Indigenous Learning and Leadership Bridges Persistent Gap
Updated: 3h
Across Panama, Indigenous communities work daily to protect and restore their forests, biodiversity, and culture. Indigenous-led organizations like the Fundación para el Desarrollo del Pueblo Wounaan (FUNDEPW) and the Wounaan National Congress are critical to achieving these goals. Yet, their capacity to sustain their mission is precarious. After 20 years, the FUNDEPW’s capacity to manage funds is strong, but its capacity to raise funds is weak. If Native Future stopped supporting the FUNDEPW’s vital work today, they would have to close their office doors.
Native Future has launched the Learning and Leadership Program to help address this persistent gap in on-the-ground capacity of Indigenous partners. Why does this gap exist? Project-based funding and concomitant overhead rates do not meet the training, technical assistance, and leadership development needs that build strong, sustainable Indigenous-led organizations.
Each partner’s needs are different. In 2027, we will support the FUNDEPW to develop and implement a fundraising strategy to diversify their revenue. In the Ngäbe Buglé Comarca district of Nürum, organizational development specialists will work with the newly formed Board of Directors of the Ngäbe Foundation for Ecological Development (FUDEN) - the first Indigenous-led non-profit organization in the region - to ensure the FUDEN has the management skills needed to succeed. And, the program will strengthen the capacity of Geo Indigena to provide their essential services to Indigenous communities.
The Learning and Leadership Program does not supplant other Native Future programs such as Land Rights or the Wounaan Bird Count. It strengthens the organizations carrying out those activities, helping them meet the Indigenous rights and biodiversity conservation objectives that we all share.
Indigenous Partners of the Learning and Leadership Program, 2027
FUDEN, the first Indigenous-led non-profit organization of the Nürüm District of the Ngäbe Buglé Comarca, is building an organization from the ground up to respond to the growing food insecurity climate change presents. Its Board is developing the skills and systems needed to effectively govern and lead a nonprofit organization.
The FUNDEPW and the nationally elected leaders of the Wounaan National Congress are key partners in the defense of seven untitled Wounaan communities and more than 50,000 hectares of forest. Yet, the FUNDEPW struggles to keep its office doors open, and employ the leadership needed to carry forward its work
Geo Indigena provides Indigenous communities with essential mapping, geographic information, and visualization services. Its work extends across more than 500,000 hectares in the Darién alone. Their technical skills are in high demand; but its small team needs greater organizational and administrative capacity to respond.
The Learning and Leadership Program strengthens Indigenous organizations to sustain their missions, meet the needs of their people, and therefore, supports their self-determination.
