Kalena Global LLC is an advisory and consulting firm dedicated to optimizing the design of solutions in the social impact space. We partner with development partitioners, changemakers, and visionaries to ideate, design, and refine interventions to ensure that they empower individuals, uplift communities, and enable governments to move from surviving to thriving.
We design transformative knowledge products, services, and strategies that ignite insight, cultivate critical mindset shifts, and build the capabilities needed to create empowerment-centered and impactful interventions in the social impact space.
We believe that individuals with lived experiences hold the key to unlocking lasting solutions to development challenges. By honoring their resilience, understanding their needs, and co-designing interventions with them, we foster local ownership and self-agency. Our approach taps into the highest potential for transforming lives and communities, creating sustainable impact for generations to come.
The Audacity Process (T.A.P), developed by Kalena Global, is a unique four-step approach centered on empowerment that taps into human potential to uncover opportunities and craft enduring, impactful solutions to development challenges. This process enables intervention designers to tap into the innate potential of individuals, communities, and governments, empowering them to achieve self-actualization and drive meaningful change.
Our Story
Empowering People to Self-actualize
At Kalena Global, we believe in turning obstacles into opportunities by empowering individuals, communities, and governments to write their own stories of a brighter future. Our guiding belief is simple: every lasting solution begins with the audacity to empower those closest to the challenge. We recognize that those who have faced challenges hold the deepest insights needed to unlock real, sustainable change. This belief is anchored in the foundation of all that we do.
Kalena Global’s roots lie in a small village on the West African coast, where resilience was abundant, but resources were scarce. In that village, a young girl watched her father earn a life-changing scholarship made possible by development aid. She also saw her mother tap into her entrepreneurial spirit to make ends meet while her father was away. How are parents utilized and built on that opportunity opened doors that had once seemed impossibly distant for his family.
That girl is Edna Massay Kallon, now the founder and CEO of Kalena Global. Her story is more than personal—it’s a powerful example of the generational ripple effects that well-designed development interventions can spark. Inspired by her own experiences and over a decade of work in global development, Edna founded Kalena Global with a bold vision: to help development practitioners and agencies rethink how they design interventions—expanding their reach and deepening their impact by empowering individuals, strengthening communities, and equipping governments to thrive. This is the heart of Kalena Global.
What We Do
The Kalena Global Experience
Through thought leadership, practical tools, and strategic guidance, we empower development practitioners, changemakers, and visionaries to transcend the status quo and accelerate transformative, lasting change in the social impact space.
Advisory and consultancy
We offer four specialized design services to equip clients with actionable insights, strategic guidance, and practical tools. These services ignite meaningful discussions, inform decision-making, and inspire the creation of innovative solutions that turn challenges into opportunities for lasting impact.
Workshops
Developed by Kalena Global, The Audacity Process (T.A.P) provides a framework for development practitioners to design empowering and impactful interventions. Our workshops, held four times a year, provide actionable insights and tools to apply this transformative approach to real-world development challenges.
Audio experience
Audacity & Action is a podcast featuring bold conversations and transformative ideas in global development. Hosted by our CEO, it brings together visionary individuals who challenge the status quo and drive real change. This podcast inspires, empowers, and equips listeners to make a lasting impact.
Speaking engagements
We offer dynamic speaking engagements, including panel moderation, guest lectures, and keynote presentations on designing impactful interventions. Our goal is to inspire and inform audiences by leading meaningful discussions and sharing actionable strategies that drive transformative change.
“At Kalena Global, we thrive on navigating complexity to clarity, turning bottlenecks into breakthroughs, and challenges into opportunities. We’re committed to collaboratively designing innovative solutions that lead to lasting impact.”
CEO and Founder
Inspirations & Insights
Explore the Dynamics of Designing Innovative Solutions
Dive into our blog section where we dissect the significance of design-thinking in global development, unveil key design principles for innovative solutions, and provide exclusive insights on designing to empower impactful change.
An Interview with Edna Massay Kallon, CEO and Founder of Kalena Global LLC
In an insightful conversation with Edna Massay Kallon, the visionary behind Kalena Global, we delve into the mission, innovative approach, and unique experiences that shape Kalena Global's work in the design of innovative solutions within the global development space.
5 Essential Design Principles for Effective Global Development Initiatives
Discover the five key design principles essential for innovative global development initiatives. Learn how human-centered design, scalability, interdisciplinary collaboration, technology, and impact measurement can transform your projects.
Transforming Global Development: The Power of Design Thinking
Explore why design thinking is crucial for global development. Learn how this human-centered approach fosters innovative, sustainable solutions by emphasizing empathy, collaboration, and iterative problem-solving.
