TrustAfrica Seeks to Improve Advocacy and Strengthen Capacity to Advance International Criminal Justice in Africa

The African continent has confronted a series of violent conflicts, resulting in massive loss of life, egregious human rights violations, and various atrocity crimes. Although the sources of conflict are varied, from civil wars, to social unrest, and electoral contests, the results are the same. Local populations pay the price for elite politics, and once the hostilities have ended, bereaved communities rarely have an opportunity to seek redress and accountability. Moreover, unpunished atrocity crimes breed a culture of impunity where historic grievances give rise to recurring cycles of violence.

TrustAfrica, a Pan-African grant making foundation with partners and associates across Africa, and working in partnership with the Hewlett Foundation, is inviting applications for letters of interest (LOIs) to design and implement early learning innovation projects from organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Mali and Senegal. We are seeking organizations with a credible track record in the area of designing and implementing learning innovations, to submit LOIs. At this stage, our "Early Learning Innovations Fund" is at the pilot phase and we are looking at disbursing grants averaging US$55,000 for projects that can be implemented over 12 months, starting from April 2013.

TrustAfrica is  going to do an evaluation of Phase II of the Investment Climate and Business Environment (ICBE) Research Fund which ends in February 2013. The Research Fund was inspired by the UN Commission Conference on the private sector and development in 2004 and the Unleashing Entrepreneurship Conference in Ottawa in 2005. These events emphasized the central role that entrepreneurs can play in self-reliant development and encouraged the pursuit of a vibrant and independent private sector in the developing world. It was within this context that the ICBE Research Fund was created.

ICBE is sponsoring a Communications workshop on August 22-23, 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya. The goal of the workshop is to enhance the communications skills of ICBE researchers so that they can more effectively communicate their findings to influence policy decisions related to the investment and business environment in their respective countries. The workshop will host 21 researchers who have been invited from 14 countries including: Cameroon, Togo, Burkina Faso, DRC, Uganda, Benin, Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Congo, Morocco. Through the ICBE Research Fund, TrustAfrica awards research grants aimed at building knowledge about investment climates and business environments in Africa and endeavors to ensure this knowledge is shared with policymakers and other relevant stakeholders.