Zambia's data points to a civil society sector that remains highly committed and adaptive. However, the important thing to note is that civil society is operating within an increasingly uncertain resource environment. Organisations are facing growing demand for their services while at the same time struggling with limited funding diversification and a heavy reliance on restricted and externally sourced funding, thereby negatively impacting their financial sustainability.

At the same time, data suggests that important domestic resource relationships remain underdeveloped, particularly with businesses, individual donors, the wider public and government. This reinforces the need to think beyond traditional grant funding and move towards a broader understanding of resources that include local giving, earned income, skills, networks, assets, and partnerships.

The findings also show that the challenge is not simply about the availability of resources, but also organisations' ability to access and convert them into long-term resilience. The data also suggests relatively strong collaboration within civil society. Nevertheless, many still struggle with the practical conditions needed to build effective networks, including limited resources, few networking opportunities, and geographical or digital barriers. Significantly, organisations are also asking funders to play a wider role by facilitating connections, strengthening teams, supporting leadership and strategy, and sharing learning. This closely reflects Zambian Governance Foundation's (ZGF) own experience that sustainable civil society requires more than funding alone. It requires capable organisations, stronger relationships, and an enabling ecosystem in which resources can move more easily to where they are needed.

For ZGF, these findings strengthen the case for approaches that place local agency, resource diversification and ecosystem-building at the centre of civil society support. Through our work with civil society organisations and communities, we continue to see that Zambia is not resource-poor. Communities and organisations hold knowledge, skills, relationships, assets and collective capacity that are often overlooked because they sit outside conventional funding models. The opportunity is, therefore, to help civil society identify and mobilise these resources, build stronger connections with different actors, and reduce vulnerability to any single source of funding. In this way, resource mobilisation becomes not only about raising more money, but about building greater resilience, ownership, and sustainability across the sector.