PAN-AFRICAN COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS NETWORK
Local Organisations. Continental Connections. Greater Impact.
PACON is a PAID-ESA initiative connecting credible community-based organisations, NGOs, civil society organisations and other grassroots development actors across Africa with a continental network for collaboration, research, capacity development, humanitarian action and development programming.
Global Standards. Local Knowledge. Community by Community.
Connecting Organisations. Strengthening Capacity. Building Partnerships. Delivering Impact.
The Pan-African Community Organisations Network (PACON) is more than a registry. It is a continental platform for partnership, collaboration, organisational learning and institutional capacity development, connecting credible community-based organisations, NGOs, civil society organisations, cooperatives and other locally rooted development actors across Africa.
PACON recognises that organisations closest to communities often possess exceptional local knowledge, trusted relationships and practical implementation experience. Yet many require stronger institutional systems, professional competencies, networks and access to knowledge in order to increase their effectiveness, sustainability and development impact.
PAID–ESA therefore seeks not only to identify local organisations, but progressively to strengthen and connect them.
A Network That Builds Institutional Capacity
Organisations within the PACON network may have access to institutional capacity-building opportunities organised or facilitated by PAID–ESA, according to identified needs and available programmes.
These may include capacity development in areas such as project and programme management, monitoring and evaluation, resource mobilisation and grants management, organisational governance, financial accountability, research and data management, safeguarding, strategic planning, digital transformation, leadership, humanitarian operations, climate resilience and other areas relevant to effective organisational performance.
The objective is simple: stronger organisations deliver stronger results for communities.
Institutional Scholarship Opportunities for Staff
As part of PAID–ESA's commitment to strengthening Africa's human and institutional capacity, eligible organisations within the PACON network may also be considered for PAID–ESA Institutional Scholarship opportunities for qualifying staff members wishing to pursue selected academic or professional programmes offered by the Institute.
Such opportunities are intended to help participating organisations progressively develop their internal human-resource capacity by enabling staff to acquire advanced knowledge and practical competencies relevant to their institutional responsibilities.
Scholarships will remain subject to eligibility criteria, programme availability, institutional scholarship policies and available places, and PACON registration itself does not automatically guarantee a scholarship.
A Platform for Partnership and Collaboration
PACON also provides a platform through which participating organisations can become more visible to one another and, where appropriate, explore partnerships, consortium development, joint project design, research collaboration, knowledge exchange, technical cooperation and community-level implementation opportunities.
PAID–ESA may facilitate connections between organisations where there is clear geographic, thematic or operational complementarity.
This creates the possibility of connecting:
Local Knowledge → Institutional Capacity → Partnerships → Resources & Expertise → Effective Delivery → Community Impact
Why Join PACON?
The value proposition should therefore become:
Register. Connect. Strengthen. Collaborate. Deliver.
Through PACON, organisations can make their local capacity visible, strengthen their institutional profile, access relevant capacity-building opportunities, connect with other African organisations and experts, explore collaborative opportunities, and potentially benefit from PAID–ESA Institutional Scholarships for eligible staff.
PACON is therefore being developed as a living Pan-African institutional ecosystem, rather than simply a database.
A Stronger Organisation. A Stronger Community. A Stronger Africa.
PAID–ESA believes that sustainable development must ultimately be people-centred and institutionally grounded. Africa's communities will be better served when the organisations working closest to them have the knowledge, systems, partnerships and professional competencies required to operate effectively and sustainably.
Through PACON, PAID–ESA seeks to contribute to building that capacity—community by community, organisation by organisation, across Africa
Frequently asked questions
Is it free to register?
Yes. There is no fee to register, to complete your profile, or to be listed and searched by partners, at any point.
Who can see our organisation's information?
What you complete for your public profile — your identity, where you work, what you do, and your verification level — is visible to partners searching PACON once you are listed. Internal notes, due-diligence records and reference details recorded by our team during verification are never shared with a searching partner.
We aren't formally registered yet. Can we still join?
Yes. PACON records your legal status honestly, including organisations that operate informally or are in the process of registering. It affects which verification level you can reach, not whether you can register at all.
How long does verification take?
It depends on how complete your profile and supporting documents are when you submit, and on how quickly references respond. There is no fixed queue position to buy — a complete submission moves faster than an incomplete one.
Can more than one person from our organisation manage the account?
Yes. PACON accounts belong to the organisation, not to one individual. Once registered, you can invite colleagues to the account with their own roles, so the profile doesn't depend on a single person.
What happens if our details change after we're listed?
You can update your profile at any time — a new operating area, an updated document, a change in availability. Substantive changes to a verified project or claim may be reviewed again before the tick is reinstated, so the verification stays meaningful.
Put Your Organisation on Africa's Community Partnership Map
Across Africa, thousands of organisations are already transforming communities through local knowledge, trusted relationships and practical action. PACON is building a stronger way to make that capacity visible. Register your organisation and create a structured profile of where you work, what you know and what you can deliver.