This 5th Strategy Paper has been developed to provide an overall framework for delivering the organisation’s mission between 2018 and 2022. It has been designed at a time when the world community and our country not only face immense challenges, but also great opportunities for progress. The unprecedented climate change challenges, rising inequality, high youth unemployment, a failing economic system, weakening governance institutions at grassroots, national, regional and global levels, and a severe test on the commitment by ruling elites to the value of democracy - all these defy conventional thinking.
As traditional spaces to influence shrink, technology is however opening new opportunities for mobilisation, interconnection and service delivery. Social movements and citizens’ struggles against injustice are gaining strength, with young people in the lead, claiming greater stakes in the varied processes of governance.
AAU’s 5th Strategy Paper therefore reflects a context of multiple crises - as well as opportunities - which calls on our imagination and determination to advance the cause of social justice. This document, with its commitment to greater justice for people living in extreme poverty, articulates an agenda which we believe will make a significant contribution to our country’s development, as well as to ActionAid’s global mission.
Drawing lessons from the previous Country Strategy Papers, we analyse our internal and external contexts, present a new vision of change, propose strategies, and commit to the organisational changes we believe are necessary for AAU to become more resilient and relevant to our cause