Introduction
The Graça Machel Trust (GMT) is a Pan African women’s rights, leadership and advocacy organization contributing to the socioeconomic development of the African continent. Our vision at the Graça Machel Trust is a prosperous Africa in which women and girls drive the inclusive social, political and economic transformation of the continent. We work to realize this vision by promoting and amplifying new and established visions and voices of African women and girls committed to the growth of prosperous and equitable African communities and nations. We influence governance and promote women’s contributions and leadership in the economic, social and political development of Africa, and advocate for the protection of adolescent girls’ rights and dignity. We elevate the holistic and integrated leadership agendas of women and adolescent girls to national, regional, continental and global levels.
Operating in 18 African countries with headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa and a satellite office in Nairobi, Kenya, our mission is guided by our Founder, Graça Machel’s passion and commitment to equity, care and justice for all.
Mrs. Machel is an African stateswoman whose decades long professional and public life is rooted in Mozambique’s struggle for self-rule, Africa’s journey to self-determination and equitable prosperity, and international advocacy for women and children’s rights. In its efforts to nurture and amplify African women’s leadership, the Graça Machel Trust serves as the custodian of Mrs. Graça Machel’s personal and professional legacy. The Trust is entrusted by its Board of Trustees to commemorate and preserve the legacy of our Founder.
Scope of work
The Trust requires the services of a professional production company to partner with, to produce a series of documentaries telling stories of African women who have made big, long-lasting impact in different sectors.
The rationale
The absence of robust stories of African women’s leadership in the public domain is a glaring omission in the global narrative, reflecting a historical pattern of marginalization and underrepresentation. Despite their significant contributions across various sectors, African women leaders have often been overshadowed by their male counterparts, or their stories have been selectively filtered through external lenses that fail to capture the full depth of their experiences. This absence not only erases the rich tapestry of African women’s leadership from the historical record, but also deprives future generations of the inspiration and lessons that these stories can offer. The Graça Machel Trust believes it is crucial for African women leaders to document their contributions and share their journeys of impact because these narratives serve as powerful tools of education, inspiration, and cultural preservation. By recording their personal and professional lives, African women leaders can reclaim their agency, ensuring that their voices are heard, and their experiences are acknowledged on their own terms. Moreover, sharing these stories of impact contributes to a more diverse and inclusive global narrative.
Scope
The Graça Machel Trust is curating a multimedia collection of Pan-African women thought-leaders, freedom fighters, innovators, and cultural custodians (collectively called stalwarts) who share their stories and those of their women heroes. This project acknowledges and pays homage to African women who have made significant contributions to humanity and educates audiences on their inspiring legacies of service.
The project will also see contemporary Pan-African women of both the continent and the diaspora who are in many ways descendants of Mrs. Machel’s generation who fought for freedom. The idea would be to link the younger generation’s freedoms to the sacrifices of previous ones and displaying an unleashed potential and a carrying of the baton forward. The content will feature African women and Afro-descendants alike to highlight the connections between Black Women’s stories globally as well as their mutual influence.
Format
This is envisioned as a docuseries of 35 to 45-minute episodes with each one focusing on one stalwart, her work, its impact at a country and global level, and some of the people it has directly influenced. This will be done through interviews, archival footage, and images as they reflect on key moments. In addition to this, experts and where possible, notable figures who were involved will substantiate with their thoughts to describe the resounding impact of these moments in their personal lives, fields and societies more widely, particularly over time.
To anchor the stories in the present and demonstrate the consequential nature of each of the stalwart’s work, each episode will feature one or two other people, ideally from a younger generation who have been meaningfully impacted by the stalwart’s work. Impact may be demonstrated in several ways: through inspiration, enacting systematic change, gaining confidence or any other aspect drawn upon by the younger person to navigate their lives differently, and change the world in their own way.
In instances where the younger inspired person stems from the same country as the stalwart their work will be featured in the episode and an in-person engagement with the stalwart will be shot as part of the episode. This will provide an opportunity for a deep intergenerational conversation that showcases remarkable people who have through their work, impacted many lives. It will also remind viewers the value of learning from each other.
An example of an intergenerational episode would be to feature Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and fellow Bajan international superstar and entrepreneur Rihanna – two generations of powerful women who have made waves in their respective fields and who have mutually inspired each other.
Meanwhile, a conversation between Mozambican Freedom Fighter and Human Rights Activist Graça Machel and American Political Activist and Philosopher Angela Davis would centre around how across continents, within the same generation, Black people globally were fighting for the same freedoms.
Approach
We’d like to first to do a pilot series with a few of our stalwarts to test the approach and be able to revise and fine tune the approach for the rest of the series. The rest of the series will have a combination of well-known and not so well-known stalwarts of different ages to create an inter-generational link as well as to use the fame of the well-known ones to draw attention to the ones less known.
Pilot
In 2025 we are embarking on the journey of testing the concept by producing a few episodes with a small group of stalwarts from across Africa with the hope of securing funding to produce the series in its entirety.
- Graça Machel (1945/Mozambique) – Freedom fighter in Mozambique and Minister of Education for 14 years. Founder of the Foundation for Community Development, Graça Machel Trust, co-Founder of The Elders; Girls Not Brides.
- Dr. Brigalia Bam (1933/ South Africa) – Writer and Activist, and former Africa Regional Secretary and Co-ordinator of the Women’s Workers’ Programme for the International Food and Allied Workers Association.
- Dr. Aïcha Bah Diallo (1942/ Guinea Conakry) – Former Minister of Education and Chair of the Global Partnership for Education.
- Gertrude Mongella (1945/ Tanzania) – First President of the Pan-African parliament and was president of the African Union Commission from 2003 to 2008. She led the mobilisation of the world to change the narrative of women’s rights in preparation for the Beijing conference.
- Angelique Kidjo (1960/ Benin) – Award winning singer-songwriter and human rights activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.
- Theo Sowa (1957/ Ghana) – International Development Advisor, former CEO of African Women’s Development Fund.
The request
For an experienced production company that has a network or contacts across the continent to come onboard as production partner:
- To pitch a creative approach to the docuseries – the production company is welcome to propose very specific ways they would like to approach and package the content.
- To develop a budget to produce the pilot series – based on your creative approach and indicate an approximate timeframe that it would take to produce the pilot series.
- Please indicate your connection to broadcasters/VOD streamers on the continent/globally, if you have any.
Additional information for consideration
1. Creative Direction
- The production team should use their experience and creative skills propose the creative approach they would like to take with this project.
2. Filming Scope
- GMT will do the initial approach of the key subjects and confirm their participation in the project.
- Contact details will then be handed over to the production company who will schedule the shoots with the relevant people.
- The production company will be expected to do research to understand each of the subjects and find interesting storylines for each one of them.
- They will also be expected to research and suggest the younger people who could be paired with the older stalwarts
- The shoots are expected to be on location in each of the countries, hence the emphasis on companies that has production teams or partners or free lancers in other countries.
- The company can determine if the director is one person who will travel to the different countries to keep consistency in the story telling or choose another way of doing it.
3. Archival material
- The production company should allocate some of the budget for archival material relevant for each of the stories.
- The company will be expected to source and acquire usage rights/pay licence fees (covered by the production budget).
4. Language & Accessibility
- Interviews will be conducted in the language that the subjects are comfortable in.
- Subtitles will be required in English and two other languages, which will be determined by the region the subject is from.
5. Budget & responsibilities
- The budget should be all inclusive; research, production, subtitling, post, final mixing, voice over, travel, accommodation, archival content, etc.
- While it is hard to determine upfront, the production company has the option of adding a section for the marketing budget – it will not count against the company if it is included or not included. We suggest you have it as separate section so that does not bloat the core budget.
- GMT will source the funding for the project. If it so happens that the production company has access to finance and would like to partner with GMT, that can be proposed as well.
6. Distribution & rights
- GMT will own the intellectual property rights as we will have financed the whole project. This might be different if the financing model is different of course.
7. Pilot deliverables
- The pilot will have 6 episodes.
- Timelines and delivery will be determined by how soon the financing is finalised. The intention to do production in 2025.
Quote submission deadline: 29 June 2025, 9pm, SAST
For technical questions please contact: AsaniaA@gracamacheltrust.org
To apply for this job email your details to gmtcomms@gracamacheltrust.org
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