Event Hosting and Curation
Ford Foundations: Learning Journey for “Small BUILD” programme
New Silk Roads is facilitating a multi-year, participatory learning journey for the civil society organisations in the Ford Foundation’s Small BUILD programme. This role includes designing learning processes at organisational, cohort, and ecosystem levels and facilitating these processes through tailored coaching, collective sense-making, and full group convenings (in person and online).
Within the learning journey, our team also surfaces practice-based insights through documentation, convenings, and cross-ecosystem exchange. We then translate these organisations’ reflections into accessible knowledge. The result is to strengthen participating organisations’ internal learning cultures and surface actionable recommendations for funders and systems-change practitioners.
Fondation Botnar : Learning Partner and Community of Practice
New Silk Roads is designing and managing a global community of practice for Fondation Botnar’s Fit4Future programme, connecting partners across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. This member-driven community of practice is designed to foster knowledge exchange around leveraging digital technologies to promote young people’s wellbeing, inclusion, and collective agency.
Our role includes activating the member-driven design process for the community of practice, facilitating learning activities, and organising regional and global meetups for community members.
The Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT)
As a consortium member of the Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT), New Silk Roads supported CFJT partners through proposal development support, partnership building, and an intensive fundraising coaching programme.
We also developed a corresponding online course, tailored for green sector startups and scaleups, to increase access to non-commercial funding and blended finance. Through our support, these businesses raised €2.5 million in additional funding to pioneer localised green sector solutions in the MENA region.
Green Growth Summit
New Silk Roads initiated and launched the Green Growth Summit (GGS) in Tunis (2024) and Cairo (2024, 2025). A regional learning platform, the GGS transformed lessons from early movers in the green economy into actionable insights to localise and accelerate regenerative economies.
Across three editions, the GGS convened 600+ green transition frontrunners, facilitated South–South collaboration between entrepreneurs and Africa-focused climate funds, raised awareness on green sector impact investing, and created a donor task force in Tunisia focused on the green economy.
New Silk Roads also raised an additional ~100K EUR in sponsorship to expand the summits’ reach and impact.
Philea: Evolving Practices of International Cooperation Peer Learning Journey
New Silk Roads facilitated a two-year peer learning journey on international cooperation for the Funders International Network for Development (FIND) member community.
Our role included co-developing the learning journey blueprint and facilitating interactive online deep dives alongside an in-person meeting in Brussels. The peer learning journey explored topics such as locally-led development, innovative funding instruments, and collaborations with African philanthropy, with New Silk Roads curating speakers and producing an interactive digital knowledge product.
Hivos Learning Events
Since 2013, we have organised a range of learning events for Hivos program teams and their partners. This included gatherings for partners in Tunis and Djerba, a post-COP27 event in Sinai, Egypt, and a learning event in the Hague in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These events brought together a variety of Hivos partners, including climate justice organisations, business support organisations, investors, creative hubs, and universities across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Our role encompassed event management and logistics, curation of speakers, facilitation and moderations of panels, and documenting key learning outcomes.