Community proposes
Every project starts with a village assembly. Communities prioritise their own needs — we never arrive with a pre-made shopping list of interventions.
Community Development
The work the community asks for.
A child only thrives when the village around them thrives. Our community development arm funds water, sanitation, livelihoods and small infrastructure — but only projects that come from the community itself, governed by an elected village committee and matched by community labour.
184
Boreholes drilled
62
Village savings cooperatives
11k
Households with new sanitation
100%
Of projects locally governed
How the programme works on the ground.
Community co-funds in labour
We fund 80% of materials; communities contribute 20% in labour or cash. This single rule has reshaped what gets proposed — and what survives.
Community owns the asset
Every borehole, latrine block and savings cooperative is titled to the village committee, not to Agano. Maintenance budgets are funded by the community from year three onward.
Field story
"The borehole isn't an Agano borehole. It's our borehole. We chose where it goes. We dug the trench. We elected the committee that maintains it. That's why it'll still work in twenty years."
— Chief Mwala Banda · Salima District, Malawi
Where this runs today
- Kenya
- Uganda
- Tanzania
- Rwanda
- Malawi
- Zambia
- Ghana
- Senegal
- Burundi
- DR Congo
- Mozambique
Related programmes
Fund the the work the community asks for..
A monthly partnership keeps this programme running in fourteen African countries.