South Africa’s nonprofit sector is often praised for its resilience. It survived apartheid, helped build democracy, and continues to support millions of vulnerable citizens.

It’s a tense moment as the DGMT Innovation Fellowship’s eighth cohort prepares the final presentation they must make to a gathering of interested parties this Friday before they graduate.

This year’s World NGO Day 2026 had a theme “Restoring Dignity Through Inclusion,” this was an invitation rather than our normal reflection. It asked us to look closely at who is still left out, and what it would take to bring them meaningfully in.

Coming up to the home stretch of the DGMT Innovation Fellowship’s 12-month programme, Cohort 8 were much in need of a moment to pause.

For years, leadership development programs have operated under the implicit assumption that by your mid-thirties, your leadership trajectory should be clear.

A big part of our work at the DGMT Innovation Fellowship is reflection, and as 2025 comes to an end we look back on an incredibly energising journey.

As we met again in Immersion 2 with a cohort of Fellows who really did not know how deep their learning would go, we discovered a group of young leaders in the NGO sector grappling with the ripple effect that asking questions about innovation can bring to an organisation.

A question my esteemed implementing partner leaders and, I have wrestled with is this: how do we continue to show up as change agents in GBV prevention and response, even when the tide of ending violence feels impossible to reach?

Today, on International Men’s Day, we wanted to honour the kind of male leadership that deserves to be seen.

October is Mental Health Awareness Month and is meant to serve as period focused on promoting understanding around mental health issues and to also challenge the stigma surrounding mental health.