Zimbabwean social entrepreneur Tsitsi Masiyiwa launches AGI to tackle gender inequality in Africa

Zimbabwean social entrepreneur Tsitsi Masiyiwa, has joined forces with the African Philanthropy Forum (APF) to launch the Africa Gender Initiative (AGI), a platform for African philanthropists to network, raise money, and cooperate to close the gender gap on the continent.

“I’m delighted to launch the Africa Gender Initiative alongside the African Philanthropy Forum and a group of funders that want to see a more progressive Africa,” said Tsitsi Masiyiwa when announcing the initiative.

It’s time for a new generation of African leaders who will eliminate gender disparities and enable everyone to realize their full potential, she said, adding that “we need to finally trust our own and drive funding in the hands of those who know the continent’s needs best.”

AGI was introduced more than seven months after Masiyiwa, along with other notable businesswomen and philanthropists like Roshni Nadar Malhotra, MacKenzie Scott, and Melinda French Gates, teamed up with Co-Impact to launch a $1 billion gender fund to advance gender equality and women’s leadership.

The initiative has already received attention from leading figures in the African gender and political space, including former First Lady of South Africa and Mozambique Graca Machel, and Kenyan gender equality advocate and media personality Janet Mbugua.

With this latest collaboration, APF, which operates as a close-knit community of partners who foster shared prosperity on the African continent through strategic giving, investments, and influence, will join forces with Masiyiwa to break down barriers to gender inequality across the continent.

Given the current state of gender parity in Africa, initiatives like the AGI are desperately needed. The McKinsey Global Institute determined that progress toward gender equality was stalling in Africa, while a recent World Economic Forum revealed that gender parity in Africa was now nearly 100 years away due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As its first activity, the AGI will raise $50 million to support the Co-Impact Gender Fund’s efforts on the African continent, particularly in Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal.