{"id":5685,"date":"2022-12-16T21:29:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T21:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracamacheltrust.org\/?p=5685"},"modified":"2022-12-16T21:29:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T21:29:59","slug":"message-from-the-ceo-2022-a-year-of-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/featured\/message-from-the-ceo-2022-a-year-of-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Message from the CEO: 2022, A Year of Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gra\u00e7a

Melizsa Mugyenyi, Chief Executive Officer for the Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

At our core, we are an African-rooted organisation led by African women, who are co-creating solutions to some of the Continent\u2019s biggest challenges together with the communities we serve.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the years, we have continued to tackle structural barriers to change how public and private institutions address women, adolescent girls, and children\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2022 marked 12 years since our establishment, and the core of who we are remains steadfast. Our ambitions, however have grown exponentially, fuelled by the creativity and determination of the changemakers we are privileged to work alongside every day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This year, we deepened and expanded our impact across the breadth of our portfolio, and initiated an institutional transformation to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of our impact.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Economic Development<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the ecosystem level, our <\/strong>women\u2019s networks achieved collective impact across 7 countries, influencing private and public actors to adopt more gender inclusive COVID – 19 economic recovery responses. Convened in 2021, their efforts were reinforced by the\u00a0Expert Leaders Group<\/a>, which consists of influential women leaders within Reserve and Central Banks in Africa, who are driving systemic action towards the advancement of women\u2019s participation and inclusion in economies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recognizing the important role that women-owned businesses play in accelerating the economic and social advancement of their communities, we are working directly with\u00a0women entrepreneurs<\/a> in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa. Together we are tackling one of the biggest barriers to the growth of these women-owned businesses – access to finance – by strengthening their capacity to secure financing. \u00a0In further addressing this market failure, we generated commitments towards Afrishela, a gender lens investment fund which is poised to disrupt the investment landscape for Africa\u2019s women entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adolescent Girls, and Children<\/strong><\/h3>\n

2022 is also the year we pioneered the pan-African\u00a0Adolescent Girls Movement<\/a>, representing an innovative, new approach towards nurturing adolescent girls. Together with girls led and serving organizations, we have started in Southern Africa, and over the next few years, will ensure that all girls in Africa have a place and space to feel heard, nurtured and supported.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the area of education, we made significant progress around enabling out-of-school children – and in particular girls -to return into the classroom in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. This involved generating evidence in support of adapting and scaling an enhanced accelerated learning program for out-of-school children<\/a>, to facilitate the re-integration of out-of-school rural girls into mainstream education and improve their education outcomes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Institutional Transformation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are on an exciting growth trajectory, and an internal transformation is underway to effectively position us to redouble our efforts. Comprised of seasoned professionals, the diverse experience of our dynamic leadership team continues to shape this transformation. We are growing in number, and are onboarding a range of mission-critical positions to bolster our in-house expertise. If you\u2019re interested in joining us, please check out these openings<\/a> on our website!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This year, we commenced a strategy development process with the aim of re-focusing, improving our sustainability, and growing our influence. We critically evaluated what we are doing right, and the lessons learned. We grounded our thinking in our environment to better understand how the groups we serve, our peers, partners, sector thought leaders and wider public see us, where they perceive our added value and why.\u00a0We look forward to sharing more on our strategy in 2023!<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Thank you.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our year of transformation would not have been possible without our mission aligned community including our inspiring women\u2019s networks; trusted funders; learning and thought partners; and experts. Thank you to the dedicated Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust team, indefatigable Board of Trustees, and above all, the women, children, and adolescent girls we serve.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  At our core, we are an African-rooted organisation led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,81,95],"tags":[347],"class_list":["post-5685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-highlight","category-womens-economic-and-social-advancement-highlight","tag-melizsa-mugyenyi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}