Mercy is an intersectional African feminist with a background in International Development, Gender justice and Feminist Philanthropy. Her work over the years has been premised on challenging systemic injustices to structurally excluded persons and building gender equal realities through participatory approaches and decentralized grantmaking.

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She supports different Feminist Funds across the globe to implement a shared and collaborative approach to Grant Making that shifts power from funders to local experts and communities, disrupting traditional grant making and management processes; towards a transformative and participatory approach to funding inclusive movements flexibly and sustainably, with a decolonial lens. Her work also contributes to strengthening movement narratives by supporting learning, knowledge exchange and collective sense-making that challenge dominant power structures and influence more equitable approaches to philanthropy and systems change work.

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With over 9 years of experience in women's rights advocacy, young feminist and queer movement building, she has contributed to advancing feminist funding practices and intentional conversations around Feminist Foreign Policy, while supporting narrative change that center’s the lived experiences, knowledge and leadership of communities. Her work focuses on ensuring that philanthropic resources are responsive, flexible and accountable to movement priorities, while thoughtfully navigating the risks and complexities of resourcing movements in constantly evolving political and social contexts.

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Additionally, she has been part of the co-creation and drafting of the German Feminist Foreign Development Policy as well as the Dutch Feminist Foreign Policy, elaborating broad civil society perspectives on how International Development Policies should look like, focusing on inclusion in general and specifically to women’s right, Gender Justice and Equality towards Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) 5.

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She’s passionate about purposefully and intentionally creating safe spaces for marginalized communities that encourage intergenerational learning and agency. Outside work, she loves to travel to new places and countries spontaneously, the ocean, sunsets, especially sunsets over the ocean, and daytime naps.