Halima Mahomed is an independent researcher and consultant focusing on focusing on knowledge building, advocacy and support to strengthen the narratives, practice and impact of philanthropy in Africa. She is an Associate Researcher at CAPSI and serves as a member of the PSJP management team, Alliance Magazine Editorial Board, and ICNL Advisory Council. Halima has worked for and with a range of African and international philanthropic and philanthropy support organizations and written extensively on philanthropy, with a strong focus on linking philanthropy to local agency and power. Halima holds a Masters in Development Studies from the University of Witwatersrand.

Institutionalized philanthropy has the potential to be engaging at a much more holistic and systemic level – and with a significantly broader range of local actors. In a context where the prevalent questions of the day lie around the importance of approaches and systems that enable space for people to claim and exert their voice, power and agency, a different and more contextualized philanthropic practice is needed. I am excited to be able to explore this issue broadly and am also particularly interested in the role of philanthropy in supporting space for local organizing, particularly those organizing spaces that do not usually fall within the more formalized development and civil society sectors.