Our Mission
Africa Practice’s mission is to play a leading role in building a prosperous Africa that inspires the world. We were able to realise this when in 2018, our client, the Mastercard Foundation, required our support as they embarked on their Young Africa Works strategy that places young people and the future of work in Africa at the centre of everything they do. Their goal is to enable 30 million young people in Africa to secure dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. With this came the decision to localise their approach to impact, collaborating with various stakeholders including the private sector, donors, young people and civil society to align with each country’s economic aspirations and focus on key industries. This necessitated a deeper understanding of the socio-economic, political and media contexts of each country. Africa Practice’s deep expertise in mapping/understanding stakeholder landscapes added valuable insight as the Foundation moved closer to the continent.
Our Action
In collaboration with our monitoring partners across the region, Africa Practice has provided a number of bespoke reports to the Mastercard Foundation for the better part of a decade. Many of these comprised an overview of monthly coverage by way of detailed media reports focused on tonality, messaging, key spokespeople and a detailed political economic overview of the regions in which the Foundation operates. We assisted the Foundation with the launch and amplification of their Young Africa Works strategy by providing: media training for spokespeople, editor engagements and media relations to amplify the Foundations new strategy across the continent. In addition, daily crisis reports for high-conflict regions enabled the Foundation to listen consistently to the countries and remain informed of each local context, assisting them to make informed decisions in the execution of work in those countries.
Our Impact
Our insights, shared through monitoring, informed the Mastercard Foundation of the reality on the ground in various African markets, and became a strategic tool for high-level discussions in the context of the Foundation’s localisation agenda and its communications approach.
The reports enabled the Foundation to measure the quality and effectiveness of its communication strategies on the continent, thereby facilitating informed decision-making within the organisation and its partners. The reports allowed us to provide narrative support which was instrumental in shaping the Foundation’s communication strategy. Through the reports, we have identified gaps in terms of their partners’ communication capacity and advised on ways to remedy this.
Image: Mastercard Foundation
