GIVING FROM A DISTANCE THE PROBLEM OF FUNDING GOOD CAUSES IN AFRICA

Fundraising is an enormous challenge for NGOs throughout Africa, thanks to the concentration of wealth in developed countries and deeply rooted distrust of the quality of leadership on the continent, according to a new report.

“It is impossible to grasp the reality of living in Africa and the needs of an (African) community from the top of a high-rise building in New York or London.”

It should go without saying, of course, yet this statement expresses the disconnect at the heart of an eyeopening new report on the enormous funding gap that exists at grassroots level in Africa. Titled Disparities in Funding for African NGOs (July 2021, published by the African Philanthropy Forum and non-profit consultancy The Bridgespan Group) the report spells out in stark terms how little funding for development or humanitarian purposes from any source goes directly to African NGOs – those with headquarters on the continent of Africa, that reflect the communities they serve, work in partnership with local people and organisations, and are staffed by nationals of the countries they operate in.

Instead, most large-scale philanthropy from non-African funders goes to

By Roz Wrottesley

international NGOs (INGOs), such as Feed the Children, Oxfam, the Red Cross and ActionAid, all of which have programmes in many developing countries, but are headquartered in none. The funders are predominantly grantmaking foundations, including private foundations, donor collaboratives and high-net-worth individuals. A dip into the statistics reveals the following:

• US foundations funded sub-Saharan Africa to the tune of US$9 billion in 2018, but just 5.2% of that total was given to Africa-based NGOs, according to the African Visionary Fellowship, which connects big donors with local NGOs.

• The Disparities report reveals that just 1% of development aid targeted at combating malaria in 2017 went to research institutions in the affected countries.

• In the same year, 0.4% of all international humanitarian aid went directly to local and national NGOs. Put another way, The Guardian newspaper reported in January of this year that more than 99% of worldwide aid goes to INGOs that are not based in Africa or run by Africans.

• Over the past decade, African donors directed just 9% of large gifts (by value), and non-African donors just 14%, to NGOs based on the continent.

As well as drawing from several existing reports on who benefits most from global funding, the Disparities researchers conducted interviews with more than 60 stakeholders and conducted a survey with

50 respondents. The interviewees and survey respondents included African and non-African funders, African NGO leaders, Africa-focused INGO leaders, researchers, and intermediaries.

The feedback the researchers received left them in no doubt that the obvious preference for dealing with INGOs, rather than national and local organisations, has profound implications beyond the amount and frequency of funding. It feeds into the perception that African NGOs are “somehow less capable, less trustworthy, and less accountable than their international counterparts”.

The result is a vicious circle: lack of confidence results in persistently low levels of funding, which in turn prevents grassroots organisations from developing their skills, recruiting staff and expanding their reach. They also have to fight the funding battle on two fronts continually, prioritising their pitches to the international grantmakers with the deepest pockets, while also competing for the attention of African philanthropists across the continent.

Biases and barriers

In her submission to the researchers, Shelagh Gastrow, who founded the South African NGO Inyathelo to promote the development of a philanthropic movement in South Africa and now provides independent advisory services to the sector, explained the dominance of the grantmaking foundations as, at best, the result of a pervasive lack of trust in the leadership of African NGOs. At worst, she said, it reflects deep-seated historical bias.

“Most people think local leaders can’t deliver on contracts … they could be involved in corruption… they won’t report honestly,” she said. “All those things are part of the image that dominates international donor thinking about Africa.”

Nazeema Mohamed, executive director of Inyathelo, pointed out that many of the most successful African non-profits tend to have had leaders at some time or other who had the social and cultural capital to make a good impression in Euro- and US-centric environments.

“So funders continue to give to these non-profits, whose leaders comfortably fit within a particular world view and match the prototype of who is considered a successful leader. We call them the ‘RollsRoyce non-profits’. I don’t know if black [African] female leaders would have had the same success. It feels like we have to work so much harder to be recognised as successful leaders.”

The report’s authors conclude that there are three forms of bias:

1. Familiarity bias. As Mohamed said above, when sourcing organisations to fund, the decision makers tend to identify and fund known leaders, or show a preference for familiar credentials.

2. Racial bias. Kennedy Odede of Shining Hope for Communities, an NGO operating in Kenya’s urban slums, referred the researchers to racial injustice in the United States and told them that it goes well beyond that country’s borders. “Any honest reckoning must include open dialogue around race in international development,” he said. Given the legacy of colonisation and the power dynamics that exist between high- and low-income economies, the report concludes that racial bias may permeate the entire grantmaking process.

3. Cultural bias. “Several interviewees noted a preference for Western communication styles, not to mention a reliance on the English language, which automatically puts many African NGOs at a disadvantage,” say the authors. “Researchers heard that concepts such as ‘polish’ and ‘professionalism’— deeply subjective terms, especially across cultural contexts — are often defined by uniquely American or European standards, again stacking the cards against some African organisations.”

The Covid-19 effect

With bias driving doubt about the capacity or integrity of grassroots organisations, perceptions of risk become a factor in funding decision-making. This results in restricted, short-term, or one-off funding encumbered by burdensome conditions and increased oversight.

If ever a single crisis highlighted the need to invest in communities for the long term, it was the emergence of the Covid19 pandemic in 2020. When international organisations evacuated their non-African staff, they “left NGOs reliant on already overextended budgets to augment life-ordeath interventions, support often underresourced government health services, and ramp up humanitarian efforts”, according to the report.

It provides examples of many African NGOs that stepped in to fill the void, including Gift of the Givers in Southern Africa, Lwala Community Alliance in East Africa, and Drasa Health Trust in West Africa,” say the report’s authors.

“For Janet Mawiyoo, former executive director of the Kenya Community Development Foundation, the value of having organisations on the ground, close to communities, and in tune with their needs was essential during the coronavirus response. ‘The people who are near communities understand what is going on,’ she told us. ‘They have been part of it. So they are key in helping you figure out how to deal with the situation you have. If you are serious about sustainability, this is a structure you can’t ignore.’

The report continues: “Even as many high-income countries begin to turn the tide against the pandemic with vaccine rollouts in 2021, low-income countries continue to see low rates of vaccination, in part due to vaccine shortages. As a result, at the time of writing, those organisations already on the ground, already battling organisational challenges and funding shortages, remain the last line of defence.

“If the role played by African NGOs during the Covid-19 crisis tells us anything, it’s that building robust, strong, supported, and effective African organisations is essential – as a means not only of responding to global crises like Covid19, but of meeting the day-to-day and continuing needs of communities battered by poverty, global inequalities, the legacy of the past, and political and social challenges.”

Proximity Matters

You cannot relate to the problems of African communities – let alone respond to them – without proximity to the people and their living conditions. This is clear from the Disparities report.

The authors regard proximity as the greatest asset of NGO leaders, who “through their own lived experience are closest to the problems they seek to address.” Local NGOs have the benefit of:

• Context. Because the needs of the community are the shared reality of leaders and staff, African NGOs are better placed to recognise and understand local problems and patterns of behaviour. For example, an NGO called Friendship Bench has been successful in Zimbabwe because its founder, Dixon Chibanda, drew from his knowledge and experience of mental health challenges in his own community and then set out to tackle the problem more widely. Chibanda recognised the social standing grandmothers enjoyed in hard-to-reach communities, as well as their commitment to helping others, and turned those social and human elements into much-needed sustainable mental health services.

• Credibility. African NGOs and leaders have the trust of the community and the credibility to carry out the work, said Professor Amos Njuguna, dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the United States International University-Africa in Kenya and founder of the Network for Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa.

“Locals do much, much better,” he said.

“I’ve heard … people saying, ‘When I have someone who is based away from Kenya, I feel like this person is a bit far away and does not understand.’”

• Sustainability. African NGOs are committed to their communities and to sustainable development, says the report. Jennifer Lentfer, creator of the blog How-matters.org, which focuses on international aid and philanthropy, made the important point that when organisations are motivated and led by people from the communities they serve, they are more likely to remain in those communities, working on the issues, long after international actors have left.

• Building an ecosystem. By investing in African NGOs, funders invest in talent and support a sector that will have staying power over a longer period of time.

Ndidi Nwuneli, founder of Lagos-based LEAP Africa, which focuses on equipping people to be leaders, told the researchers that funding local NGOs builds capacity for the long term. “I compare that to an INGO that comes in, implements a project, and when the funding ends, packs up. There’s no long-term impact, no sustainability beyond the life of the project. These forms of investments do not create a viable sector, nor the leaders and champions to drive transformation in the medium-to-long term.”