CorpsAfrica

Liz Fanning, CorpsAfrica’s Founder and Executive Director, has more than 20 years of leadership, fundraising and marketing experience at non-profit organizations that focus on public education, community empowerment, environmental preservation, and international development. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer (Morocco 1993-95) in the High Atlas Mountains, where she lived in a small Berber village and worked on environmental sustainability projects. Liz has worked for a wide range of non-profit organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Schoolhouse Supplies and the Near East Foundation, and she has served on numerous Boards of Directors. Liz has a BA in Economics and History from Boston University and a Masters in Public Administration with a concentration in Finance from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. In 2019, she received the Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service from the National Peace Corps Association.

CorpsAfrica addresses the critical need for professional and personal growth opportunities across Africa by mobilizing young people to combat poverty and empower rural villagers through facilitating community-led development. CorpsAfrica gives bright, ambitious African men and women the opportunity to serve in their own countries or other African countries as “Volunteers” along the lines of the Peace Corps model. We believe that development efforts are most effective when we give local people at the community level the opportunity to identify what needs to be done and to take the lead in doing it. And we tap the idealism and energy of educated young people from those countries to make it happen, at the same time giving them the transformative experience of the Peace Corps, helping to shape their view of the world and their own future.

Africa currently has the youngest population in the world with 50% of the population under 34 years old. According to the World Bank, Africa's youth make up 60% of the unemployed population. Further, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the fastest growth in higher education in the last three decades – more than any other region in the world. With growing numbers of educated, young Africans and rising unemployment rates across the continent, there is a tremendous need for opportunities that give young people the chance to alleviate poverty and help their fellow citizens – there is so much untapped potential in countries that are in dire need of that potential. A shift toward African-led development can facilitate economic growth, local leadership, and African philanthropy that can break cycles of rural poverty, youth unemployment, and aid dependency across the continent. CorpsAfrica serves as a catalyst for this shift through local, yearlong opportunities for college-educated African youth to serve in rural, low-income communities in their own countries or other countries in Africa, along the lines of the Peace Corps model

CorpsAfrica builds on the enormous success of the Peace Corps by offering a similarly transformative experience to emerging leaders in Africa - giving them the chance to be a part of the solution for their own countries, which will lead to locally-led development and an engaged, empathetic workforce. Since 2013, CorpsAfrica has hosted hundreds of young Africans in Morocco, Senegal, Malawi and Rwanda, providing an experience we hope will revolutionize public service across Africa. These young volunteers apply their education, get outside their comfort zones, and learn to listen to the local people while building a foundation for a successful and purposeful career. CorpsAfrica Volunteers live in villages for an extended period of time. They eat what the local people eat, sleep where the local people sleep, and develop trust, friendship, and the understanding of poverty that only comes from living it. They learn about complex development issues by getting their hands dirty, solving problems, and building capacity. They facilitate projects that are identified by the local people to create more sustainable communities, build on local assets, and address community challenges around entrepreneurship, economic empowerment, water and sanitation, health, nutrition, education and literacy, climate change, infrastructure, agriculture, and much more. 

CorpsAfrica serves ambitious young Africans by giving them the opportunity to serve remote, high-poverty communities. Critical qualifications include humility, creativity, resourcefulness, flexibility, and integrity. Through a competitive process, we recruit college-educated young Africans with strong character and individual judgment who are able to quickly absorb information, follow a strict set of guidelines, figure out how their specific situation can best benefit from available resources, and make it all come together. We provide them with solid participatory development training, and send them to carefully selected villages in rural, high-poverty areas to listen to the local people and build local capacity to empower them to help themselves. 

CorpsAfrica also serves the highest poverty communities in Africa, placing well-trained CorpsAfrica Volunteers to live with them, listen to them, build their capacity, and help them implement a project that they identify.

CorpsAfrica is about inclusiveness and listening. By giving college-educated young Africans the opportunity to help their fellow citizens living in poverty, we are challenging the notion of the outside savior. Poverty is complex – what works in one community will not necessarily work in another. By engaging the local people and ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard, projects are locally owned, valued, and sustainable. Local people know best what they need. Because of their poverty, they are vulnerable. The Volunteers connect them to outside resources, help them understand new innovations, and mitigate risk.

When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, amazing young Moroccans used to ask me if they could do what I was doing - they'd say, 'I'm Moroccan, I want to help my country, can I be a Peace Corps Volunteer?' and I had to say, 'Sorry, it's only for Americans.' I started CorpsAfrica so they could have the same opportunity I did to learn, grow, and make an impact. 

To me, every problem in the world can be solved through CorpsAfrica. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The personal and professional benefits last a lifetime. In the CorpsAfrica model, that impact stays in the country – leveraging the impact of their service. “Shifting the power” from outside saviors to locals helping locals and promoting a culture of philanthropy in Africa is part of the long-term solution for Africa. It’s not just about the transformative experience for the Volunteers or the sustainable and capacity building projects they implement. CorpsAfrica promotes collaboration with other NGOs, which brings much-needed transparency and accountability to the sector. You can’t tell people what to do – you have to show them. CorpsAfrica gives young Africans the opportunity to be models of good citizenship, humility, and leadership.

My experience and connections as Peace Corps Volunteer are invaluable. I also have 25 years of experience as a professional fundraiser. But it’s not about me – it’s the CorpsAfrica Volunteers that are the ones that are well-positioned to deliver the projects. As children of Africa and future leaders, they deserve the opportunity to do just that.

The biggest challenge for me has been the rejection by potential funders. I find it hard to imagine anyone saying no to CorpsAfrica, but, surprisingly, it happens all the time, especially in the beginning. Tenacity is the only answer. I’ve learned to not take rejection personally and to follow up with a thank you and a commitment to try again later. Slowly but surely we’ve build the proof of concept they require. Even more important has been building the reputation – everything we do, no matter how small, we are being judged. Every success is about building on it for even bigger success. Every failure is about learning from it, sharing it, and thereby turning it into a success. This tenacity has become a part of the culture of CorpsAfrica – not just for our own success as an NGO, but for the Volunteers, for them to be successful in their own endeavors – during and after their CorpsAfrica service.

CorpsAfrica is about paying the Peace Corps forward. I benefited greatly from the experience. The best way I can pay that back is to pass the baton to deserving young Africans. That, in itself, is me serving as a model. One of our Volunteers in Morocco took it upon himself to pay CorpsAfrica forward. He became a teacher at an elite middle school in Casablanca and started “Junior CorpsAfrica,” linking his students to CorpsAfrica Volunteers in the field, helping with projects and inspiring them to serve one day. I especially love this project because I had nothing to do with it. That, to me, demonstrates CorpsAfrica’s success.