Hamilton, Georgina (2005) Philanthropy in Africa in the 21st Century. Nairobi: Ford Foundation
Report of the Ford Foundation Africa Philanthropy Initiative retreat, held in Jinja, Uganda in 2004.
Connie Ngondi-Houghton spoke about the history of philanthropic efforts in East Africa. Forms of philanthropic activity include those coming from entities that are:
· Community
· Corporate
· Individual
· Diasporic
· Other
Social justice philanthropy – bringing the language of philanthropy to a point where it is not simply assumed to be universal, but rather where efforts to jointly understand – between donor and recipient communities – what is being offered and what expectations exist.
Philanthropic entities must engage the “particularities of local experiences rather than developing or replication universal models.” (4) This is so because if local populations do not understand the philanthropic model being used, it is neither universal nor helpful.
Social Justice - Ford Foundation has begun a shift to support local foundations – presumably owing to the idea that local foundations are closer to local needs, and local foundations “get” local language/concepts of need.
Diasporic Philanthropy – Some interesting questions posed:
· Are remittances philanthropy?
· How can Ford Foundation better engage with diasporic communities to assist Africa?
· Would institutionalizing diaspora philanthropy cramp the already high levels of diaspora giving?
· Should the priorities of diaspora giving be led from Africa?
· “How can social justice philanthropy deal with constraints placed on it by the sate or deal with the apparent contradiction that philanthropy is in some ways a product of the state (e.g. through registration, regulation), but may fund activities that are critical of the state?”
· “Whose vision dictates the direction of philanthropy?”
This last two questions are of particular interest here as it seems the retreat participants see the State as potentially having an agenda that influences philanthropic activity, but there seems to be only an oblique reference (the final question listed here) to the agenda(s) with which Ford Foundation and other large philanthropic organizations engage their own efforts.
Things get quite a bit better on page 8, where small group discussions between retreat participants work to define the terms commonly found in discussions of philanthropic activity – including the term “philanthropy” itself.
Page 8: “It was also suggested that philanthropy was generally perceived to be a vertical process between rich and poor and did not necessarily encompass giving between poor people. Though philanthropy might support social justice agendas in Africa it was deemed by some to be supportive of a global status quo. One group suggested that voluntarism ought to be a component of the meaning of philanthropy.”
Discussed/debated terms
Endowment Grant Community
Social Solidarity Community Philanthropy Community-driven Development
Social justice Assets Community Foundation
Strategic Philanthropy Philanthropy Charity
A wonderful quote from Monica Mutuku, of the Kenya Community Development Fund:
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
This is great until someone dumps toxic waste in the river.
From http://www.synergos.org/globalgivingmatters/briefs/0307roundup.htm#1
Kenyans launch community development foundation
The Kenya Community Development Fund (KCDF) is gradually making its mark as a key grantmaker to Kenyan anti-poverty organizations. Originally a project of the Aga Khan Foundation, KCDF was registered in 2001 as a private company and is now headed by Monica Mutuku, who says the foundation will recruit middle and upper class Kenyans in both Kenya and the diaspora to support rural organizations and urban community development groups. The fund also actively encourages giving by less affluent communities by offering matching grants and philanthropy education. Mrs. Mutuku is a former official with UNICEF and the Nairobi city government who has extensive experience in micro-credit and related activities; she is currently also a Synergos Senior Fellow. KCDF aims to become Kenya's leading public philanthropic and development institution. (East African Standard, May 18, 2003)
The debate described beginning on page 14 concerns the chosen topic:
Engagement with corporate donors leads to a dilution of the social justice agenda
Reminiscent of recent revelations about (and subsequent changes to) Gates Foundation investments – that is, where their money gets made before it gets spent:
“Corporations are the cause of much of the world’s injustice. When we take their money, w give them influence over our selves.”
“Beware of the arrogance of exclusionist philanthropy and myth of “pure” social justice agenda. Who is pushing the ‘social justice’ agenda anyway? Are we sure that it is really coming from within?”
“Are there real differences between corporations and foundations whose wealth comes from investments in the private sector?”
“Does social justice dilute corporate profits?”
“Give laborers their due and they wouldn’t need donations from corporations. Instead, they end up doing the ‘dirty work’ of begging from corporates for what’s rightfully theirs.”
“As practitioners working in the field, we have to deal with the fact that if we don’t tap into corporate money we won’t have the funding sources to do our work.”
“To talk about social justice in a useful way, we need to clarify what the core values of the social justice movement actually are.”
“What is needed is a consensus on understanding ‘social responsibility.’ Many times, the assumptions on both sides are wrong. They need to be examined and a less ideological way found to frame the conversation.”
Does it make any difference that this debate appears to have taken place in English?
