ABCG is moving into a new phase. We are building from past successes and developing a future for our organization that will allow us to achieve even more for the conservation of African biodiversity and remain a strong, sustainable organization.

For more than two decades, ABCG has leveraged the wide-ranging networks of its members to improve, scale, and replicate innovative and effective solutions to complex challenges across Africa. We foster collaboration among conservation and development actors to jointly address threats to biodiversity through cross-sectoral approaches that harness the power of collective impact. We also empower African stakeholders at all levels to develop and implement locally-grown solutions that collectively have the potential to bring about large-scale change.

Through a business planning process conducted in 2020, ABCG has refined its approach to coordination and practice, with an emphasis on a shared focus, targeting one biodiversity challenge at a time, and commitment to a multi-sectoral approach.

ABCG’s business planning process brought together key stakeholders to analyze our competitive advantage, explore governance needs, map a new approach to fundraising, and build a road map for additional partner engagement. The result is a better, more sustainable ABCG with a strategic approach highlighted by: 1) New emphasis on African leadership; 2) Adapting our governance structure to meet future needs; and 3) Fresh fundraising strategies to ensure we have the resources to achieve our goals.

As part of this critical process, we are working on increasing the participation of African leaders in defining priority biodiversity challenges and focusing on inclusiveness of African-led organizations. To this end, ABCG will be hosting a series of problem definition workshops with conservation leaders on June 2-3, 2021 across the continent to: 1) Identify the conservation and biodiversity issues that would most benefit from collective action; 2) Prioritize and provide recommendations for ABCG’s strategic focus; and 3) Identify synergies and create connections for expanding the coalition to include new members with a focus on African organizations.

This expanded coalition will capitalize on ABCG members’ combined strengths to deliver effective and sustainable, African-led solutions. ABCG is poised to tackle African conservation’s most intractable problems through enhanced collaboration at scale.

ABCG is also undergoing its own leadership transition, after over 5 years leading the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG), Rebecca Goodman will be stepping away from her role as Director in the coming months. Rebecca has joined the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) as Director of External Affairs for North America. During her tenure as ABCG’s Director, Rebecca drove vision setting, strategic planning, organizational performance measurement, and reinvention efforts. She shepherded program design and planning processes to define ABCG’s strategic direction, adopt an operational charter, and produce a long-term business plan. Under her leadership, the coalition defined the strategic priorities that will guide ABCG’s evolution and expansion, and support the sustainable growth of its partnership model in Africa.

This transition offers another opportunity for ABCG to assume the next stage in its evolution to become an African-led platform. We are excited about the future of ABCG.