The speakers at 10 Downing Street included our host Sarah Brown, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Anne Aslett of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Dillon Woods of the Donald Woods Foundation (DWF) who each explained why they support the comprehensive services provided by DWF, all created with shared ownership by the residents in the Mbashe area of South Africa’s Eastern Cape. They believe as I do that only through an engaged, empowered multi-faceted approach do local communities achieve self-sustainability. I have learned over decades of work that whether you are a business, an NGO or a government when you follow the guidance of local leadership, help strengthen local capacity and collaboratively address problems from multiple angles, you can create sustainable success. DWF does exactly this very effectively. Afterwards at a dinner hosted by Barbara Follett, UK Minister of Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism we continued our dialogue on how to mobilize resources on behalf of true and lasting positive change. Please share your thoughts on what works and what doesn’t for in-depth transformative community development whether with your company, government or NGO.
Watch my brief video clips of some of the speaker, including Anne Aslett and Desmond Tutu:
