STOP LOOKING OUTSIDE, BUILD FROM WITHIN

Communities urged to harness local land, skills, knowledge, networks and resources to create businesses, jobs and sustainable opportunities instead of relying mainly on external support

By Francis Maingaila ♥️

Lusaka, Zambia24 — 18 September 2026 — Communities should stop viewing themselves only as recipients of development support and instead harness their land, skills, knowledge, networks and other local resources to create businesses, jobs and sustainable economic opportunities.

Chief Economist Morgan Mwese, representing Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development Director Pamela Chitulangoma, said organised communities had the capacity to identify their own priorities, mobilise resources and build partnerships that could transform local assets into sustainable economic activity.

Mr Mwese said this during the Community Foundations Fair and Strategic Plans Launch held at Levy Shopping Mall in Lusaka under the theme, “Showcasing Community Power in Action.”

He said communities should be recognised not only for the challenges they faced, but also for the solutions they were capable of creating.

Mr Mwese said development discussions had for many years focused on needs, gaps and deficiencies, but warned that looking at communities only through what they lacked risked overlooking their capacity to act.

“The community foundation model invites us to look at development from another perspective,” Mr Mwese said.

He said community foundations could help communities organise around their priorities, mobilise resources, build partnerships and establish institutions capable of supporting development over the long term.

Mr Mwese said when local resources were brought together around a shared purpose, communities became active participants in creating development rather than simply recipients of support.

He said the approach was closely aligned with the mandate of the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development because enterprise development also began with identifying value and potential within available resources.

“An entrepreneur looks at the resources available and asks: what can we create from this?” he said.

Mr Mwese said communities across Zambia had resources that could form the basis of local economic activity, including agricultural knowledge, land, craftsmanship, natural resources, savings groups, local markets, cultural knowledge and young people with new ideas.

He said the challenge was often not the complete absence of resources, but connecting them to opportunities, institutions, markets, knowledge and financing that could allow them to grow.

“We must begin seeing community development and enterprise development as complementary conversations,” Mr Mwese said.

He said a thriving local economy could strengthen communities, while strong and organised communities could create an environment in which local enterprises flourished.

Mr Mwese also emphasised the importance of community foundations as permanent institutions rooted in the communities they served.

He said although the community foundations represented at the fair were at different stages and had different priorities, they shared the ambition of creating structures through which communities could organise themselves, mobilise local resources, attract external partnerships and invest in their own priorities.

“We must encourage that ambition,” he said.

Mr Mwese said the private sector also had an important role to play in supporting community-led economic development.

He called for corporate engagement to move beyond one-off charitable donations towards commercial partnerships in which businesses and communities could contribute value.

He said corporate capital, technology and market access could be combined with local knowledge, trust and enterprise to create partnerships that were both socially meaningful and economically sustainable.

Mr Mwese said Government remained committed to creating conditions in which local enterprises could flourish, noting the role of micro, small and medium enterprises, cooperatives and local entrepreneurs in job creation and national growth.

He, however, said building a strong economy required more than supporting individual businesses.

Mr Mwese said stakeholders needed to strengthen the wider ecosystem around enterprises by improving access to information, skills, formal markets, affordable financing and business development services.

He said organised community structures could play a bridging role by helping identify economic opportunities, extending enterprise support and ensuring that interventions reflected local realities.

Mr Mwese encouraged community foundations to build active relationships with Government institutions, local authorities and enterprise development programmes.

He further urged them to explore formalisation pathways, leverage cooperative frameworks and continue transforming local assets into bankable and sustainable economic opportunities.

On the launch of the strategic plans, Mr Mwese congratulated the community foundations and community members who worked to develop the plans, but challenged them to treat the documents as the beginning of implementation rather than the end of a process.

“A strategic plan must never become a document that is printed, launched, and left on a shelf. A strategic plan is a promise,” he said.

Mr Mwese said behind every strategic plan was a real community, while every priority represented the needs and aspirations of real people.

He said the plans should therefore guide practical local resource mobilisation, partnerships with Government and the private sector, income-generating activities, strong governance and clear measures for tracking progress in people's daily lives.

Mr Mwese said community development could not be achieved by one institution alone.

“ZGF cannot do it alone. Government cannot do this alone, and most certainly, communities must not be left to do it alone,” he said.

He said Government would continue creating pathways through which grassroots initiatives could access formal opportunities, finance and technical support.

Mr Mwese urged the private sector to draw closer to communities and explore commercial partnerships that could create shared value, while calling on civil society organisations to continue building local capacity and allow communities to lead their own development.

He also urged community foundations to remain confident in the ability of local people to drive change.

“As we tour the exhibitions today, let us celebrate the resilience, resourcefulness, and enterprising spirit of our communities,” Mr Mwese said.

He later officially declared the community foundations' strategic plans launched on behalf of the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development.

Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF) Chief Executive Officer Engwase B. Mwale has called for a shift in the way development is approached by placing communities at the centre of identifying priorities, mobilising resources and making decisions about their own development.

Ms Mwale said communities should not continue to be viewed mainly as recipients of development support when they already possessed knowledge, skills, relationships, networks, land, time and, in many cases, financial resources that could be mobilised to address local challenges.

Ms Mwale was representing the ZGF Board Chairperson, who was away on another important assignment, at the Community Foundations Fair and Strategic Plan Launch held at Levy Shopping Mall in Lusaka.

The event brought together the Guest of Honour, a Director from the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development, senior Government officials, traditional leaders, representatives of community foundations, civil society organisation partners, ZGF officials and members of the press.

Ms Mwale said the fair provided an opportunity not only to celebrate what communities were already doing, but also to reflect on why community foundations mattered and why ZGF had chosen to support the approach.

She said development had often been approached from outside communities, resulting in local people being positioned mainly as beneficiaries of support rather than as active participants with resources and capacities of their own.

“The community foundation approach seeks to change this,” Ms Mwale said.

She explained that a community foundation was a locally rooted institution that brought people and different stakeholders together around the development priorities of their community.

Ms Mwale said community foundations provided a platform through which communities could identify what mattered to them, mobilise resources, support local initiatives and build partnerships that responded to their own priorities.

“This is important because communities themselves are best placed to understand their context and the solutions that are likely to work,” she said.

Ms Mwale said ZGF did not believe that community foundations should simply be imposed on communities by external organisations.

She said the foundation first looked for communities with a willingness to come together, a sense of ownership and a commitment to collectively contribute to the development of their communities.

“We also look at local leadership and an interest in taking responsibility,” she said.

Ms Mwale said ZGF further considered the existing relationships, initiatives and resources within communities that could be built upon rather than starting from scratch.

“The aim is not to introduce an institution simply because an organisation from outside believes it is needed. The community foundation must emerge from the community and respond to its own realities,” she said.

She said once established, community foundations could perform several important functions in strengthening local development.

According to Ms Mwale, they could bring community members together to identify priorities, mobilise local resources, support community-led initiatives and connect communities with partners and other sources of support.

She said community foundations could also contribute to transparency and accountability in the use of resources.

Ms Mwale said the approach also required a broader understanding of what constituted philanthropy at community level.

She said local philanthropy should not be reduced to wealthy individuals giving large amounts of money.

“It can include a farmer contributing food, a young person contributing their skills, a community member giving their time, a business providing materials or a group of people contributing small amounts towards a shared priority,” she said.

Ms Mwale said while individual contributions might appear small, their collective impact demonstrated the resources and capacity that existed within communities.

“These contributions may appear small individually, but collectively they demonstrate something very important: communities have power and resources of their own,” she said.

She said this understanding was central to ZGF's role in supporting community foundations.

Ms Mwale said ZGF was not seeking to take over the work of communities but to help strengthen the systems, leadership and relationships that communities needed to organise themselves, mobilise resources and sustain their own development.

“ZGF's role is therefore not to take over the work of communities. Our role is to support communities to strengthen the systems, leadership and relationships they need to organise, mobilise resources and sustain their own development,” she said.

Ms Mwale said the community foundations represented at the fair were an important demonstration of what the approach could achieve.

She said their strategic plans provided a roadmap for how the foundations intended to build on their strengths, respond to community priorities and mobilise resources for the future.

As the strategic plans were launched, Ms Mwale encouraged the community foundations not to treat the documents as static plans that would simply be filed away.

She urged them to use the plans as practical guides while remaining flexible enough to respond to changing needs and opportunities within their communities.

“I encourage the community foundations to treat them as living documents. They should guide action, but also remain responsive to the changing needs and opportunities within their communities,” she said.

Ms Mwale also called on Government, traditional leaders, the private sector, partners and other stakeholders to recognise the value of investing in locally led development.

She said supporting community-rooted institutions could have a wider impact than funding individual projects because such institutions helped communities develop the capacity to identify and address their own priorities.

“When we support institutions that are rooted in communities, we are not simply supporting individual projects. We are helping to build stronger communities that can identify, mobilise and use resources for their own development,” she said.

Ms Mwale said the responsibility for strengthening community-led development extended beyond civil society organisations.

She called for greater collaboration among community foundations, traditional leaders, Government institutions, the private sector and other stakeholders to create an environment in which local initiatives could grow and become sustainable.

She said the Community Foundations Fair was therefore more than an exhibition of community initiatives.

“Today, therefore, is a celebration of community power. It is a call to action,” Ms Mwale said.

She urged stakeholders to create more spaces where communities were not merely consulted about development programmes but were trusted to lead and contribute to decisions affecting their lives.

“Let us continue creating spaces where communities are not only consulted, but are trusted to lead, contribute and make decisions about their own development,” she said.

Ms Mwale, on behalf of the ZGF Board, management and staff, commended the community foundations and partners for the work that had brought the initiative to the stage of launching their strategic plans.

She said the progress demonstrated the importance of investing in structures that were locally owned and driven.

Ms Mwale expressed hope that the fair would strengthen commitment to a development approach that recognised communities for the resources and capabilities they possessed rather than focusing primarily on their needs and challenges.

“May this fair strengthen our commitment to a future where communities are recognised not for what they lack, but for what they have, what they can contribute and what they can achieve together,” she said.

Traditional leader Chief Mphuka has urged communities to take greater responsibility for their own development by mobilising local resources, skills, knowledge and ideas to address challenges affecting them.

Chief Mphuka said development was more sustainable when communities identified their priorities and worked together to find solutions instead of depending entirely on external assistance.

He was speaking in Lusaka during the Community Foundations Fair and Strategic Plan Launch held at Levy Shopping Mall under the theme, “Showcasing Community Power in Action.”

Chief Mphuka said communities had long demonstrated their ability to support one another through contributions of time, skills, knowledge and resources.

He said the community foundation approach could strengthen this spirit by providing a platform for communities to organise their efforts, mobilise resources and work with partners to address local priorities.

“Communities understand their own circumstances. They know their challenges, but they also know their strengths and the opportunities within their communities,” Chief Mphuka said.

He urged communities to first consider what they could contribute before looking elsewhere for assistance.

“We should therefore not always look outside our communities for solutions. Sometimes the first step is to ask ourselves: What do we have, what can we contribute and what can we achieve together?” he said.

Chief Mphuka said community contributions should not be limited to money, as people could contribute according to the resources and skills available to them.

He said farmers could contribute food, young people could provide skills and time, businesses could provide materials, while traditional leaders could help mobilise communities.

“A traditional leader can bring people together. Community members can contribute ideas, labour and knowledge. All these contributions have value,” he said.

Chief Mphuka said traditional leaders also had a responsibility to promote participation and accountability and ensure that community initiatives remained focused on the needs of local people.

He commended the Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF) for supporting the community foundation approach and recognising the role communities could play in driving their own development.

Chief Mphuka urged community foundations to remain accountable to the people they served by listening to their concerns, building trust, encouraging participation and mobilising resources within their communities.

He further urged the foundations to treat their strategic plans as commitments to action and use them to guide partnerships and development initiatives.

“As we launch your strategic plans today, I encourage you to see these plans as a commitment to action. Let them guide you in building stronger communities, strengthening partnerships and creating opportunities for people to contribute to their own development,” he said.

Chief Mphuka said communities should be regarded not merely as beneficiaries of development programmes but as active participants in shaping their own future.

“Let us continue to recognise that communities are not simply recipients of development. They are partners, contributors and leaders in the development of their own communities,” he said.

He expressed confidence that implementation of the strategic plans would help community foundations translate their work into practical interventions and positive change.