Who We Are
Africa Community Impact Organization is a non-profit non-government organization that works in different countries of Africa to impact the lives of people. It works in Kenya. It has changed lives for many in Africa. We partner with local, regional and International organizations, communities, the governments, sponsors, donors and corporates to help the most vulnerable children, women, to overcome poverty and enjoy life in all its fullness. With our advocacy work, we enable the voices of children, women and their communities to reach decision makers, who have power to change unjust policies and practices. We implement sustainable development projects in education, health, child protection, food security, economic empowerment, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene, environment protection, conflicts prevention and peace building.
Since the inception the organization has changed the lives for many disadvantaged children, women, disable people, poor families and local communities. Africa Community Impact Organization is a relief, and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, women, families and communities. We are dedicated to working with the Africa's most vulnerable people. ACIO is committed to improving the well-being of children, women, families and Communities in Africa. For over 9 years, we have served alongside the poor and oppressed in African countries especially Kenya.
We serve all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.
Technical experts
Africa Community Impact Organization leads on innovation and use of data, evidence, and technology for impact.
A data-driven organization
Africa Community Impact Organization is a learning organization based on data and evidence. Data informs our strategies, decisions, and behaviours. We are also committed to transparency, sharing our impact data and methodology publicly and in ways that facilitates sector-wide learning and debate.
A pioneer in the measurement of impact
We want to build on our position as one of the few multi-mandate NGOs that can explain our global contributions to the SDGs and use that learning to inform our programs and advocacy. To have timely data and learning, we intend to focus on our innovative use of cost-effective, appropriate, and accessible technology.
Gender expertise
Africa Community Impact Organization prioritizes the needs and rights of women and girls in all that we do. It reflects our practical approach to poverty alleviation, the specific technical expertise we’ve gained as a diverse global network, and it’s an important part of our identity as an organization founded on gender equality and women’s empowerment. We are well-known in the sector for our greater impact in advocating for gender equality and protecting the most vulnerable women and girls, as well as women and girls with disabilities.
Adaptable or flexible ways of working
We adjust organizational structure, processes, and systems to be more adaptable, agile, innovative, and risk-averse, particularly in support of humanitarian response and non-traditional partnerships. We demonstrate the impact we seek by incorporating feminist and social justice principles into our work practices. We incorporate accountability and transparency measures throughout our structure and systems. We use technology in our program delivery, working methods, and fundraising efforts, and we strive to reduce our carbon footprint in ways that ensure we are an environmentally just and climate responsible organization.
Partnership in the organization as a whole
Africa Community Impact Organization envisions a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice, in which poverty is eradicated and all people live in dignity and security. We put women and girls at the centre of our 2030 vision because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. Through six impact areas (Gender Equality; Humanitarian Action; Right to Food, Water, and Nutrition; Women’s Economic Justice; Right to Health; and Climate Justice), we hope to assist 300 families from the most vulnerable and excluded communities in overcoming poverty and social injustice. Africa Community Impact organization (ACIO), supports transforming the humanitarian sector by putting gender at the centre of our responses, ensuring conflict-sensitive community-led interventions, using market-based approaches that protect people’s dignity, and building resilience and social cohesion through our work in communities before, during, and after an emergency.
Values in humanitarian partnership
Africa Community Impact Organization (ACIO), believes that overcoming poverty and injustice, as well as saving lives during emergencies, can only be accomplished through the collaborative efforts of many actors. ACIO has long advocated for collaborating with local organizations and institutions in both humanitarian and development settings to strengthen local capacity and ownership. Similarly, when responding to emergencies, ACIO increasingly collaborates with local actors as partners, recognizing that this approach addresses the immediate needs of the affected population while also achieving greater impact and scale.
Africa Community Impact Organization’s global vision and mission are founded on collaboration. We aspire to be the preferred partner for governments, civil society organizations, social movements, the private sector, and donors seeking long-term solutions to poverty and social injustice. We can achieve more, have a greater impact, and do so in more cost-effective, inclusive, and sustainable ways when we maximize the potential of various types of partnerships.
Africa Community Impact Organization (ACIO), recognizes that partners are not a homogenous group and that we have diverse relationships with a variety of different types of partners. Within the larger Partnership conversation, localising aid has emerged as a critical pillar of the humanitarian reforms adopted at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS). It calls for a more collaborative and equitable humanitarian system that relies on national and local leadership of humanitarian response, supplemented – not led – by international actors. ACIO’s data shows that when our activities are delivered predominantly through partners, our work is of a higher quality and significantly more impactful. ACIO engages with diverse partners in a variety of ways – both formal and informal. ACIO knows well the important role of a constantly evolving civil society in mobilising citizens, holding governments accountable for the progressive realisation of human rights, and identifying new solutions to injustice for scale-up, thereby contributing to lasting change.
A logical basis for Collaborating with and Empowering Women Leaders in Emergencies
There is a growing understanding that women’s participation in response leads to better outcomes for relief and post-conflict stability. Local women’s groups’ leadership in humanitarian action is increasingly seen as lifesaving. Local actors (CSOs, government) are often male-dominated and patriarchal in many contexts. This has a negative effect on the gender responsiveness of localized humanitarian action as well as the specific assistance and protection needs of women and girls. Separate funding for gender work in emergencies, particularly when directed to local women’s groups, has the potential to improve aid effectiveness.
Partnerships with women’s organizations are important to Africa Community Impact Organization, not only for its goal of strengthening gender equality and women’s voices, but also for transforming its own organizational culture in order to successfully deliver on its gender equality focus. While Africa Community Impact Organization collaborates with a variety of actors (including civil society, the private sector, and government), it recognizes the need to strengthen partnerships and more explicitly focus them on addressing the agency (capabilities and aspirations), structures (enabling environment), and relations (power dynamics) that lead to gender equality, as prescribed by its Gender Equality Framework. Africa Community Impact Organization has developed guidance to promote gender-sensitive partnerships. This tool assists staff to assess the interest and capacity of partners for gender-sensitive emergency programming and to promote gender-sensitive working relationships. Africa Community Impact Organization also invests in building strategic alliances at all levels (local, national, regional, global) to bring about broad systemic change towards more gender-accountable and gender-equitable humanitarian policy and practice.