster strikes, the poorest residents pay first.

This is an environmental issue but largely
a governance issue.

4. Are we planning for yesterday’s climate?

Rainfall patterns across Africa are becoming more intense and unpredictable. Infrastructure designed decades ago cannot absorb the pressures cities face today.

Urban planning must now be climate planning.

5. Are we building resilient cities or fragile ones?

The uncomfortable truth is that floods do not destroy strong systems, they expose weak ones.

Cities do not collapse because of rain.
They collapse because the systems meant to protect them were never built or weren't done properly.

Africa’s urban future will not be defined by how fast our cities grow.

It will be defined by how wisely we build them.

The question for leaders across the continent is simple.

Are we building cities that can withstand the future or cities that will collapse into it?

I would value the perspective of urban planners, policymakers and development leaders here.

What one change would make African cities significantly more resilient to climate shocks?

Many change efforts fail before they even start.

Not because of strategy.

Not because teams don't work hard.

They fail because no one asked the right questions.

That's where the 7 R's of Change Management come in.

A simple set of questions that reveal blind spots before they derail your transformation.

Ask yourself and your team:

What's the Reason for this change?

What Return do we expect?

Who Raised the change request?

What Risks are tied to it?

What's the Relationship to existing processes?

What Resources are needed?

Who's truly Responsible for delivering and sustaining it?

Here's how to apply it:

1/ Run through all 7 before launching anything.

2/ Pause if you can't clearly answer one, that's your red flag.

3/ Use them in team meetings to align everyone's understanding.

4/ Revisit regularly to keep the change on track.

Why it matters?

The 7 R's stop blind spots, create accountability, and bring order to the chaos of change.

The best leaders aren't always the ones with big ideas.

They're the ones who ask the right questions before they act.

Funders to watch in 2026:

As philanthropy continues to shift toward systems change, locally led solutions, Al, climate, and collaborative capital, a few funders stand out for their recent moves and momentum going into 2026:

Coefficient Giving - recently rebranded from Open

Philanthropy, signalling a shift toward scaling impact by enabling other major donors to give more effectively, alongside deploying over $4B across global health, Al, animal welfare, and global aid policy.

https://coefficientgiving.org/

Co-Impact - a global funder driving systems change in health,

education, economic opportunity, and gender, now partnering with ICONIQ Impact on the Women's Health Co-Lab to channel pooled capital into maternal health, SRHR, and GBV solutions.

https://co-impact.org/

Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) - reshaping its

grantmaking and redirecting funding to work directly with non-US NGOs, while doubling down on its core priorities in child health, nutrition, education, climate, and gender equality.

https://ciff.org/

ICONIQ Impact - quietly mobilising patient, collaborative capital from leading philanthropists to tackle complex global challenges through long-term, systems-level solutions.

https://lnkd.in/d6tHGGAR

Judith Neilson Foundation - boosted its grantmaking with an extra A$10M in 2025 to respond to global aid cuts and deepen strategic support for public health, inclusive economies, and leadership, especially for women, girls and young people.

https://lnkd.in/d6yKPRgk

Minderoo Foundation - deploying large-scale,

systems-focused grantmaking across climate, gender equality, indigenous empowerment, and community resilience, with growing international reach and ambition beyond Australia.

https://www.minderoo.org/

Segal Family Foundation - Africa-centric funder supporting

local leaders with flexible, multiyear funding and expanding into West Africa.

The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation - shaping how artificial

intelligence and data science are applied ethically for social good, from climate and health to digital literacy and civil society tools.

https://www.mcgovern.org/

Sequoia Climate Foundation - rapidly scaling climate

grantmaking and has become one of the largest new climate philanthropies globally, focused on rapid emissions reduction and energy transition solutions at speed and scale.

https://lnkd.in/dstUuGGP

And beyond this list, several major players remain firmly on the radar, including the Gates Foundation, following its announcement to accelerate giving; Pivotal Ventures, continuing to shape gender equity and systems change; and MacKenzie Scott, whose large-scale, unrestricted grants continue to redefine trust-based philanthropy through Yield Giving.

The L'Oréal Fund for Women is open for 2026!

Specifically, the fund encourages projects that demonstrate:

1. Frontline Support: The Fund prioritizes grassroots

organizations working directly with vulnerable women, rather than those providing only coordination.

2. Empowerment over Emergency Relief: While emergency aid is supported, the focus is on long-term, sustainable impact through vocational training, access to education, and professional integration.

3. Targeted Vulnerability: Projects should address specific needs of women in extreme precarious situations, including victims of domestic or sexual violence, refugee women, women with disabilities, or those in extreme poverty.

4. Capacity Building: The fund supports the organizational development of grassroots partners, including team leadership training, fundraising support, and scaling initiatives.

5. Structural and Project Support: Organizations can apply for funding to support their general, ongoing work (structural support) or for specific, time-bound projects.

Funding ceiling: €5,000 and €300,000

Apply early via https://lnkd.in/dsYiKPRZ

for : Honnold Foundation Core Fund:Grants $25,000 to $150,000

Summary

The Honnold Foundation Core Fund provides unrestricted grant funding to community-based organisations expanding equitable access to solar energy while advancing environmental sustainability and social equity. The Fund supports grassroots initiatives that reduce reliance on fossil fuels and deliver long-term benefits to underserved and marginalised communities.



Eligible applicants must be community-based organisations with a strong local presence and direct engagement with the communities they serve. Applicants should propose projects where the majority of funding supports new or upgraded solar infrastructure, such as solar home systems, grid-tied solar, solar water pumps or community energy systems.

Organisations must have a qualified technical partner to design and implement the solar solution and demonstrate how the project increases social and economic equity while reducing environmental impact. Priority is given to organisations led by and serving Indigenous, Black-majority or historically marginalised communities, including those with strong women's leadership representation.

Details

Grants range from $25,000 to $150,000 per project. Funding is unrestricted, allowing organisations flexibility to deliver high-impact, community-owned solar solutions.

Countries

Open to organisations worldwide, with emphasis on climate-vulnerable regions, including parts of Africa, island states and other underserved communities.

Process & Key Dates

Applications open on 20 January 2026.

Application deadline is 12 February 2026 at 5:00 PM (EST).

The selection process includes an initial eligibility screening followed by a full application for shortlisted organisations.

Us

Join our Pan African community to receive verified funding, investment, partnerships and knowledge sharing programs.

Follow the Global Grants And Opportunities For Africa

WhatsApp Channel:

https://lnkd.in/dKmVvRr5

Here

https://lnkd.in/dHhNT3tz

Kindly

Help us to share this opportunity with community organisations and clean energy practitioners working to expand equitable solar access and climate resilience.

Have a wonderful 2024!

Happy Holidays