Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

African Library Project recognizes the complex legacy of colonial and post-colonial history in Africa, as well as the inequalities across communities in North America. The disparities resulting from discriminatory processes and policies in our shared history, particularly in the areas of access to education, literacy resources and learning opportunities, persist.

It is with an eye towards understanding how our work can begin to redress some aspects of these inequities that we have embarked on a process of reflection on our programs, how we work, our impact, as well as our position as a nonprofit based in the United States.  

Mindful of our interconnectedness and respecting the vast variety of life experiences our stakeholders have, African Library Project commits itself to honoring diversity, acting inclusively and advancing equity in all aspects of our organization and its work.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan

In 2021, the African Library Project Board of Directors, in collaboration with the Executive Director, began to develop a strategic plan to put this commitment into action.  As part of that process, we took stock of the needs of our organization, based on feedback from our Board members, operational volunteers and staff. Through extensive facilitated discussion at the Board level we resolved to identify, in partnership with the communities of which we are part, areas where we need to evolve our methodologies, create spaces for deeper discourse, engagement, innovation and action towards:

• Expanding diversity at all levels of the organization
• Creating more inclusive processes and opportunities for dialogue and joint program development with our African partners
• Diversifying library collections to include more African authors, literature and reference materials
• Establishing a “culture trust” to ensure that African Library Project programs and materials are culturally informed, appropriate and in harmony with the organization’s values and commitments
• Developing methodologies to monitor and evaluate our progress in these areas

Sustaining our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

African Library Project sees the work of pursuing equity, diversity and inclusion as a process of continuous and sustained effort to reflect, understand and act, as we evolve in a world in which we have a shared responsibility to work towards making these concepts into lived reality.