Our country director, Mr. Srikanta Misra, recently attended ActionAid’s Building Collective Leadership in Uncertain Times workshop in Dakar, Senegal.

 The gathering brought together more than 50 members of ActionAid’s leadership community, including Country Directors, Global Secretariat leadership, and members of the International Board, to reflect, learn, engage externally, and make collective decisions to strengthen ActionAid’s impact as a federation.

Throughout the week, participants explored the realities facing communities such as civic space shrinks, anti-rights movements grow, humanitarian crises deepen, aid budgets decline, and economic pressures increase. Across sessions such as the Women’s Directors Forum, community visits, external engagement, and the Directors Forum, participants returned to two central questions: how to strengthen people’s power through feminist alternatives and social justice, and how to ensure ActionAid builds the systems, culture, accountability, and collective leadership needed to deliver sustainable change.

Participants also visited communities in Senegal’s Saloum Islands to engage directly with ActionAid Senegal’s work on agroecology, women’s economic empowerment, and local leadership. Hearing firsthand about the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, migration pressures, and economic insecurity reinforced the importance of community organizing, local knowledge, and long-term accompaniment. It also highlighted why agroecology remains a strategic priority across many parts of the federation.

As ActionAid Senegal marked 50 years of impact, ActionAid Senegal and West Africa colleagues hosted a landmark Demo Day in Dakar. Leaders, funders, UN representatives, the diplomatic corps, private sector partners, and community allies came together to share inspiring stories of resilience, feminist leadership, youth engagement, and climate justice, strengthening opportunities for future collaboration and programme growth.

Finally, the Directors Forum focused on accountability, decolonization, and strategic direction, including shared priorities around governance, safeguarding, financial sustainability, programme quality, and cross-country collaboration. We will carry forward key commitments to strengthen women’s and feminist forums, renew ActionAid’s commitment to women’s rights, and develop bold multi-country initiatives rooted in agroecology, energy justice, and young women’s leadership