May 2025
2 May 2025
April has been another energising month at Pharo Foundation, as we continue to build momentum through 2025.
A standout highlight was a promising meeting with the President of Somaliland, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi Cirro, and members of the government, supported by trustees Farah Jirdeh-Fonkenell and Guillaume. I also visited the Aroori Grazing Reserve, an extraordinary 20,000-hectare landscape where we are planning to restore degraded land, improve community resilience and model sustainable pastoralism, a project that captures the spirit of Pharo: long-term thinking, local leadership and ambitious impact.
Our teams have been advancing a major health investment proposal and, in Kenya, building out M3, a new venture with Ken Lee. Internally we launched Quarterly Business Reviews, driving financial-performance ownership at management level, and formally stood up our Operational Excellence Team. Across our countries we are moving forward with greater energy, clarity and unity than ever.
Onwards, Thomas Mason, CEO, Pharo Foundation
Afri-CAN: Evaluating impact, art or science?
How do philanthropic organisations know they are doing the good they set out to do? Experts from ForAfrika, iDE Mozambique and Pharo’s Ken Lee discuss effective impact assessment.
From farmer to country: value-added transformation
By Meseret Wodaje. How Pharo Ventures sources top-tier sesame, flaxseed, niger and black cumin directly from smallholder farmers, removing middlemen, providing agronomy support and adding value locally.
One roof in Somaliland
Following the same move in Ethiopia, 13 Pharo Ventures staff relocated into the Foundation’s Hargeisa office, encouraging cross-fertilisation of ideas across the non-profit and for-profit spectrum.