1- Preamble

1.1. The Award «Harubuntu for people who carry the hope and who create the wealth in Africa» was created in 2005 at the Palais d'Egmont in Brussels. This creation came following an initiative by the Partnership for Municipal Development (Partenariat pour le Développement Municipal) and the Belgian NGO Echos Communication on the theme of “New relationships with Africa for creating the wealth together”. At that event, the medias and the institutions for international cooperation found a new and a positive Africa; one not scrambling neither in wars, in famines, and nor in corruption. It appeared, however, at the end of the colloquium that there was no way for promoting this positive Africa. Therefore, this subject continued in 2006 in a workshop with the medias at the Summit of “Africities IV” for the local African collectivities in Nairobi, Kenya.

1.2. There came the idea to create an event with medias for showing, yearly, an Africa in motion. At the same time, the event was to present Africans who make the continent move and the way they (these Africans) bear the values and draw the perspectives that one can put at the service of the Humanity. The option of a competition with some Awards to winners came in because of its power mobilize people. It was then given the name of Harubuntu. This word from the Kirundi language, which is spoken in Burundi, is composed of two terms: hari and ubuntu. In the said language Kirundi, these two terms mean, respectively, there is and manhood in the sense of humanity. Harubuntu leads then to the sense of mankind and describes the humanity which exists in a human kind; it defines the wisdom and the charity of every person. Ubuntu is therefore an objective that people will permanently follow; it is a fact which makes the solidarity a reality for a mutual comfort of all people. For us, "Harubuntu" means "here lies a human value". It highlights the values which lead the pride in humankind where an emphasis is put on the local and the global character that it covers. This is where stands the core value of the Harubuntu Award.

1.3. Harubuntu supports an idea that the whole World, not Africa alone therefore, faces different challenges; take individualism, increment of inequalities, financial imbalance in the World, threats for the Environment and poor governance.

1.4. Harubuntu is a demonstration that, for any sort of challenge, Africa and its people Can profoundly contribute, like any other people in the World, with solutions that are profitable to the whole World. This is possible through a promotion of individual talents. And in this sense, Harubuntu shows how the contribution of Africa and Africans to the development of the Humanity is tremendous to elaborate universal values.

1.5. All communities in the World are now engaged in cooperation and put an emphasis On the results. But this discriminates the beneficiaries from the actors of the cooperation. Harubuntu promotes the expression of the capability of each person and the impact it can produce on her/his milieu. That is where lies the efficiency of an ubuntu which is sustainable.

1.6. We live in a bipolar World where a tension between the "I" of a personal dimension, and WE of the society grows. Harubuntu acknowledges a person as a multidimensional figure and it defines her/him in a plural form. Harubuntu supports that the development of people goes takes its roots in communities and vice versa because a society is a place where people create and build; being themselves built at the same time.

1.7. Harubuntu is interested in people who carry sound projects. These initiatives have then to value the capability of people in their communities.

1.8. People and their projects are rooted in a social context with explicit boundaries. And, as a space which evolves in a network of contacts it (this space) defines a community of people who create their projects and who grow in their own culture. Harubuntu supports projects and people who shape them (projects) as a link between their own development and the development of their territories.

2- Fundamentals

2.1. Harubuntu finds its inspiration in Ubuntu as a concept to creates and maintain the balance of I am because you are. « Even being a creator or a facilitator, I understand that I have to share the same boat as the person that I support. I introspect myself for accepting her/him knowing our mutual weaknesses and strength. I understand that the person that I support can pick me when I fall down».

2.2. In each person lies a capability in standby as a major source of development for the human beings and for their communities. Releasing such a capability stimulates other people to create the wealth. Therefore, Harubuntu supports all initiatives which aimed at triggering local capabilities to work.

2.3. The secret lies in normal people who create new things. That is why talented people can stimulate talented communities to show up and to release their synergies and put them at the service of local development. Harubuntu celebrates therefore people who innovate, not only for their own profit(s), but also for the profit of the whole community.

2.4. The Humanity is built on the difference between women and men. The unicity of each person contributes to enrich the World. That is why Harubuntu backs the diversity, the complexity and the uniqueness.

2.5. Wealth is only a fact in places where people live. Wellness results from hard working and from investment that people make, not only to create it, but also to sustain it. That is why Harubuntu supports the territory, and the common sense for life, and the local. Harubuntu promotes the local with a link to the global. It encourages initiatives for a site and synergies between sites.

2.6. There is no standard for understanding the World. Harubuntu projects to change the relationship between Africa and the World, and vice versa. This is possible by changing the regard towards other people, and through a dismissal of prejudges and in skipping situations where a person would see the other as her/his own self.

2.7. For Harubuntu, non material needs are as important as the material ones. The satisfaction of the former empowers people to respond to the latter.

2.8. Harubuntu works in three dimensions that include persons, their projects and the transformation that each action and or attitude can trigger in a society.

2.9. Harubuntu stands on the three following principles:

1. person-oriented development,
2. taking the person on what she/he is able to do and not on her/his weak points,
3. giving a chance to people and their communities to express their views on development.

3- Objectives

3.1. Changing the regard. Changing the regard of oneself and that of other people through the capability of Ubuntu, restoring oneself and combining one’s efforts with others’ for exploiting mutual talents to achieve one’s development.

3.2. Dismissing prejudges: getting off clichés that a person can develop towards another.

3.3. Changing the image of Africa (genocides, famines, poverty, …) Presenting an african continent in motion because it succeeds, it solves its own problems, and it innovates, … presenting a continent with talented people, … an attractive Africa.

3.4. Transforming the relationship between the south and the north: moving beyond the vision/relation of developer donor / developed receiver. Meeting other people because their assets lie in their differences.

3.5. Support Africans who innovate.

3.6. Give a value to capabilities in standby in each person. Help people discover their talents and encourage them to stimulate a release of others’ talents.

3.7. Activate the synergies in people and stimulate them for the creation of the wealth. That is how the capabilities of a person can trigger the creativity of other people and put them in activity for their own benefit but also for that (benefit) of their communities.