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IN THIS ISSUE WE FEATURE
LEARNING BRIEF 1
Spotlight on Obstetric Violence: Building a Compelling Argument for Social
Change
Obstetric violence (OV) refers to rights violations and abuses experienced by pregnant women and birthing people while accessing healthcare during pregnancy, labour, childbirth and in the postpartum period. This form of gender-based violence presents a significant threat to the global health of women and children. Embrace, South Africa’s first social movement for supported and celebrated motherhood, believes that the key to ending obstetric violence lies in elevating the voices and experiences of mothers. Even though several organisations have been working to highlight the prevalence and impact of obstetric violence, this issue was not part of mainstream discourse until recently. This learning brief looks at Embrace’s efforts to influence national maternity care policy, raising awareness about the prevalence of obstetric violence, and the urgent need for respectful maternity care in South Africa.
LEARNING BRIEF 2
Navigating change in complex social systems
Systemic change typically unfolds within complex social systems where interactions are dynamic and often unpredictable. Many of our most pressing social challenges – like poverty and climate change – stem from these large, intricate systems, making the path to meaningful change uncertain and non-linear. In these systems, behaviours and patterns are deeply ingrained. Unlike intervention-based programmes that focus on improving individual parts, systemic change involves understanding and shifting the interdependencies within the system. This approach requires identifying key actors, relationships, and patterns, and finding ways to leverage these elements to create lasting change. It’s about learning, adapting, and embracing complexity as the system evolves, rather than trying to eliminate it.By focusing on the bigger picture, practitioners of systemic change are more likely to trigger continuous, sustainable change. The ripple effects of such changes can help address inequalities, disrupt cycles of poverty, and spark transformation across various sectors. 14
LEARNING BRIEF 3
Funding Social Change Through Trust-based Funding
Community-based organisations (CBOs) are non-profits operating directly in communities, often with limited financial resources at their disposal. They tend to rely on volunteers, responsive to the unique needs of their community and often best placed to diagnose problems and identify solutions with residents. Many are financially excluded from mainstream grant funding because they operate in rural locations with limited visibility and recognition, and they don’t always have the administrative capacity to provide the financial, monitoring and compliance documents that traditional funders expect. Despite these constraints, they play a crucial role in grassroots development, community empowerment and creating sustainable social change.
DGMT is a South African public innovator through strategic investment. Our goal for South Africa is a flourishing people, economy and society. Towards this end DGMT currently distributes about R200 million per year and leverages and manages a similar amount of funding through joint ventures with other investors.
Through the newly rebranded edition of our Hands-on Learning publication, we hope to play a helpful role in synthesising information from innovators and implementers in civil society, supporting them to share what they have learnt so that others are able to draw from and build on their experiences.
Have you read our 2023-2027 strategy titled Escaping the Inequality Trap?
To build a thriving society, more people must have the knowledge, skills and opportunity to participate fully in society and the economy, for the good of one another, and in synergy with the environment. To escape the inequality trap in South Africa we set three goals and then identified practical opportunities to realise each goal. This framework guides everything we do.
We have identified ten opportunities that constitute some of the most profound twists to enable South Africa to escape the inequality trap. This is because we can’t keep tracing the same old pathways to development in South Africa. We need bold and decisive twists that get us out of the rut, give fresh perspective and create new opportunities.
OUR 2023-2027 STRATEGY
available at: dgmt.co.za/our-approach
SPOTLIGHT ON OBSTETRIC VIOLENCE: BUILDING A COMPELLING ARGUMENT FOR
SOCIAL CHANGE
Obstetric violence (OV) refers to rights violations and abuses experienced by pregnant women and birthing people1 while accessing healthcare during pregnancy, labour, childbirth and in the postpartum period. This form of gender-based violence presents a significant threat to the global health of women and children. Embrace, South Africa’s first social movement for supported and celebrated motherhood, believes that the key to ending obstetric violence lies in elevating the voices and experiences of mothers. Even though several organisations have been working to highlight the prevalence and impact of obstetric violence, this issue was not part of mainstream discourse until recently.
This learning brief looks at Embrace’s efforts to influence national maternity care policy, raising awareness about the prevalence of obstetric violence, and the urgent need for respectful maternity care in South Africa.
1 Embrace acknowledges that not all pregnant people identify as women, hence the use of inclusive language to recognise transgender and nonbinary persons who are also affected by obstetric violence.
Stop nutritional stunting of young children.
Build simple, loving connections for every child
Embrace aims to promote a connected and thriving start to motherhood for every new mother in South Africa. It is growing a nationwide peer support network and making sure moms’ voices are heard. Embrace’s mission is to tackle some of the structural and social dynamics that shape the experience of early motherhood.
BIRTH EXPERIENCES IN SOUTH AFRICA
The ‘First 1 000 Days’ is a crucial time for mother and child, spanning the time from conception to a child’s second birthday, when a baby’s brain develops faster than at any other time. What happens during this period plays a vital role in helping children grow up to be happy, healthy and welladjusted.2
As part of a campaign highlighting the voices and experiences of mothers during Women’s Month in 2018, Embrace initiated story sharing, inviting moms to participate in birth storytelling circles across South Africa. The Embrace team hosted the circles privately to ensure that the women telling their stories felt safe enough to share their experience.
A consistent theme was the huge effect of birth experience on mothering and the transition into new motherhood. Their experiences included: verbal abuse,
physical abuse (e.g. physically left to labour or push unattended; having legs held open; having nurses push or apply pressure to the abdomen during labour; being yelled at during labour), neglect, and lack of care.
This brought Embrace to the work of Rachelle Chadwick, a University of Bristol academic, who uses the term ‘obstetric violence’(OV) to describe abusive practices in obstetric care.
2 Ilifa Lanbantwana. 2017. The First 1 000 Days of Life Factsheet. Access at: http://ilifalabantwan
She acknowledges that the reasons for abusive treatment in South Africa are complex, including “health system inadequacies, an insufficient emphasis on an ethics of care in midwifery training, poor working conditions, healthcare professional overload and historical legacies of inequalities”, but she maintains “there is also no excuse for failure to hold individuals and institutions accountable for practices that dehumanise, degrade and cause harm to women and girls in some of their most vulnerable moments (i.e. labour and childbirth)”.3
Rumbi Goredema Görgens, Embrace operations manager says: “We acknowledge ‘obstetric violence’ is not necessarily a universal term, but for Embrace, it signifies the urgency of the problem and the obstetric part highlights the additional vulnerability involved in that phase of life where women are likely to experience it.”
THE CONSEQUENCES OF OBSTETRIC VIOLENCE
Perinatal4 depression poses significant health risks to mothers and their children.5 Embrace frequently partners with the Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP)6 which offers counselling and support services to pregnant and postpartum women. In 2020, they collaborated on a unique response to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, Messages for Mothers (M4M), which aimed to provide answers to mothers’ pressing questions about the coronavirus.7 When PMHP was invited to write chapters on Maternal Mental Health and Respectful Maternity Care for the updated version of the national Maternity Care Guidelines, they invited NGOs, including Embrace, to contribute to the content, ensuring civil society voices could critique and improve the chapters before finalisation. Through PMHP, information from the Counting What Matters survey results was used in the National Department of Health (NDoH) webinar Maternal and Neonatal Health Guidelines series that introduced the new guidelines to over 1 000 maternity care providers from all over the country.8
Did you know?
Obstetric violence has been shown to contribute to postpartum depression and anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. According to the Perinatal Mental Health Project, 1 out of 3 women who give birth in South Africa are at risk of a perinatal mental health condition, which is higher than the global average of 10-15%.9
3 Chadwick, Rachelle Joy. (2016). Obstetric violence in South Africa. SAMJ: South African Medical Journal, 106(5), 423-424. https://dx.doi.org/10.7196/samj.2016.v106i5.10708
4 Perinatal is the time from when one becomes pregnant up to a year after giving birth.
5 Pellowski JA, Bengtson AM, Barnett W, DiClemente K, Koen N, Zar HJ, Stein DJ. Perinatal depression among mothers in a South African birth cohort study: Trajectories from pregnancy to 18 months postpartum. J Affect Disord.;259:279-287. doi: 10.1016/j. jad.2019.08.052. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6851529/#:~:text=Perinatal%20 depression%20affects%2021%E2%80%9350,low%20and%20middle%2Dincome%20 countries
8 Honikman, S. 2024. NDoH Webinar Maternal and Neonatal Health Guideline Series. https://knowledgehub.health.gov.za/system/files/2024-02/KH%20RMC%20 presentation%20for%20upload%20no%20film%2019.02.2024.pdf
9 Counting What Matters. Op.Cit.
CHANGING THE NARRATIVE: A TIMELINE OF EVENTS
2018 – NATIONWIDE PROTESTS
A crucial development in the public consciousness occurred when women and gender non-conforming people initiated ‘The Total Shutdown’ (TTS) intersectional movement against gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), taking to the streets of South Africa on 1 August 2018 (Women’s Month) in protest. Dr Jess Rucell, a researcher and advocacy expert on sexual and reproductive health rights and part of the TTS movement, says that while OV has been documented in public health literature in South Africa since 1998, and it is widely known amongst clinicians, there had not been public debate about the problem until recently.
Embrace believes that the key to ending this form of GBV in South Africa lies in elevating the voices and experiences of mothers, and bringing their stories into the rooms and spaces where policies are made.
2022 - OBSTETRIC VIOLENCE NAMED AT PRESIDENTIAL SUMMIT ON GBV
In 2021, Embrace began consulting with Dr Rucell who, along with women from various sectors, had pushed for obstetric violence to be officially recognised at South Africa's first Presidential Summit. Through this relationship with Dr Rucell, and her role as a member of the 2022 Presidential GBVF Summit Planning Committee (PSPC), Embrace took the lead in planning the second Presidential Summit.
This led to Embrace, along with other like-minded organisations such as the Women’s Legal Centre, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and Section 27, facilitating a breakaway session or Action Caucus on Pregnancy, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
Dr Rucell, who is a gender justice expert at CALS, noted: “That issues of GBV facing pregnant women and birthing people have been included in both days of the President’s Second Summit is the success of the TTS movement and the organisations that have continued to prioritise the rights of mothers. In 2018 obstetric violence was omitted from the first National Summit on GBVF, its Declaration, and as a result the National Strategic Plan on GBVF. Our success in 2022 means the state can no longer ignore the abuse of pregnant women and must take meaningful steps to stop harming women seeking health services.”
This group influenced the summit’s resolutions to include the following:
“We want to put a loudhailer to the cause so it becomes clear that this is happening across a spectrum of healthcare experiences with different practitioners and also at different points in the journey to motherhood.”
A resolution to strengthen health system accountability through co-opting senior government officials, like ministers and MECs, to serve in key committees related to the implementation of the national strategic plan.
To ensure the protection of women during pregnancy and childbirth by taking decisive action against perpetrators of GBVF, including forced sterilisation, ensuring redress for victims of obstetric violence, and ensuring that Chapter Nine institutions (for example, the Public Protector, South African Human Rights Commission, Auditor-General and Commission for Gender Equality) as well as Health Professionals and Nursing Councils intervene to guarantee investigations into allegations of GBV and coerced/forced sterilisation.
To recognise that the Constitution considers pregnant persons as particularly vulnerable and at risk of GBVF, and demand action from the state to protect and enable the rights of pregnant persons, including victims/survivors of obstetric violence.10
2022 – ADVOCACY THROUGH VISUAL MEDIA
In 2022, Embrace partnered with filmmakers Makhulu Media,11 a social change media agency, to hold a series of workshops for women willing to share their first-hand experiences of OV and process their trauma with other women attending the workshops. This evolved into a short documentary titled “Push Comes to Shove” – four stories of women who’ve experienced obstetric violence. The story themes include forced sterilisation, denial of mental health treatment, discrimination against pregnant teenagers, lack of aftercare, sexual harassment and verbal abuse. Through research and interviews, the documentary shows that OV is a common yet preventable barrier to women’s right to quality and dignified healthcare.
The documentary is not open access. “It is only shown in as far as it facilitates a conversation about obstetric violence, because we didn’t want it to be exploitative,” explains Goredema Görgens. It was released during 16 Days of Activism against GBV in 2022.12 Makhulu helped distribute the film through Sunshine Cinema,13 its solar-powered cinema network which partners with grassroots organisations to use film and post-screening discussions to highlight social change issues. Prior to each screening, the four participants were given the opportunity to cut their story from the documentary if they wished.
2023 – BUILDING EVIDENCE THROUGH QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DATA
Building on the exposure from the 2022 Presidential Summit, Embrace began gathering evidence to support its advocacy efforts to end OV in South Africa. During the 16 Days of Activism period in 2023, Embrace launched Counting What Matters: The Embrace Birth Experience Survey on its social media platforms. It also sent out a newsletter and open call to partners, movements and coalitions across the country to share the survey with women in their network. The anonymous survey was online for two weeks and took less than five minutes to complete. In total, almost 500 people completed the survey.
The birth experience survey results14 show that one in two women experienced some form of obstetric violence. Embrace acknowledges that there was likely to be a selfselection bias here, with women who had bad experiences during childbirth more likely to respond. Nevertheless, Embrace aims to use these results to advocate for nationally representative research and for the implementation of the new Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) guidelines by all clinicians in South Africa.
11 https://makhulu.co.za/
12 During the United Nations 16 Days of Activism, people around the world unite to raise awareness about gender-based violence, challenge discriminatory attitudes and call for improved laws and services to end violence against women for good.
13 https://sunshinecinema.org/
“My first experience as a teenage mom was daunting, to say the least. I was petrified and that feeling was not alleviated by the nurses at all. I was scolded and I felt so useless in that moment, but I did my best to shut off the noise and fill my thoughts with my sole responsibility to my baby”
Anonymous Survey Response
BIRTH EXPERIENCE
SURVEY SA, 2023
482 completed the digital survey.
47% were treated in private facilities; 43% in public; and 10% were home births.
53% experienced some type of disrespect and abuse.
45% said their experience affected their mental health.
22% said confidence in bonding and ability to care for their baby was affected.
86% did not report the abuse to the management; 14% tried, to no effect.
14 Ibid.
LESSONS LEARNT
A decade ago, obstetric violence was not a familiar term in South Africa, and even now, many are unaware of its prevalence. For the most part, cases of such violence that are reported and investigated move through our judicial system as individual cases, often treated as matters of medical malpractice or negligence by individual clinicians or healthcare institutions. How does one go about building a systemic argument for social change when there is no clear political strategy to address the systemic nature of the problem?
Here’s what we’ve learnt from Embrace and its allies as they continue to influence policies on maternity care in this country:
ESTABLISH TRUST AND STAY CONNECTED TO YOUR AUDIENCE
Embrace understands that many do not wish to talk about their birth experiences, online or otherwise. The first step was to establish trust and a safe space in order to build a connection with the moms. Goredema Görgens says: “It must start with meeting people where they are at. If we had just gone in and had a social media campaign and written a policy brief, it would have resonated, but not for long. We are determined to stay in touch and have a long-term impact.”
Embrace connects to moms through the birth storytelling circles, monthly mom meetups as well as through running campaigns such as Mother’s Day Connect, whereby people celebrate moms and nursing staff in maternity wards in public hospitals on Mother's Day.15 Embrace also connects through an email and WhatsApp line where moms can share their experiences. “We are just listening to moms and hearing their stories, because no one else really is," says Embrace's Goredema Görgens.
FIND THE RIGHT CHAMPIONS TO PARTNER WITH
The partnerships that Embrace has secured with organisations working on the same problem but coming at it from different angles have been invaluable. For example, Embrace approached Dr Rucell because of her expertise on obstetric violence. Dr Rucell was involved in the planning of the Second Presidential Summit on GBVF and understood where Embrace could effectively contribute to its planning. She says: “I had already mapped out that landscape, knew all the various stakeholders and seen what was needed. I could just say ‘These are key opportunities needed to get policymakers and the women's movement to take this issue seriously. I think you are in a good place to seize them, what do you think?’”
Similarly, when CALS was developing a popular education booklet for pregnant women, Embrace was the right partner to help develop the language and framing. “It is very important because lawyers or researchers aren't adept at being community organisers. Embrace's community-based focus can assist because they work with pregnant women every day,” explains Dr Rucell.
This also applies to Embrace contributing to PMPH’s work on the NDoH’s Maternity Care Guidelines 2021. By being part of a loose coalition, these organisations can all work in different ways, directing their strengths towards solving a challenging and intersectional issue.
GATHER EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR CASE
We don’t yet have the statistics on how many mothers experience obstetric violence and birth trauma in South Africa. Without this data, it is easy for those in power to minimise the abuse that people go through during pregnancy, birth and postpartum periods. It also allows them to ignore the scale of the problem. Embrace launched their birth survey to illustrate that obstetric violence is a systemic issue affecting pregnant women in both public and private facilities across South Africa.
Embrace also harnessed the ethnographic power of visual media – a qualitative form of data collection. In this way, it was able to get its message to diverse communities by partnering with Makhulu Media and its distribution network, Sunshine Cinema, which facilitated the screenings and discussions on the short documentary.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Obstetric violence continues to occur across our healthcare system with rights violations and abuses commonly experienced by pregnant women and birthing people accessing healthcare.16 This form of GBV presents a significant threat to the health of women and children.
Counting What Matters was an informal “people’s survey” that sought to understand the extent and nature of the problem experienced by those in the broader Embrace network. Embrace hopes to commission a larger, nationallyrepresentative study in 2024, which captures experiences across public and private sectors for a more robust understanding of the prevalence of obstetric violence in South Africa.
Embrace is also currently fundraising for a state of Motherhood Report, like the South African Child Gauge17 or State of South Africa’s Fathers.18 The report will showcase innovative solutions that deliver respectful maternity care and provide financial support to vulnerable mothers.
This learning brief was written by Daniella Horwitz and edited by Rahima Essop. It was made possible through contributions from Embrace, the Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP) and Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS).
16 Ibid.
17 Annual review of the situation of the country’s children is published by the Children’s Institute (CI), University of Cape Town. https://ci.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/content_migration/health_uct_ac_za/533/ files/Child%2520Gauge%25202021_110822.pdf
18 The report promotes a nuanced approach to fatherhood for improved support for families in South Africa. https://genderjustice.org.za/publication/state-of-south-africas-fathers-2021/
This is the learning experience of:
Experience Learning
NAVIGATING CHANGE IN COMPLEX SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Systemic change typically unfolds within complex social systems where interactions are dynamic and often unpredictable. Many of our most pressing social challenges – like poverty and climate change – stem from these large, intricate systems, making the path to meaningful change uncertain and non-linear. In these systems, behaviours and patterns are deeply ingrained.
Unlike intervention-based programmes that focus on improving individual parts, systemic change involves understanding and shifting the interdependencies within the system. This approach requires identifying key actors, relationships, and patterns, and finding ways to leverage these elements to create lasting change. It’s about learning, adapting, and embracing complexity as the system evolves, rather than trying to eliminate it.
By focusing on the bigger picture, practitioners of systemic change are more likely to trigger continuous, sustainable change. The ripple effects of such changes can help address inequalities, disrupt cycles of poverty, and spark transformation across various sectors.
This learning brief contributes to a collective and cumulative body of operational knowledge that can support systems change catalysts to shift system dynamics and expand their toolkits. It is designed to capture the key lessons for systems change actors, including practitioners, funders, and policymakers, drawing on the experience and impact of Ilifa Labantwana’s work across the South African early childhood development ecosystem.
This learning brief seeks to provide systems change practitioners with practical lessons, and act as a point of discussion for evaluating the role organisations such as Ilifa can play in bringing about systems change.
Get to know Ilifa
Ilifa Labantwana is a South African NGO that is driving systems change in early childhood development (ECD). It does this by strengthening and co-creating the institutions, strategies, and practices that the ECD ecosystem needs to thrive, and increasingly, by situating ECD as a multi-dimensional route to shifting South African inequality.
SOUTH AFRICA’S ECD ECOSYSTEM
South Africa’s early childhood development (ECD) ecosystem is a complex network that spans multiple government departments, formal institutions, and civil society organisations, as well as a diverse informal economy comprising non-profits, micro-enterprises, parents and caregivers.
CHALLENGES
The ECD system grapples with narrow definitions, distinct sector boundaries, and ambiguous areas of responsibility.
IMPORTANCE OF ECD
The early years are crucial for a child’s emotional, cognitive, and social development.1 These formative years influence future health, academic success, job prospects, and the ability to break the cycle of poverty.2
ESSENTIAL SERVICES
A comprehensive ECD approach includes maternal and child health services, nutritional support, caregiver support, early language development, and early learning stimulation. Formal services include clinic-based healthcare, home visits, financial assistance through the Child Support Grant, and limited funding for registered ELPs. Additionally, a vast network of informal, non-state, women-led early learning initiatives, supported by various organisations, plays a vital role in filling service gaps.
1 The Lancet. “Advancing Early Childhood Development: From Science to Scale: Executive Summary.” The Lancet 389, no. 10064 (2016).
2 Martorell, R. “Improved Nutrition in the First 1000 Days and Adult Human Capital and Health.” American Journal of Human Biology 29, no. e22952 (2017).
3 Figures from Ilifa Labantwana, derived using data from the 2019 General Household Survey, as well as the
INEQUALITIES
The ECD scene is marked by glaring disparities. Many children, especially from low-income families, lack access to pivotal services, with only 35% attending early learning programmes (ELPs).3 Of these, only 25% are subsidised by the state4; one in four of these children are nutritionally stunted.5
ILIFA’S ROLE
Over the course of its lifespan, Ilifa has increasingly focused on strengthening the systems that support ECD service provision, with special attention to areas where the essential package of services is underdeveloped.
REFLECTIONS
Over time, Ilifa has established itself as a key player within the ECD system. Initially, Ilifa focused heavily on interventionbased approaches, with limited understanding of how different components of the ECD ecosystem interconnected. The organisation’s shift towards a systems perspective marks a significant strategic evolution.
“In the early years, we were not even starting to think about how you develop a more comprehensive picture of children using data, let alone the notion that the system had to cater for all children –not just those who happened to be in a registered ECD centre.”
—
Board member
A common metaphor used to understand complex systems is Goodman’s Iceberg Model (see Figure 1 on page 3). This model suggests that the events and behaviours we observe in a system are produced through a network of underlying trends, relationships and beliefs.
4 Figures from
5 GrowGreat. “Cocare Maternal Support Study.” 2021. https://www.growgreat.co.za/wpcontent/uploads/2021/03/GG-COCARE-REPORT-final-1.pdf
2014 DSD ECD Audit and various surveys conducted by Ilifa Labantwana.
Ilifa Labantwana, derived using data from the 2019 General Household Survey, as well as the 2014 DSD ECD Audit and various surveys conducted by Ilifa Labantwana.
What we see at the surface of the South African ECD ecosystem is stark inequality in access to ECD services, with the odds stacked against poor children. Beneath this inequality lies a pattern of chronic underfunding in disadvantaged areas, and a regulatory and financial framework that complicates access to government support for early learning providers.
These systemic issues are shaped by prevailing mental models – deep-seated beliefs about the nature of ECD, who benefits from it, how it should be provided, and the extent of the government's responsibility to support it.
As a system actor, Ilifa has increasingly focused on addressing the structures and mental models that shape the ECD ecosystem. Rather than ‘scaling’ particular models of ECD provision, it has strengthened large-scale systems to support a range of provision models, ultimately universalising access to quality ECD.
KEY APPROACHES
Ilifa has adopted several key approaches in its systems change efforts:
Understand the system through iterative testing, learning and integration.
Collaborate with diverse partners to compound system impact.
Universalise impact by focusing on operational support systems.
Embracing emergence by staying both patient and agile.
Bridging the system by building mechanisms to connect its disparate parts.
A SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE ECD ECOSYSTEM BASED ON GOODMAN'S ICEBERG MODEL
Events Starkly unequal access to ECD services with the odds stacked against poor children. Intergenerational cycles of poverty and inequality are reproduced.
Patterns Without stable funding, existing ELPs struggle to sustain services or improve programme quality, and new entrants are dissuaded.
Early learning and home visiting services for poor households are under-provided and under-resourced, placing a disproportionate burden on the families that can least afford it.
Underlying structure Eligibility requirements for ELPs to receive state support are ill-fitting to the realities of a largely-informal sector. Without this, ELPs rely heavily on caregiver fees, in contexts where caregiver income is limited and volatile.
Meanwhile, home visiting is deprioritised in public health systems with community health workers underresourced and under-capacitated.
Mental models An assumption that the public mandate to support ECD is limited to relatively formal service provision in purpose-built institutions. Outside of this, early learning and care is assumed to be a private responsibility of families (mostly women).
Figure 1: Goodman's Iceberg Model.
KEY LESSONS FOR SYSTEMS CHANGE PRACTITIONERS
Ilifa’s journey underscores that systems change is inherently complex and demands a deep understanding of the local context. Success requires collaboration, adaptability, and a willingness to learn – and even to fail. By maintaining a humble and flexible approach, organisations can make meaningful progress toward systems change, even in challenging and contested environments.
Below, we summarise the key lessons and approaches for implementing systems change strategies:
CULTIVATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SYSTEM
To navigate the system effectively, systems change actors must identify opportunities and levers for change, as well as potential avenues for collaboration. In complex, ever-evolving systems, gaining this understanding requires deliberate and ongoing effort.
HOW ILIFA HAS USED IT
Ilifa’s strategy is continuously shaped and re-shaped by ongoing research and experimentation by the organisation and in collaboration with its partners. By generating supporting evidence and co-developing strong information systems, Ilifa fosters a culture of continuous learning within the ECD ecosystem. This evidence-based approach strengthens Ilifa’s credibility as a system actor, galvanises partnerships, and informs strategic decisions on where to focus efforts.
IMPACT
“…Just [by] describing and quantifying the challenges, the red tape, the administrative blockages… [so that] it’s not just… a big black hole, we can actually tease out what all those blockages are exactly. [We can understand] how they contribute to the overall system. When you understand that, you can start to address things.”
— Anonymous, works in the ECD sector
WHY THIS MATTERS
Building a strong evidence base is not just a strategy – it's the foundation from which all other systems change efforts grow. A deep understanding of the players, rules, relationships, and impacts within the ECD ecosystem is crucial for ongoing learning, adaptation, and improvement. All of these are essential markers of systems change.
Ilifa’s emphasis on evidence generation has been pivotal in transforming South Africa’s ECD systems. By leveraging evidence and technical expertise, Ilifa has driven changes in financing and regulation, demonstrated new ECD models, and tracked progress across the sector. Additionally, Ilifa has helped stimulate the system’s capacity for evidence generation, funding research, producing the South African Early Childhood Review, and supporting initiatives like Innovation Edge, which developed the Early Learning Measurement (ELOM) Tools: South Africa's first locallydeveloped, fair, and standardised instruments for measuring child development. Ilifa has also bolstered data and information systems within government, aiming to improve data-driven decision-making.
Ilifa recognised early on that systems-related evidence was lacking in the ECD sector and focused on evidence generation as one of its key roles and purposes. Ilifa believes that without understanding how the system is organised, it is impossible to re-organise resources and processes that lead to lasting change.
At the heart of Ilifa’s unique capability lies its ability to generate, mobilise and engage ECD evidence. This evidence has also been key to Ilifa’s credibility with government and other partners, enabling access to spaces where large-scale decisions are made. Ilifa’s technical expertise and evidencegeneration capabilities also make it a valuable advocacy partner for civil society organisations.
CONSIDERATIONS
While Ilifa’s focus on evidence generation positions it as a critical asset to the ECD sector and a key player in systems change, it also relies on strong relationships and sector capacity to produce reliable, regular, and robust evidence. However, this emphasis on high-level, technical work might lead to a perception of Ilifa as disconnected from the everyday realities of ECD implementation, potentially risking its relevance to on-the-ground practices.
COLLABORATE WIDELY AND WITH HUMILITY
Effective systems change work involves forming a variety of tactical coalitions and partnerships to work across the system, rather than in isolation. Instead of prioritising the success of their own organisation, systems change practitioners should focus on addressing the larger problem. Rather than asking, "How can we maximise our own achievements?”, systems change organisations should consider, "What is the best role for us to play?" – one that complements and enhances the efforts of other actors.
PARTNERING WITH GOVERNMENT
HOW ILIFA HAS USED IT
Ilifa has shown agility in partnering with various government departments and levels, aligning its efforts with where the system's needs and opportunities are greatest. By leveraging its technical expertise and deep understanding of the system, Ilifa has earned credibility with government. In these partnerships, Ilifa has positioned itself as a thought partner rather than a service provider, focusing on strengthening state capacity without seeking credit or ownership.
“Relational work takes time. It takes decades. But it’s needed to build trust,
which is also catalytic.”
Jeroo
Billimoria, Catalyst 2030
WHY THIS MATTERS
Being a systems change actor doesn’t mean working in every part of the system; it means focusing on your strengths and leveraging partnerships to amplify your impact. Changing a system is not something that can be done alone. Instead, it requires forming a range of tactical coalitions and partnerships to work effectively across the system.
For Ilifa, this started with coalition-building – bringing together close partners and allies, including implementers, innovators, and funders. Over time, this approach has expanded to include engagement in the political arena and developing partnerships with government. As one Board member put it, collaboration is a “delicate dance,” and Ilifa has embraced an approach that values alliances over antagonism.
IMPACT
Through concerted long-term technical support and seconding capacity to the National Department of Health (NDoH), Ilifa has been able to co-develop, grow, and sustain its Side-by-Side mass communication campaign. Similarly, by building trusting and lasting relationships with Treasury and supporting the Department of Basic Education in taking on the ECD function, Ilifa has established itself as a reliable thought partner in ECD financing and expansion planning.
What is Side-by-Side?
Side-by-Side is a campaign for pregnant women and caregivers of children younger than five, which uses multiple communication channels.
It’s led by the NDoH but owned by all national, provincial and local departments, NGOs, community based organisations, and all other partners who are working and caring for children.
Working with the North West Department of Social Development, Ilifa was also able to co-develop an integrated ECD delivery system, exploring different models of community-based delivery and the systems needed to support them.
Recognising that local governments have more control over ECD infrastructure budgets than the national government, Ilifa partnered with non-profit organisation Kago Ya Bana to influence and support changes in local practices. This strategic partnership allowed Ilifa to make an impact at the municipal level, even with its limited capacity to engage directly across all municipalities.
PARTNERING WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS
HOW ILIFA HAS USED IT
By seeding and nurturing enduring partnerships with a close coalition of organisations (SmartStart, Grow Great, Innovation Edge, Kago Ya Bana and the DG Murray Trust), Ilifa strengthens and is in turn strengthened by a wider ECD ecosystem.
IMPACT
CORE COALITION:
Partnerships have enabled Ilifa to concentrate on driving national system-level change while staying connected to onthe-ground programming through initiatives like Smart Start and Grow Great. It has also addressed municipal challenges through Kago Ya Bana and leveraged cutting-edge evidence from partners such as Innovation Edge, DataDrive2030, and RESEP. These organisations complement and inform each other's strategies, creating a synergistic approach. Additionally, Ilifa's collaboration with the Equality Collective, which led to the Real Reform for ECD initiative, has heightened the emphasis on sector-wide coalition-building and advocacy.
EMERGENT PARTNERSHIPS:
In response to ad hoc system needs and shared interests, particularly in advocacy and alliance building, Ilifa's partnerships have accelerated, especially in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19.
Rather than being in the service of their own organisations, systems change practitioners should instead focus on addressing the problem. Achieving this requires a deep understanding of how other actors operate and identifying opportunities for collaboration to amplify impact. Ilifa's leadership knows there is room to grow in this regard. The organisation has not yet made a concerted effort to fully understand the diversity of players in the ECD sector or to explore collaboration opportunities thoroughly. Instead, many of these partnerships have been relatively ad hoc or based on long-established relationships. However, Ilifa also recognises that it cannot (and should not) act in every part of the system. Instead, it should focus on areas where it is best positioned to unlock significant impact.
SYSTEMS CHANGE FUNDERS ALSO BENEFIT FROM COLLABORATION
Funders can enhance their impact on systems change by collaborating with other funders and fostering networks of grantees that learn from and complement each other’s efforts.
“I think the pooled funding is a very, very important component of Ilifa – the fact that all the donors put their money into one pot reduces the risk of being tugged in different directions. And it forces the discipline of a joint governance structure, because the funders want to know how the money is spent.”
Board member and funder
WHY THIS MATTERS
By working together towards common problems, funders can pool resources instead of acting in isolation with reduced impact. Given the slowness of system-level work, collaboration can help alleviate pressure on funders.
Ilifa’s collaborative ethos is reflected in the support of its funders, who have offered the long-term, flexible funding required for systems change. In addition to coming together to fund Ilifa, they have also worked on a range of other projects together, supporting spin-off projects in the ECD implementation and innovation space, while protecting Ilifa’s ability to focus on systems. By working collaboratively with other ECD funders, each individual Ilifa funder has also magnified its own impact on the system.
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RECOGNISE GOVERNMENT’S VALUE IN THE SYSTEM
Substantial and sustainable systems change requires government to lead (and largely fund) the process. Fostering meaningful government ownership requires us to work with state partners to build their capacity, and grapple patiently with cumbersome bureaucratic government systems.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Widespread systems change is difficult to achieve without the government taking meaningful ownership of the problem. Ilifa’s leadership believes that the most significant transformation in the ECD ecosystem must come from government. Ilifa’s own modelling and expansion work suggests that substantial change in the ECD ecosystem will require significant increases in the annual ECD budget, alongside the development of regulations and systems that ensure an accountable flow of funds directly benefiting children.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN IN PRACTICE?
Recognising the government as an essential partner in systems change requires system actors to:
Work alongside state partners: Actively build their capacity through collaboration.
Exercise patience: Navigate and, if necessary, reform cumbersome government systems.
Engage early: Involve government partners from the start to develop a shared understanding of systemic problems and their root causes.
Leverage evidence: Use data and diverse perspectives to inform decisions and build trust, prioritising the collective good over individual contributions.
CONSIDERATIONS
Ilifa’s leadership has made a deliberate decision to target government systems, believing this is where the biggest wins for the ECD ecosystem can be achieved. But it has also acknowledged the costs involved in this approach.
While it is important to acknowledge government’s critical role in the system, it is equally important to remember that government is not the system. By focusing too narrowly on the government’s role, Ilifa risks operating under the pretence that ECD is the sole purview of the state. In many ways, the government has become Ilifa’s primary beneficiary. One Board member expressed concern that by dedicating so much effort to supporting the Department of Education in taking on the function shift, Ilifa risks “taking the eye off the prize – which is a comprehensive programme for children across the country.” It’s important to remember that the government is just one player in a vast and complex ECD ecosystem, where much of the service provision occurs outside the state.
Some ECD sector stakeholders interviewed for this case study worried about the implications that Ilifa’s increasingly narrow focus on government partnerships might have on its relationships with civil society, and its ability to hold the state accountable. “When you’ve sort of signed an MOU with government,” one ECD social entrepreneur said, “You’re almost working for them, so it’s hard to push against them.”
This perception presents potential challenges for Ilifa’s coalition-building and advocacy efforts. Due to its focus on government systems and its history of primarily technical work, Ilifa’s collaboration with other players in the ECD ecosystem has been somewhat limited. While collaboration has been a powerful tool in Ilifa’s systems change strategy, it has largely involved a select group of close partners. As a result, Ilifa’s role as an advocate for, or representative of, the broader sector may be questioned.
Given the perceived growing distance between Ilifa and ECD providers and families on the ground, some interviewees for this case study expressed concerns about Ilifa’s ability to effectively represent the sector to government, which at times appeared to monopolise the organisation’s attention.
Others, however, argued that Ilifa’s close relationship with government is precisely what gives it leverage when advocating for change on behalf of the sector. In their eyes, Ilifa strikes an often delicate balance between supporting and capacitating government, while also holding the state to account.
While negotiating a good relationship with government and other partners is critical, many systems change catalysts will argue that systems work can’t be done without government, particularly if the system needs to be sustainably funded. For Ilifa, intentional collaboration in the ECD ecosystem must include government, which holds the mandate and responsibility for ECD. But the state cannot succeed alone.
FOCUS ON SYSTEMS AND UNIVERSAL IMPACT
Achieving universal access is not about scaling a particular model; it’s about building an environment in which a diversity of models can flourish. Social change will not be achieved by simply increasing production. Local knowledge and contexts matter, as do the public systems that either support or constrain providers.
In systems change, “the social change practitioner is not just responsible for planting the seed (scaling), but also for gaining access to land, cultivating the soil, remaining vigilant for pests and disease, and trusting that optimal weather conditions will materialise for that seed to grow. Ultimately, the conditions are far out of the hands of a single farmer and will largely rely on the broader ecosystem in which the planting takes place.”
WHY THIS MATTERS
Ilifa has sought to universalise rather than ‘scale’ its impact. The term scale often implies that greater impact is achieved by increasing throughput in a system – essentially, the idea that social welfare should operate like a fast-food chain. In other words: “We want social welfare to be like McDonald’s.”7 But in complex social systems, where context matters, impact often depends on sustained and tailored tactics. Global South research8 on ECD ecosystems supports the idea that while broad national programmes are necessary for scaling ECD, they must be flexible enough to adapt to local norms and practices.
HOW ILIFA HAS USED IT
Over time, Ilifa has sharpened its approach to the concept of scaling. Instead of focusing on ‘scaling out’ successful programmatic interventions, it has increasingly focused on what it calls universality: building the conditions in which scale is possible. This means working at the level of policy, regulation and financing to change conditions in the system (what some refer to as ‘scaling up’) and shifting power, attitudes and values in the system (sometimes called ‘scaling deep’).
IMPACT
Ilifa’s strategy has increasingly centred on strengthening public systems that create the necessary conditions for ECD services to flourish, including policy, regulation, financing, information systems, and quality assurance and support. Ilifa is also partnering with organisations like SmartStart to develop a viable, large-scale delivery platform that connects government and ECD providers through established networks built on mutual trust.
SHIFTING POWER:
The Side-by-Side campaign empowers caregivers with the knowledge and tools needed to support early stimulation and healthy development in children, thereby expanding access to information and shifting power to families and households.
S HIFTING VALUES AND ATTITUDES:
Ilifa has worked to challenge two key assumptions: 1) that quality ELPs can only be delivered in purpose-built centres, and 2) that only 'quality' programmes should receive funding. Instead, Ilifa has demonstrated that 1) quality ELPs can take many shapes and forms, and 2) quality improvement often hinges on receiving adequate funding.
EMBRACE EMERGENCE
Systems are made up of interconnected, dynamic flows and feedback loops. Staying attuned to emerging needs and opportunities is essential for being responsive
“With this dual approach, we are prepared for the opportunities that complexity affords us: the chance to learn.”
Rayner & Bonnici, in The System Work of Social Change6
6 Rayner, S., and Bonnici, F. The Systems Work of Social Change
7 Rayner, S., and Bonnici, F. The Systems Work of Social Change
8 Goldhill, S., and Lewis, P. “Early Childhood Development in the Global South.” Journal of the British Academy 8, no. 2 (2020): 1–7.
Rayner & Bonnici, in The System Work of Social Change9
9 Rayner, S., and Bonnici, F. The Systems Work of Social Change
WHY THIS MATTERS
Systems change work rarely follows a linear path with direct outcomes or predictable timelines. It often involves the slow process of building relationships and gradually dismantling entrenched patterns. However, it also demands agility to respond to emerging opportunities, work with complexity, and adjust course when a strategy isn’t working.
Shifting complex social systems requires engaging with their inherent complexity. This involves, on one hand, leveraging data and models to understand the system and articulate the complexity at play, and on the other hand, embracing the uncertainty that these systems present. In essence, understanding the system and embracing emergence must coexist in a productive tension.
Embracing emergence often requires a delicate balance between patience and agility. To allow things to unfold, systems change catalysts must align with the natural pace of things. Big, complex systems are often cumbersome and difficult to shift. Achieving real change means committing to the long term, while building the evidence, relationships, and credibility needed for substantial progress. However, while systems change can be slow, it also requires the ability to act swiftly when opportunities arise. This demands both agility and long-term flexible funding.
Systems change funders must also get comfortable with the concept of emergence. This means supporting organisations to test, adapt, learn and fail, while also exploring alternative strategies to measure impact. Funders should incorporate flexibility, patience, and collaboration into their practices.
Ilifa and some of its key partners have benefited from a group of funders who share an interest in ECD systems change. This long-term flexible funding has facilitated collective strategy and governance, while also enabling both agility and longterm gains.
HOW ILIFA HAS USED IT
PATIENCE:
Ilifa’s partnerships, particularly with government, have been hard-won. Over many years, they have worked to gradually build institutional capacity, challenge entrenched attitudes, shift resource allocation patterns, and establish consensus among diverse stakeholders. This would not have been possible without patience and flexible funding.
AGILITY:
Systems change work is as relational as it is technical. It involves building connections across different scopes and sectors. These relationships facilitate agility, allowing system actors to come together responsively to address emerging needs and shared interests.
IMPACT
LONG-TERM GAINS:
Many of Ilifa’s biggest wins (including increased budget allocations for ECD, changes in registration requirements for early learning programmes, and the Side-by-Side communication campaign) have required and thus facilitated sustained, long-term partnership building.
RESPONSIVENESS:
Ilifa demonstrated great agility in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: the organisation was able to galvanise new and established partners in advocacy and relief efforts, and document learnings to inform systems for distributing funds to informal ELPs.
MEASURE SYSTEMS CHANGE, RATHER THAN DIRECT OUTCOMES ALONE
Measuring impact is widely recognised as a challenge for systems change organisations. This is because systems change often involves many actors and events over extended periods, during which circumstances, opportunities, and obstacles are likely to evolve. Traditional impact measurement has resulted in a significant bureaucratic burden for NGOs and a high degree of complexity from funders. Often, NGOs are pulled from their core work to meet funders’ requirements and struggle to find funding for the work they find most impactful.
Rather than being punitive or restrictive, the role of a systems change funder should be to ask insightful questions. This includes recognising that not everything can or should be measured and revising impact measurement frameworks to facilitate meaningful learning.
‘Vanity metrics’, such as the number of beneficiaries reached, often encourage organisations to focus on ‘proof’ of their good work, using linear models of causality that don’t align with the nature of systems change. Instead, metrics for systems change should incentivise testing, learning, responsiveness and collaboration.
As Ilifa is a systems change organisation, its impact should be measured at the system level – focusing on how the system itself, or understanding of it, has evolved (or not), and tracking appropriate milestones along the way.
STRENGTHEN CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DISPARATE PARTS OF THE SYSTEM
Complex systems are often hindered by poor coordination, misaligned structures, and even hostility among stakeholders. Systems change catalysts must communicate and collaborate in ways that strengthen connections between different parts of the system.
“The reason Ilifa has been so successful is that the team has developed a deep understanding of both the vulnerabilities within the NGO sector and the complexities faced by state actors and their vulnerabilities.”
Funder and Ilifa founder
WHY THIS MATTERS
Being a systems actor requires specific types of individuals –those who can handle the technical aspects of understanding systems and building diverse partnerships, while also being able to navigate the interests of both government and civil society.
HOW ILIFA HAS USED IT
Ilifa has often acted as an intermediary between stakeholders within the ECD ecosystem. In this role, it has focused on the interdependencies and feedback loops in the system: understanding what needs to change, but also strengthening the system’s ability to manage, and benefit from, that change.
Most especially, Ilifa has served as a bridge between government support systems and the early learning sector, helping the sector to effectively receive and absorb government support to improve quality and access.
IMPACT
Ilifa’s work aims to strengthen the connections between government regulation, financing, and policy systems and the everyday needs of diverse ECD providers. This involves identifying the best levers to facilitate the flow of resources, information, and funding to ECD providers. For example, Ilifa has advocated for ELP registration requirements that better align with the needs of the largely informal sector and has worked to develop financing mechanisms to support infrastructure upgrades. However, Ilifa also recognises that these changes will only be effective if there are systems in place to support local-level implementers, such as social workers, who must allocate and monitor new funds.
Another example of Ilifa’s approach is its ability to identify the mass communication opportunity presented by the distribution of the Road to Health (R2H) booklet, along with the system dependencies and weaknesses that needed to be addressed to leverage this opportunity. To enable this change, Ilifa strengthened linkages in the system by seconding capacity to the Department of Health (DoH) to support the development of the Side-by-Side campaign. Ilifa recognised that health workers needed support in using the newly designed R2H booklet, and gradually assisted the DoH in taking primary financial ownership of the campaign.
This is the learning experience of:
This learning brief was adapted from a publication authored by Percept Collaborative Advisory & Spring Impact and first published by Ilifa Labantwana. This brief was edited by Camilla Bath and Rahima Essop.
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2
FUNDING SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGH TRUST-BASED FUNDING
Community-based organisations (CBOs) are non-profits operating directly in communities, often with limited financial resources at their disposal. They tend to rely on volunteers, responsive to the unique needs of their community and often best placed to diagnose problems and identify solutions with residents. Many are financially excluded from mainstream grant funding because they operate in rural locations with limited visibility and recognition, and they don’t always have the administrative capacity to provide the financial, monitoring and compliance documents that traditional funders expect. Despite these constraints, they play a crucial role in grassroots development, community empowerment and creating sustainable social change.
This learning brief looks at what the DG Murray Trust (DGMT) and its funding partners, the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF), are learning about trust-based funding to support social change practitioners at a community level through their Sukuthula! Unmute & Act initiative.1 This initiative supports CBOs that work to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV) while advocating for solutions. For this funding model to work well, funders and CBO partners must actively work to change the inherent power imbalance in funder-grantee relationships and work towards a partnership rooted in trust and focused on learning. This is an ongoing process, and the three funders expect to learn much more about how to do this well as the initiative unfolds.
1 Sukuthula means to ‘do not keep quiet’ in IsiXhosa.
Stop nutritional stunting of young children.
Release systemic chokes that trap us in inequality
TRUST-BASED PHILANTHROPY
VERSUS CONVENTIONAL
PHILANTHROPY
Philanthropy is driven by a desire to address societal challenges, typically through grant-making, charity, impact investing or donations. It takes the form of private foundations, public charities, venture philanthropy or corporate philanthropy. These conventional forms of philanthropy tend to operate in ways that reinforce both power imbalances between funders and grantees and implement top-down decision-making which can result in a misalignment between what is funded and what communities need. Large foundations and wealthy individuals often have outsized influence in the philanthropic space. Their decisions about where and how to allocate funds can shape entire sectors, sometimes without sufficient input from affected communities. In unequal societies, entrenched systems, structures and institutions can reinforce societal inequity instead of transforming it. Likewise, we should consider whether philanthropy, in certain contexts, might reflect historical inequities.
A counterbalance to conventional philanthropy is an approach called trust-based funding, with a core set of values rooted in the desire to advance equity, shift power dynamics and build mutually accountable relationships.2 Trust-based funding ensures that communities and organisations are recognised as best positioned to determine how resources can be effectively utilised to achieve positive outcomes. It is anchored in a set of values that shape an organisation and its approach to grant-making. According to the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, these values are leading with trust, prioritising relationships, collaborating with humility, sharing power and advancing equity. This means that trust-based funding is more than a set of activities but a fundamental shift in mindsets or an organisation’s DNA. Closely related to trust-based funding is participatory grant-making which is an approach to philanthropy that shifts the power to make funding decisions, from traditional funders to the communities or individuals who are directly impacted by a social issue. This model seeks to balance power by involving a broader range of voices, by valuing the input of community members who understand local contexts and experiences and giving them more decision-making control. Trust-based funding and participatory grant-making are intersecting approaches that share similar values and draw from the other’s practices.
2 Trust-based philanthropy project. A trust-based approach. Accessed here: https://www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org/overview
A MODEL FOR TRUST-BASED FUNDING
While trust-based funding is not new – many have interrogated power imbalances for the past decade –some have formed a learning community to support the adoption of this approach more broadly. The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, for instance, was launched in the United States in 2020 to meet the needs of the sector as it makes unprecedented shifts to advance equity. This community of practice offers a useful way to understand how trust-based funding is different to conventional philanthropy by focusing
CULTURE
Your organisation’s “way of being”
• Identify practices that may be misaligned with trust-based values.
• Normalise conversations about power.
• Support continuous learning.
• Create space for reflection and dialogue.
PRACTICES
What you do and how you show up as a partner
• Give multi-year, unrestricted funding.
• Be transparent and responsive (supporting relationships rooted in trust and mutual accountability).
• Simplify and streamline application and reporting processes.
• Solicit feedback and act on it.
• Offer support beyond financial resources.
on four key dimensions of any organisation such as culture, leadership, structures and practices (see the diagram below). This model is used throughout this learning brief to collate and interpret the experiences of three funders piloting a trustbased funding approach in South Africa.
The DG Murray Trust (DGMT), the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) are using trust-based funding to both support and learn from community-based organisations (CBOs) involved in gender-based violence interventions in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. Their grant-making initiative, called Sukuthula! Unmute & Act, began implementation in early 2023.
STRUCTURE
Hierarchies, systems, protocols, policies and technologies
• Decentralise decision-making structures so that it’s not a top-down approach.
• Apply a relational lens to grant management.
• Revisit and revise grant contracts to create conditions for learning and evolving.
• Adopt emergent learning tools.
VALUES
LEADERSHIP
The ability to aspire and align around shared values
• Be self-aware, listen and be transparent.
• A Board that sets values but is not heavily involved in making decisions about grants.
• Leadership can redefine “risk” and “failure”.
• Invite collaborative culture-shaping.
Source and credits: Trust-based Philanthropy Project. [www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org]
The rate of violence against women and girls in South Africa is among the highest in the world. According to Stats SA, one in five women in relationships have experienced physical violence by a partner.3 According to UN Women, grassroots organisations are pivotal in mobilising communities and building trust.4 Yet, these organisations tend to be lowresourced and have limited access to funding. They lack the organisational capacity to compete with established NGOs for funding. Here lies an opportunity for philanthropists to support CBOs that usually sit outside the sphere of traditional funding.
Conventional philanthropy’s inequitable practices have long excluded these organisations, so it makes sense that supporting them should take the form of equitable funding practices. In this regard, the Sukuthula! co-funders are exploring a trust-based funding model that provides long term, flexible funding while also placing more decision-making power in the hands of those who are close to communities and the problems being addressed. The pilot cohort is comprised of 36 CBO partners, and they received their first tranche of funding in early 2024.
GET TO KNOW SOME OF THE SUKUTHULA! BENEFICIARIES
YHAWE CENTRE FOR THE DISABLED, BUFFALO
CITY, EASTERN CAPE
Yhawe is led by Thembisile Nuba who works with young people in her community. She became aware that vulnerable youngsters with disabilities were being locked in their homes during the day and that some were sexually assaulted. She decided to give them shelter in her own home and started a campaign to shed light on sexual violence and educate her community about GBV. She partners with Masimanyane Women’s Rights International5 to provide trauma counselling for young people.
She used the Sukuthula! funds to implement several activities, including an awareness campaign, pay staff, as well as secure transportation, provide food and a stipend for beneficiaries. The project was successful, and the highlight was the creation of a safe zone where survivors of GBV could share their experiences.
Established in 2001, Mapate focuses on three main areas:
1 2 3
Drop-in centre: Where the aim is to increase access to quality facilities and services for vulnerable groups and improve physical and economic outcomes while decreasing poverty.
Community HIV/AIDS services: To improve social, physical, and economic outcomes, conduct and facilitate social behaviour change programmes, and provide knowledge on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. They also provide support to individuals and families through counselling and monthly support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Gender-based violence: Provide community outreach interventions and psychosocial support.
To support the implementation of their initiatives, Mapate used the Sukuthula! funds to buy food during community outreach activities and they provided stipends for community caregivers.
3 Stats SA. 2020. Crimes against women in South Africa, an analysis of the phenomenon of GBV and femicide. https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/1_Stock/Events_ Institutional/2020/womens_charter_2020/docs/30-07-2020/A_Statistical_Overview_R_Maluleke.pdf
4 UN Women. 2023. Ten ways to prevent violence against women and girls https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/explainer/2023/11/ten-ways-to-prevent-violence-againstwomen-and-girls
HOW THE SUKUTHULA! FUNDING MODEL APPLIES
TRUST-BASED FUNDING
PRINCIPLES
CULTURE
• The Sukuthula! co-funders and administrators are committed to creating space for reflection and dialogue to ensure continuous alignment between trust-based funding values and practices. This fosters an environment necessary to support continuous learning.
STRUCTURE
• Participatory grant-making is a key feature of Sukuthula! – a community panel set funding priorities, decided on criteria, and made funding decisions. The composition of the panel intentionally reflected the diversity of experience among those affected by GBV.
• A flexible grant-making process was set up for the Sukuthula! initiative.
• The Sukuthula! administrators apply a relational lens to grant management to allow for optimal learning and flexibility in the way CBO partners report on outcomes.
VALUES
PRACTICES
• From the onset the Sukuthula! administrators aimed to make the application process more accessible and inclusive by conducting inperson information sessions in communities in their local languages. Grant applications were accepted in 11 languages and CBO partners did not require a desktop computer to apply since they could submit their applications on WhatsApp.
• Audited financials were not a requirement. However, CBOs that did not provide audited financials were eligible to receive a maximum of R100 000. Sukuthula! administrators aimed to help CBOs get their required documents to unlock more funds in future.
5 https://www.masimanyane.org/
• Beyond providing financial resources, the Sukuthula! administrators are committed to a multi-year programme of capacity building with CBO partners.
LEADERSHIP
• Sukuthula! administrators are committed to listening and responding to CBO partners.
• There is greater transparency in the grantmaking and approvals process compared to conventional grant-making.
PARTICIPATORY GRANT-MAKING
A key part of the Sukuthula! initiative has been to identify and appoint a multi-stakeholder community panel to drive strategy and make funding decisions. This community panel included a diverse and skilled group with representatives from law enforcement, academia, GBV survivors, mental health practitioners, young people, government officials and GBV activists. They set the criteria for funding and assessing applications. The panel also identified the Eastern Cape and Limpopo as GBV hotspots with low levels of funding and decided that Sukuthula! should focus on resourcing CBOs in four districts with an urban and rural dimension: Buffalo City and OR Tambo in the Eastern Cape, and Seshego and Vhembe in Limpopo. The community panel developed a proposal assessment rubric and, through a multi-month process, chose the first cohort of CBO partners. It is also important to note that members of the community panel were compensated for providing their valuable time, energy, and expertise in this process from strategy to application review and grant decision-making.
CAPACITY STRENGTHENING IS NOT A ONCE-OFF EVENT
One of the objectives of the Sukuthula! initiative is to strengthen the organisational capacity of CBOs so that they will be better positioned to apply for funding from different sources in future. The Sukuthula! administration team conducted two intensive workshops in May 2024 for the first cohort of CBO partners. These workshops focused on introducing the building blocks necessary to create a strong CBO and covered important topics such as governance, fundraising, leadership, self-awareness, financial policies and fraud awareness. CBO partners also attend monthly virtual mentorship and coaching sessions with a development expert. These capacity building workshops are not once-off events but are a continuous feature of their multi-year grant.
SIMPLIFIED REPORTING THAT MEETS THE NEEDS OF COMMUNITIES
Conventional philanthropy often requires overly frequent reporting on indicators (often determined by funders) that may be difficult to capture or meaningless to the community, Trust-based funding is not a no-strings-attached approach— it centres CBO partners and communities in deciding what outcomes and metrics are most valuable. They decide what success looks like, not the funder. The funder’s role is to listen, understand, provide investment for them to obtain the data they need to evaluate progress, and be a learning partner to them instead of a barrier to focusing on the community work. This is why the Sukuthula! administrators worked with a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) expert to develop a streamlined reporting framework for the CBO partners.
At the end of 2024, the CBO partners are expected to submit quantitative and qualitative data. “It is as much about the metrics as it is about what you are seeing and learning. As funders, we are collecting data that is important to the partner, meaningful to them, so we can identify any challenges and come up with solutions together,” explains Zandile Mqwathi, DGMT Project Manager: GBV Initiatives.
RIGOUR AND FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT
Even though the Sukuthula! initiative provides unrestricted funding, the administrators help CBO partners keep track of how they spend their funds to avoid potential fraud or mismanagement of funds. This is done in the best interest of CBO partners and the communities they serve. Unlike in conventional philanthropy, Sukuthula! administrators are more likely to engage in a dialogue with CBO partners about their spending if receipts are not forthcoming or don’t add up because the assumption is that it may not be intentional. This approach builds trust and allows CBO partners the opportunity to explain how they’ve spent their funds and share any challenges they may be experiencing. In addition, the Sukuthula! administrators held a fraud awareness workshop with CBO partners to help them better understand what good financial management looks like. For example, in the workshop, CBO partners learned that transferring funds out of a non-profit’s bank account into a personal bank account, or borrowing funds from the non-profit, even for a short period, constitutes fraud. There was one instance where this situation occurred, and criminal charges have been laid where funds have not been repaid after engagement with the individuals concerned.
LESSONS ON TRUSTBASED FUNDING FROM THE SUKUTHULA! INITIATIVE
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INTERNAL GRANT-MAKING SYSTEMS MUST SUPPORT TRUST-BASED FUNDING PRACTICES
One of the emerging lessons from the Sukuthula! initiative is the need to align the administrators’ internal grantmaking systems with the principles of trust-based funding. As mentioned earlier in this brief, trust-based funding in its purest form requires various components of an organisation to be rooted in certain values such as advancing equity. When all parts of an organisation are not geared towards operating with these values in mind, it can lead to misalignment and stumbling blocks. Trust-based grant-making requires flexible grant-making, open and transparent dialogue, and reduced administrative burdens for CBO partners. To effectively implement these practices funders must ensure adequate operational support from departments such as Human Resources (HR) and Finance from the outset. Without this internal alignment, the organisational flexibility needed for unrestricted funding, simplified and relevant reporting processes, and ongoing open communication cannot be fully realised.
2
ENSURE REPORTING FRAMEWORKS ARE AUTHENTIC AND RELEVANT
Traditional written reports may not always capture the richness of CBO partners’ experiences, particularly when oral traditions or other non-traditional forms of communication are more natural and culturally meaningful to them. To honour how CBO partners capture and communicate their stories, funders must be willing to adopt flexible reporting frameworks that reflect the most authentic means of expression for each CBO partner. This could mean accepting oral reports, visual storytelling, or reports in local languages, rather than imposing rigid, written formats that may not resonate with or fully reflect the CBO partners' work. However, for this to be successful, funders must also have the internal capacity to process and value these diverse forms of data. This requires shifts in internal systems, including monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks so that CBO partners’ voices are heard and respected in their own terms. While this approach demands more time, resources and operational flexibility on the part of the funder, it fosters more meaningful and equitable partnerships, allowing for richer insights and a deeper connection to the work being done on the ground.
3
REDEFINE RISK AND FAILURE
As the Sukuthula! initiative unfolds, the co-funders have had to grapple with how they define “risk” and “failure” within the context of trust-based funding. In conventional fundergrantee relationships, a lack of trust can limit flexibility, as funders may be reluctant to allow grantees to pivot for fear of losing money or not meeting predefined outcomes. However, the real risk lies in wasting resources on strategies that aren’t working and continuously repeating them. In a trust-based funding model, failure is reframed not as a lack of success, but as an opportunity to learn and adjust approaches. It means acknowledging when things are not working, rather than penalising grantees for the inevitable uncertainties and challenges that arise. This requires funders to distinguish between risks that are inherent in experimentation and growth versus risks that are a result of structural issues within an inequitable funding system itself. Ultimately, trust-based funding is about creating an environment that does not punish but supports adaptation and thriving. By embracing this mindset, funders can move towards a model of risk tolerance that allows for genuine innovation and impact, rather than reinforcing a system in which fear of failure stifles potential.
That said, it’s also important to recognise that no single approach is without limitations. Some people may argue that trust-based funding doesn’t fully address power imbalances or makes incorrect or limiting assumptions about what constitutes a given community and who speaks for that community. Acknowledging these limitations and continuously working to ensure practices do not exacerbate harm is part of the journey of trust-based funding, demanding self-reflection and honesty.
4
CAPACITY BUILDING MUST BE PART OF THE DESIGN
Supporting CBO partners in developing the skills and knowledge needed to succeed should not be an afterthought but a priority from the outset. It’s clear that a short-term, oneyear intervention is insufficient for CBO partners to absorb and fully integrate new skills – this process takes time, often over the course of a few years. As the Sukuthula! initiative evolved so did the need to create a structured capacity-building initiative alongside the funding process. The Sukuthula! administration team identified 13 key areas of capacity development with new components continuously being added as the initiative progresses. This adaptive approach to capacity building allows the initiative to remain relevant and responsive to the needs of CBO partners. By building capacity in tandem with the funding process, the project not only strengthens CBO partners’ operational capabilities but also fosters longterm sustainability.
HONEST AND TRANSPARENT
COMMUNICATION SUPPORTS
RELATIONSHIPS ROOTED IN TRUST AND MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
The Sukuthula! administrators have embraced local languages to foster authentic connections with CBO partners and make funding more accessible. By accepting applications and stories in all languages, the initiative is demonstrating a commitment to inclusivity and respect for the CBO partners' cultural contexts. This is not just about language, but about ensuring that the tone of engagement remains respectful and aligned with the CBO partners' realities.
Moreover, trust is not built from one direction – it is a reciprocal process. When CBO partners feel seen, listened to, and know that the funder is available for real dialogue, they are more likely to come forward with their challenges, mistakes, or needs for support without fear of judgment or repercussions. This level of openness is critical to fostering a relationship where both parties are accountable, not just for outcomes, but for building a supportive and adaptive partnership. In this regard, the Sukuthula! administrators are soliciting feedback at various touchpoints. Going forward they will ask CBO partners to complete an anonymous survey to better understand how the funders are fulfilling their role as partners in a mutually accountable relationship. Acting on this feedback will allow for continuous improvement in how funders engage and support the CBO partners.
WHAT’S NEXT?
To enhance support, the Sukuthula! initiative will need to increase staff capacity, as one person managing three dozen CBO partner relationships is not sustainable in a relational approach. Additional staff will help ensure that each partnership receives the attention and support it requires. Another focus will be exploring opportunities for CBO partners to connect and build a strong network, particularly among organisations working in proximity to one another, fostering collaboration and shared learning. Continued investment in capacity strengthening will further empower CBO partners and support their long-term success. And finally, sharing the lessons learned from this initiative with other grant-makers will be key to reshaping the broader sector, encouraging more trust-based and equitable funding models. These lessons include what the funders and administrators learn from the anonymous survey (mentioned earlier) and will form part of a future learning brief.
Research for this learning brief was provided by Daniella Horwitz with contributions from Zandile Mqwathi and Onesisa Mtwa. It was edited by Rahima Essop, Lorrie Fair and Jessie Chiliza.
This is the learning experience of:
THE LEGACY OF DOUGLAS AND ELEANOR MURRAY
DGMT is a South African foundation built on endowments from Douglas and Eleanor Murray to promote charitable, educational, philanthropic and artistic purposes within South Africa. Douglas Murray was the son of, and successor to, John Murray, the founder of the Cape-based construction company, Murray and Stewart, which was established in 1902. This company merged in 1967 with Roberts Construction to become Murray & Roberts, with the parent Trusts as the main shareholders. In 1979, the Trusts combined to form the DG Murray Trust as the main shareholder before the company was publicly listed. Subsequently, the Trust relinquished its ownership to a major finance house. Eleanor Murray remained actively engaged in the work of the Trust until her death in 1993.
The Foundation is now the holder of a portfolio of widely diversified assets, which reduces the risks in funding the achievement of its strategic objectives. DGMT currently distributes about R200 million per year and leverages and manages a similar amount of funding through joint ventures with other investors. DGMT’s ultimate goal is to create an ethical and enabling environment where human needs and aspirations are met; where every person is given the opportunity to fulfil their potential, for both personal benefit and for that of the wider community.
By investing in South Africa’s potential we aim to:
› Create opportunity for personal growth and development that will encourage people to achieve their potential.
› Help reduce the gradients that people face in trying to seize those opportunities.
› Affirm the value and dignity of those who feel most marginalised and devalued by society.
The DGMT Board
TRUSTEES Mvuyo Tom (Chairperson) - John Volmink - Ameen Amod - Shirley Mabusela Murphy Morobe - Hugo Nelson - Maria Mabetoa - Diane Radley CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER David Harrison
