Synergy of CSOs in Guinea: FON Promotes Cooperation for Global Impact

By: Aminata Ba, Farouck Adosso, and Rene Blami

Conakry, 25 June 2024

The FON team carried out a follow-up mission with the partners of the first cohort from June 19 to 27, 2024. The objectives of this mission were to meet with the first cohort of partners financed by FON since December 2023 to learn about their results and challenges, and to carry out practical capacity-building actions in monitoring-evaluation, reporting, administrative management and governance.

In addition to this visit, the FON team facilitated a meeting on Tuesday, June 25 from 9:00 to 11:30 to get to know each other and to exchange ideas with the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that FON has funded and those that are being considered for funding. This meeting was an opportunity for all of FON’s current and potential future partners to get to know each other, to explore avenues of collaboration and to start thinking about the development of an intersectional initiative in Guinea.

The meeting was attended by Afrique Arc-En Ciel Guinée, Initiatives des Jeunes pour le Bien-Etre de la Femme et de l’Enfant, Organisation de Secours aux Handicapés (OSH), Rassemblement des Jeunes Leaders de Guinée (RJLG), Solidarité  Suisse-Suisse-Guinée and Amazones de la Presse de Guinée, Femmes Développement et Droits Humains (F2DH), and Women of Africa Guinée as CSOs selected for the second round of funding.

The funded organisations first shared their missions and strategies as well as their experiences with FON. On this last point, the CSOs funded by FON thanked FON and IPPF for their support and flexibility. Mr. Bangaly Camara, Executive Director of OSH Guinée said: “FON is flexible and has even allowed us to take on project and core staff for their funding. It has also helped us to improve our working environment and tools. Thanks to this flexibility and tailored support, we have been able to mobilise other important sources of funding for OSH.

After presenting the CSOs, FON facilitated a consultation session on the need to create alliances between CSOs in order to carry out concerted and strategic actions, beyond awareness-raising and economic empowerment activities for people vulnerable to gender-based violence (GBV). The CSOs recognised the need to limit or even stop competition between CSOs and to form consortia in order to take into account the entire GBV management chain in Guinea.

Moussa Yero Bah, Founding President of F2DH, said: “We need to work together to have a greater impact”.

Ms Diariatiou Diallo, Administrative and Financial Manager of Amazones de la Presse Guinée, also emphasised the need to ensure the long-term future of feminist initiatives: “We have come here to reinforce the work of the State, and to do that we need to work with our government, both at central and local level, to ensure the continuity of our achievements.

As the icing on the cake, the CSOs present undertook to continue the discussions and to act in an intersectional manner in Guinea. Mr Iboun Conde, F2DH’s Administrative and Financial Manager, told us: “Let’s be pragmatic! F2DH will coordinate a meeting in its offices within 2 weeks, with all of you present, to launch the discussions and come up with a plan for intersectional collaboration”.

Together, we can go further in the fight against gender-based violence!