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Chilande Kuloba-Warria
Founder and CEO, Warande Advisory Foundation
Chilande Kuloba-Warria is a respected development leader with over two decades of experience working across Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen the effectiveness, sustainability, and resilience of civil society organizations (CSOs). She is the Founder and Managing Director of the Warande Advisory Centre (WAC) and Co-founder of the Local Coalition Accelerator (LCA); two initiatives at the forefront of driving community-powered, locally-led development. Chilande’s work centers on shifting power dynamics in the global development and humanitarian sectors. She is a passionate advocate for equitable partnerships, trust-based philanthropy, and multistakeholder collaboration. Through both WAC and LCA, she supports local actors to take up leadership roles in shaping their development priorities, building institutions that are not only technically sound but rooted in the lived realities and aspirations of their communities. At Warande Advisory Centre, she leads a team providing strategic guidance, technical support, and capacity strengthening to CSOs navigating increasingly complex funding and political environments. Her focus spans organizational development, leadership, governance, and resource mobilization. Chilande’s approach emphasizes institutional resilience—ensuring that CSOs are equipped not just to survive, but to thrive and lead systemic change from within. Through the Local Coalition Accelerator, she plays a key role in supporting coalitions of grassroots organizations to work collectively, influence policy, and mobilize local and global resources. The LCA model fosters cross-sector alliances and uplifts locally-rooted innovation, enabling organizations to act in solidarity while addressing the structural and practical barriers that often limit collective action. Chilande is also known for her thought leadership on ethical storytelling, dynamic accountability, and reimagining power in the philanthropic ecosystem. She regularly contributes to national and international dialogues on localization, decolonizing aid, and the need to reframe development narratives. Her facilitation style is deeply relational and values-driven, creating reflective spaces where civil society, donors, and communities can grapple with complexity and co-create solutions. Over the years, Chilande has provided strategic support to organizations in more than a dozen countries including Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Rwanda. Her regional insights are enriched by global engagements with donors, INGOs, and multilateral actors, positioning her as a bridge-builder across contexts. Her leadership has been instrumental in shaping programs that center African agency and prioritize sustainability, even in highly constrained civic spaces. She believes that real transformation occurs when communities are not only consulted but entrusted as architects of their own futures. Her work is rooted in humility, trust, and a deep commitment to justice; championing the idea that local solutions, when properly resourced and respected, have the power to deliver lasting, systemic change. As development paradigms continue to shift, Chilande remains steadfast in her mission: to restore the sovereignty, dignity, and prosperity of Global South communities by strengthening their institutions, amplifying their voices, and disrupting systems that no longer serve.
