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About buntwani

Buntwani is Kiswahili for "Open Space" where elders from the Mijikenda communities in Kenya would sit in a circle under an indigenous tree to deliberate on strategic issues of their time. Sitting in a circle denoted equality and open participation.

Buntwani is our annual invite-only event where we bring CSOs, Funders, Government Officials at the national and subnational level together to have frank conversations that lead to collaborations and action on the issues prevailing. We have held Buntwani in various countries over the years including Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa.

This year, we are going to be hosting Buntwani as an entirely virtual event from the 16th to the 18th of November 2021. The way we are doing it is that we shall be hosting one 3-hour session on a specific topic each day.

Data for Development (Convened with World Bank)

The world is at the threshold of what has been called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Countries around the world are seeing advances in disruptive technologies and digital economies, which are occurring alongside shocks and mega-trends like the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, globalization, urbanization, and the rise of social media. This session will discuss these evolving requirements, share insights to tackle strategy development at the subnational level, and explore avenues for new and different forms of collaboration, capacity building and support, in particular to help facilitate data-driven decision-making and attendant constructive outcomes.

Putting Citizens at the centre of philanthropy decisions

This is an opportunity for funders and CSOs to come together and have frank discussions on the practical considerations and measures that need to be taken to strengthen development in local contexts. Considering that Africa is different from the rest of the world and that no two countries are alike, this would be a session that contributes thoughts on the strategies that should be funded/ supported and the principles that could guide future strategy.

In particular, the conversation would explore new funding models and measures for monitoring, evaluation and learning – and how those empower or disempower citizens from making development decisions.

High Level Forum on Data Governance

This Buntwani session on data governance in times of COVID-19 will bring together representatives from across the world. From global and regional standard-setting institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to members of the #RestoreDataRights initiative including Amnesty International Kenya, Paradigm Initiative, the Africa Digital Rights Hub (ADRH), and DataReady among others; the event will provide a forum in which both data use and data protection issues can be discussed openly and constructively.

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