Bujumbura, Burundi | August 2026
The Association Burundaise pour le Développement, la Démocratie et les Droits Humains (AB3D) has joined Catalyst Now, a global community bringing together changemakers committed to social innovation, collaboration, and systemic change.
For AB3D, joining Catalyst Now is more than becoming part of a global network. It is an opportunity to learn, share experiences, build meaningful connections, and develop partnerships with organizations and individuals working to address complex social and environmental challenges.
This new membership comes at an important moment in AB3D’s development as the organization continues to strengthen its work in Burundi while expanding its engagement with regional and global networks.
Connecting Local Experience with Global Learning
The challenges facing communities today are increasingly interconnected. Climate change, democratic governance, youth participation, social inclusion, human rights, and community resilience cannot always be addressed through isolated interventions.
They require new ways of thinking, stronger collaboration, and solutions that respond to local realities while creating opportunities for broader systemic change.
This is where AB3D sees particular value in Catalyst Now.
Through the community, AB3D will have opportunities to exchange experiences with social innovators and changemakers from different parts of the world, learn from approaches that have demonstrated impact, and contribute its own experience from Burundi.
For AB3D, social innovation is not simply about creating something new. It is about understanding real community needs, bringing people together, testing practical solutions, learning from experience, and finding better ways to create lasting change.
Bringing Burundi’s Perspective to Global Conversations
Since its establishment, AB3D has worked to promote inclusive development, democratic governance, human rights, climate action, and youth empowerment in Burundi.
Its initiatives have sought to create spaces where citizens, young people, community actors, and other stakeholders can participate in identifying challenges and developing solutions.
Joining Catalyst Now provides AB3D with an opportunity to bring these local experiences into wider international conversations on social innovation and systemic change.
Burundi’s experience offers valuable lessons about community-led action, particularly in contexts where organizations and communities often have to develop creative solutions with limited resources.
At the same time, AB3D recognizes the importance of learning from experiences elsewhere. Ideas developed in other countries and communities can offer useful perspectives that can be adapted to the Burundian context.
This two-way exchange, sharing local knowledge while learning from global experience, will be an important part of AB3D’s engagement with the Catalyst Now community.
Putting Young People and Communities at the Center
Young people are central to AB3D’s vision for sustainable development.
As a significant part of Burundi’s population, young people have an important role to play in shaping their communities and contributing to the country’s future. AB3D therefore seeks to create opportunities for young people to participate, lead initiatives, develop solutions, and engage in public and community life.
The organization also believes that communities should not be viewed simply as beneficiaries of development projects.
They should be active partners in defining priorities, designing solutions, implementing initiatives, and assessing results.
This principle is at the heart of AB3D’s approach. Sustainable change is more likely to emerge when people are involved in shaping the solutions that affect their own lives.
Building New Partnerships
AB3D also sees Catalyst Now as an opportunity to develop new relationships with social innovators, civil society organizations, youth networks, researchers, institutions, and other actors working for positive social change.
These connections can create opportunities for peer learning, joint initiatives, knowledge exchange, innovation, and collaboration around shared challenges.
For AB3D, the value of a global network is not simply in being connected. It is in turning connections into meaningful collaboration and collaboration into practical impact.
The organization therefore looks forward to actively contributing to the Catalyst Now community while exploring opportunities to work with other members on initiatives that can benefit communities in Burundi and beyond.
From Local Action to Systemic Change
AB3D’s experience has reinforced an important lesson. Local initiatives can contribute to broader change when communities are empowered, experiences are shared, and successful approaches are connected to wider networks and decision-making spaces.
Through its engagement with Catalyst Now, AB3D hopes to strengthen this connection between local action and systemic change.
The organization will continue working at the community level while contributing to broader discussions about innovative approaches to governance, climate action, youth participation, human rights, and inclusive development.
From Burundi, AB3D aims to bring the realities and lessons of local communities into global conversations and to bring relevant global learning back to the communities it serves.
A New Chapter for AB3D
Joining Catalyst Now marks another step in AB3D’s journey as a growing Burundian civil society organization committed to innovation, collaboration, and sustainable impact.
The organization will continue investing in locally driven initiatives while strengthening relationships with national, regional, and international partners who share a commitment to building more inclusive, participatory, and resilient societies.
For AB3D, this new chapter is about more than expanding its network. It is about creating new spaces for learning, new partnerships for action, and new possibilities for impact.
From Burundi to the global community, AB3D is ready to contribute, learn, and collaborate.
Together, local solutions can become part of a wider movement for lasting systemic change.
About AB3D
AB3D is a Burundian civil society organization working to advance inclusive development, democratic governance, human rights, climate action, and youth empowerment.
Through community-based initiatives, partnerships, research, advocacy, and participatory approaches, AB3D works to strengthen the capacity of citizens and communities to become active contributors to the changes they want to see.