Ntha Foundation Founder and Board Chair Nthanda Manduwi has completed the Rockefeller Foundation Big Bets Fellowship residency at the Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy, as part of the inaugural 2026 Africa cohort.
The residency, held from 24–28 August 2026, brought together fellows from the Africa and U.S. Big Bets cohorts for an intensive week focused on strengthening ambitious ideas, pressure-testing strategies, building partnerships and translating long-term visions into practical next steps.
Nthanda’s Big Bet builds on several years of work across the Ntha Foundation and Kwathu Kollective, particularly in digital skills, entrepreneurship, apprenticeship, agriculture, simulation and emerging technologies.
For the Foundation, the residency also offered an opportunity to revisit a question that has shaped much of our work with young people:
What happens after education?
Over the years, Ntha Foundation programmes have supported thousands of young people through digital-skills training, entrepreneurship, professional development and practical learning opportunities. As this work has evolved, so has our understanding of the challenge.
Access to education matters.
Skills matter.
Degrees matter.
But the next layer is competence: ensuring that young people can apply what they know inside productive organisations, businesses, industries and institutions.
This thinking is informing the continued development of two core human-capital pathways under Kwathu:
Nyenyezi, focused on entrepreneurship and venture-building, and M’mawa, focused on apprenticeship, professional execution and operations.
During the Bellagio residency, these programmes were considered within a wider architecture connecting universities, industry, simulation, agriculture, production and applied learning. One area now being explored is how the two pathways could eventually evolve into a university-partnered, degree-conferring model that combines formal education with practical experience and paid industry placements.
The residency also helped further connect this human-capital work to Kwathu Smart Innovation Farms [KSIF], where agriculture, engineering, simulation, IoT, robotics and systems thinking are increasingly being brought together as part of a wider approach to experiential learning.
The work remains in development, but the direction is becoming clearer:
Building competent people. Building productive systems. Creating value.
For a fuller reflection on what emerged from the Rockefeller Foundation Big Bets residency, how these programmes are beginning to connect, and what this means for the future of Kwathu’s work, read the full article on the Kwathu Kollective website.
Work With Us
Want to partner on or fund one of our programs / initiatives? We are always open to collaborations and partnerships. Contact our Founder; Ms. Nthanda Manduwi via contact@nthafoundation.org.
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