amandla.mobi has been at the forefront of challenging the status quo within civil society, activism and development. We drove the mainstreaming of the idea that to create systemic change, we need to equip those most impacted by injustice with the tools they need to influence the decisions that impact their lives. The six principles below show how we practice our values.
Amandla, from the anti-apartheid rallying cry Amandla Awethu, means power to the people. By mobilising in large numbers we build people-power through petitions, public comments, demonstrations and other tactics. Mobilising our members and collaborating with progressive civil society makes it hard for decision-makers to ignore us.
Marginalised people, especially Black women from low-income backgrounds, are seen as voiceless. In reality, we are often leading struggles for justice. We invest in and work to resource community organisers to win campaigns. When the lives of the most marginalised improve, so do everyone else's.
The lived experience of being marginalised makes us experts in identifying the root cause of a problem and sustainable solutions. By fixing the broken feedback loop between those in power, and those most impacted by their decisions, we help to drive good governance by ensuring we have a seat at the decision-making table.
We’ve turned every mobile phone into a democracy building tool. By constantly testing and innovating, we have built inclusive civic tech tools that bridge the digital divide. No matter where someone lives, what language they speak, or what issue they care about, we can mobilise people at scale to run winning campaigns.
To ensure we are independent and non-partisan, we don’t take funding from those we seek to hold to account, such as our government or corporations directly. We have earnt the trust of our movement, partners and the marginalised by getting our facts right, prioritising our members issues and staying true to our mission.
We are constantly working to maximise our impact by using our resources and time effectively. We seize opportunities, persevere through adversity, embrace failures as lessons and take responsibility. Through evaluations and learning, we are refining our campaign model to pursue exponential impact at scale.
