Philanthropy Age Issue 09 by Philanthropy Age

HUNGRY FOR CHANGE WFP head Ertharin Cousin on funding, fragile communities, and the battle to feed the world

THE PROMISE OF YOUTH Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud on unlocking the potential of Saudi Arabia’s young talent

SAVING THE WORLD Climate change is arguably the fight of our lifetime. So why does it attract so little philanthropic cash?

Middle East, North Africa, South Asia

ISSUE 09 OCT – DEC 2015

www.philanthropyage.com

Dedicated to thoughtful giving

HOW PEOPLE GIVE, WHY PEOPLE GIVE, AND HOW TO REACH THEM

Give a lifeline to a Syrian refugee family in need.

CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE... REGULARS

FEATURES

THE MOMENT

NEED TO KNOW

VIEWPOINT

GLOBAL EYE

ONE DAY

18/68

COMMENT

20/62/76

BIG PICTURE

NEXT STEP

GIVING IN THE GCC Philanthropy Age, in partnership with research consultancy YouGov, offers for the first time a comprehensive picture of Arab giving behaviour in the Gulf

HUNGRY FOR CHANGE Aided by generosity and public will, the eradication of world hunger is within reach, says Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the UN’s food-aid agency, the WFP

VISION, NOT VICTIM With ambitions to become teachers, painters and even an astronaut, meet the Syrian girls determined to overcome the odds and shape their own futures

“EDUCATION AND GIVING BACK IS

ALMOST A FAMILY MANTRA. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GIVING PEOPLE A SKILLSET THAT ALLOWS THEM TO SUCCEED, AND CHARITY”

PRINCESS REEMA BINT BANDAR AL SAUD, Saudi entrepreneur

HOUSE OF CARDS Slums from Egypt to India show the urgent need to tackle an acute shortage of housing for the world’s poorest communities

THE PROMISE OF YOUTH Saudi Arabian entrepreneur Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud on how enterprise and more women at work could unlock the kingdom’s youth potential

SAVING THE WORLD Climate change is arguably the defining issue of our time. So why does the fight against environmental disaster attract so little private philanthropic funding?

CONTENTS

NEXT GENERATION From the streets of Beirut, to Cairo and Riyadh, we talk to the young Arabs tackling the challenges of social enterprise

REFUGE IN ART Meet the Australia-based project showcasing artworks created by refugees to express feelings of exile, hope and endurance, and pay tribute to their journeys

BEYOND THE BOTTOM LINE Hailed by global partners such as USAID, Sudan’s DAL Group shows the power of one company to help a country and its people

THE ROAD TO EQUALITY Founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed shares the story of Brac from its modest beginnings in Bangladesh, to its evolution into the largest NGO in the world today

“WE ARE RAISING AS MUCH, OR

MORE, AS WE’VE EVER RAISED. THE NUMBER OF CRISES IS OUTPACING THE GENEROSITY” ERTHARIN COUSIN, executive director, the WFP

FROM THE WEB The latest from PhilanthropyAge.com

NGOS GO TO SCHOOL Saudi philanthropist Amr Al Dabbagh takes aim at one of the biggest challenges for NGOs: human capacity

LEARN AND EARN The site pairing Syrian refugees with students seeking to learn Arabic, to boost their earning power

TEACHING AID Training Arab aid workers could speed relief response, says the head of the world’s first humanitarian academy

AN END TO SLAVERY Leading private charity, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, pledges $10m to the fight to end slavery

There are over 36 million people trapped in slavery today. Nearly every country in the world is touched by modern slavery and human trafficking. Learn more about the work of the Freedom Fund and our partners on the frontlines of the fight. Join us today to end this crime against humanity. freedomfund.org Invest in Freedom

PHILANTHROPY AGE

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WITH OUR THANKS TO...

A ZIM KIDWAI

KHALID AL AME RI

Azim Kidwai is founder and chairman of the National Zakat Foundation UK, and the CEO of Ramadan TV. In this issue, he explains how the impactful investment of zakat can deliver real change for needy communities.

Khalid Al Ameri is a social columnist for UAE newspapers The Gulf Today and The National, as well as a motivational speaker and youth coach. Here, he tells us how tapping into Emirati national pride could foster a culture of giving.

JOHN VIDAL

ME RE DITH HUTCHISON

A commentator on sustainability and corporate social responsibility, John Vidal is environment editor for UK newspaper The Guardian. He joined the paper in 1995 after working for Agence FrancePresse. In this issue, he explores the lack of philanthropic funding spent tackling climate change and efforts to reverse the trend.

A photographer and photofacilitator, Meredith Hutchison is voice and visibility coordinator with nonprofit International Rescue Committeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (IRC) programme for women. She first teamed up with IRC to help young Syrian refugee girls in Jordan visualise their future selves. The resulting campaign features in this issue.

Anas Ahmad Albounni; Mark Makhlouf; Faraz Qaiser; Mareena Khawar; Michel Al Asmar; Qaiser Nawaz; Sam Birouty; Liz Rankin; Celina Lucey

Touchline CEO FZ-LLC Leonard Stall

COO & Partner Waleed Gubara

Publisher & Partner Salem AlShaikh

Business Development Mona Mahmoud mona@touchline.ae

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Contributors: Azim Kidwai; Khalid Al Ameri; John Vidal; Meredith Hutchison; Verko Ignjatovic; Hana Robinson Images: Getty; Corbis; Reuters; MSF; WFP; IRC; 10KSA; FoodBlessed; Refugee Art Project; Dal Group; Brac ISSN: 2306-0328 Distributed by: GLS Media Services Printed by: Emirates Printing Press, Dubai

Founder sponsor:

THE MOMENT

‘WE SEEK NOTHING BUT GOD’S APPROVAL’ Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, unveils his most ambitious philanthropic project yet: a foundation that hopes to spur peace and prosperity in the Arab region, and wider world 04/10/2015

heikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has helped the blind to see, the impoverished to learn and been instrumental in fighting vaccinepreventable diseases among the world’s neediest children. But these feats may pale in comparison to the challenge that now lies before him. In October, Dubai’s ruler unveiled his most ambitious philanthropic project yet: a global foundation that aims to tackle poverty and illness, build communities and drive innovation in more than 116 countries around the world. And its first target is the troubled Arab region itself. “The world today is facing great challenges on all levels; in terrorism, wars and mass immigration. The only solution lies in human development,” said Sheikh Mohammed, who is also vice president of the UAE. “The Arab region is undergoing massive challenges. We will not turn our backs on our region; we will provide our support and bring hope in a better future for our youth.” Mohammed bin Rashid Global Initiatives seeks to reach 130 million people over the coming years, through a 1,300-strong web of programmes. With an annual budget of AED1bn ($272m), it will cluster the work of existing Dubai-backed agencies such as the blindness prevention charity, Noor Dubai, UAE Water Aid, and Dubai Cares, which

focuses on delivering education to primaryschool children in low-income countries. By 2025, the foundation hopes to have educated 20 million children, and to have prevented or treated blindness and eye disease in 30 million people. It will invest $409m in education and science drives, including distributing more than 10 million books, and translating 25,000 foreignlanguage titles into Arabic, to promote literacy among the region’s youth. Some $1.5bn of funding is to be ringfenced for innovation, to nurture Arab entrepreneurs, and give rise to jobs. More than $163m has been set aside to spur media dialogue, and to turn communities away from extremism and discrimination. The foundation hopes its efforts will play some part in shrinking unemployment rates, in driving education and crosscultural harmony, and in raising a new generation of Arab leaders. “The world has spent tens of billions on addressing global challenges. If only a quarter of this amount was spent on development in our region… our people could overcome their difficulties,” Sheikh Mohammed said. The scope of the Arab world’s trials may be significant, but so too is the ambition of Dubai’s ruler to address them. “With all our work and initiatives, we seek nothing but God’s approval,” he said. “Our true value is measured by what we add to this life.”

THE MOMENT

“WE WILL NOT

TURN OUR BACKS ON OUR REGION. WE WILL BRING HOPE FOR OUR YOUTH”

NEED TO KNOW

TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

329

ONE SHOT

20 MILLION PEOPLE

THE NUMBER OF aid workers attacked last year, according to the Aid Worker Security Report 2015. Of these, some 120 were killed, 88 wounded and 121 kidnapped. Afghanistan, torn by more than three decades of conflict, remains the most dangerous country for aid workers. Syria’s ongoing war sees it take an unsurprising second place, followed by South Sudan in third.

CLOSE TO 20 million people were forced to flee their homes by floods, storms and earthquakes last year, a trend driven by worsening climate change and rising urbanisation, but which better planning could slow, says the

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Asia, the worst affected region, saw 16.7 million people displaced in 2014 by disasters. The NRC says since 2008, an average of 26.4 million people have been displaced by disasters each year.

80% of malaria deaths are in children under the age of five

HIS GIFT IS AN INSPIRATION TO ALL OF US WORKING IN PHILANTHROPY AROUND THE WORLD BILL GATES, cofounder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, responds to news Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed is to gift his $32bn wealth to charity 3

$2 BILLION

WAR IN SYRIA has driven more than 4 million people to shelter in neighbouring countries, the UN said in July, making Syria the largest refugee crisis in 25 years.

GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERTS have called for a new $2bn vaccine fund to drive a pipeline of potential new shots against fatal developing world diseases such as Ebola, MERS and the West Nile virus. The money would help bridge the gap between early stage drug discovery work and large-scale clinical trials. “We can no longer sit back and ignore the chronic lack of progress in developing new vaccines,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity.

7.6 million

Displaced within Syria

4.01 million Refugees

9.7 BILLION BY 2050 THE CURRENT GLOBAL population of 7.3 billion is forecast to reach 9.7 billion in 2050, according to the UN. India will overtake China as the most populous state in under a decade.

2015

4 MILLION

EUROPEAN REGULATORS have given the green light to the world’s first malaria vaccine as safe and effective to use in babies. The shot – Mosquirix – is the result of GlaxoSmithKline's years of work and heavy investment from the Gates Foundation.

7.3 billion

2050

9.7 billion

2100

11.2 billion 7

NEED TO KNOW

47% WHEN INTERNATIONAL DONORS pledge millions of dollars either for post-conflict reconstruction or for emergency humanitarian aid, on average less than half of what is promised actually reaches the coffers of recovering nations, according to global charity Oxfam.

122 52 36 0

Number of polio cases in Nigeria in 2012 Number of polio cases in Nigeria in 2013 Number of polio cases in Nigeria in 2014 Number of polio cases in Nigeria in 2015

“THEIR NUMBERS GROW AND ACCELERATE; EVERY SINGLE DAY, ON EVERY CONTINENT”

UN HIGH COMMISSIONER for Refugees António Guterres reveals the number of people forcibly uprooted worldwide reached almost 60 million last year, an historic high. Globally, one in every 122 people is now a refugee, is displaced or seeking asylum. 2004

2013

2014

37.5

51.2

59.5

MILLIONS DISPLACED PER YEAR 9

NIGERIA’S POLIO-FREE YEAR SEES WORLD INCH CLOSER TO ERADICATION NIGERIA HAS MARKED its first year without a single new case of polio, reaching a milestone many had thought unlikely as internal conflict impeded the fight against the paralysing disease. Nigeria’s polio-free period, from July 24 2014, is the longest it has gone without recording a case. If the West African country can keep polio at bay for another two years, it will succeed in being certified as polio-free. “Our eyes are on the prize, but this is the most critical time in the programme,” said Nigerian health minister Fidelis Nwankwo. “There is no room for complacency until we achieve eradication in 2017.” Along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, Nigeria was one of just three places deemed endemic for polio. The country had struggled to contain the poliomyelitis virus, which attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection, after some northern states imposed a year-long ban on vaccinations in 2003.

The ban followed allegations by some state governors and religious leaders that vaccines were contaminated by the west to spread sterility and diseases among Muslims. By 2012, and amid civil turmoil, Nigeria accounted for more than half of the world’s polio cases. But tactics including engaging community leaders and volunteers in immunisation campaigns helped turn the tide. The pressure is now on for Afghanistan and Pakistan to follow suit. The fight is truly global: countries including Kuwait and the UAE have donated much to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), with more than $11bn invested in the campaign since 1988. This support is critical to reduce polio’s caseload to zero. The Middle East is proof the virus can easily stage a comeback; an outbreak in Syria swept across to Iraq in early 2014, leading to two cases and breaking a decade-long polio-free record. As long as a single child is vulnerable to infection, children in all countries remain at risk. 10

VIEWPOINT

WHAT MORE COULD GCC STATES DO TO RECOGNISE AND FOSTER THE RISE OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISES? KHALI D ALKHU DAIRI FOU N D E R A N D C EO, GLOWORK

N O O R S H AW WA MANAGING DIRECTOR, E N D E AVO R UA E

GENNY GHANIMEH FOUNDER, PI SLICE

Rather than seeing it as solely the government’s job to foster the rise of social enterprises, I’m in favour of the business community taking a bigger role. Many businesses have corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, but it can be difficult to track the impact of this investment. Instead, I’d like to see firms establish social entrepreneurship responsibility departments, which invest directly in social entrepreneurs that have a vision aligned with their own. Governments in the GCC and elsewhere could also encourage firms to invest tax and zakat in social entrepreneurship. This policy would ensure job creation and, long term, a more sustainable business community.

Social enterprises have a critical role to play in the business community, but for-profit firms can also have a positive social impact. They create jobs, a pressing social issue for the Middle East, with small and medium-sized enterprises being the largest employers in economies. At Endeavor, we’ve found the top five to 10 per cent of these firms generate 50 to 70 per cent of all jobs. Supporting the entrepreneurs behind these businesses is an effective way to accelerate job creation. Furthermore, many give back in other ways, such as through CSR or as inspiration to the next generation. Aiding these high-impact entrepreneurs has a magnified effect, which ultimately leads to social impact.

In recent years, we’ve seen a wave of accelerators, incubators and competitions supporting entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Social entrepreneurship does not yet have the same support. Philanthropic capital as well as regional CSR budgets could and should be used in a strategic way to provide early-stage funding for social firms. Governments can play a role in raising awareness of social ventures, their scalability and their impact. The social investment market offers both an opportunity to access huge untapped potential, and to contribute to solving urgent challenges. Governments can be the catalyst for this change.

DIARY

SAHAR WAH B E H FOUNDER, DUMYÉ The financial commitment required to start a company in the GCC is prohibitive for many young entrepreneurs and the laws are intimidating. These challenges are amplified in social enterprise. To my knowledge, the GCC has – as yet – no way to legally recognise a social enterprise. You are either a business or a nonprofit organisation: there is no category to account for social entrepreneurs’ double bottom line of financial growth and impact. We need the legal systems in the region to evolve to acknowledge, respect and nurture social entrepreneurs and the contributions they make to our communities. Remove the financial barriers, give social entrepreneurs legal status and make the broader laws surrounding enterprise more forgiving.

RAED AL EMADI D E PUT Y C EO A N D COO, S I L AT E C H Social entrepreneurs face many of the same challenges that traditional entrepreneurs encounter, including access to finance and a lack of mentoring and incubation services. Improving the overall climate for entrepreneurship in the region, for example the region’s bankruptcy laws, will benefit social entrepreneurs as well. One of the best ways to support social enterprises in the long run is simply to do business with them, and governments can take the lead by integrating social enterprises into their own supply chains. Fostering social entrepreneurship in the GCC can support a virtuous cycle in the region, contributing to much-needed economic development and to improved social cohesion.

KEY DATES FOR YOUR DIARY EVENTS FOR THE NEXT QUARTER SAN FRANCISCO

MUMBAI

KIGALI

O C TO B E R 6 - 9 More than 2,000 entrepreneurs and impact investors will debate and digest the increasing flow of capital towards social good at SOCAP15, run by MissionHUB, an event that aims to accelerate the market at the ‘intersection of money and meaning’.

O C TO B E R 15 -16 The second Global Social Entrepreneurship Network (GSEN) event will examine the ecosystem needed for early stage social businesses to spring onto a global stage. This year’s offering is co-hosted by social enterprise incubator UnLtd India.

O C TO B E R 2 6 - 2 7 African philanthropists and social investors are acting to improve quality of life through strategic giving and impact-led investing. The African Philanthropy Forum in Rwanda’s capital will give them the chance to share, discuss and learn from experiences across the continent.

ABU DHABI

LONDON

O C TO B E R 2 7- 2 8 The annual Emirates Foundation Youth Philanthropy Summit provides a platform to unite institutes, business leaders, government agencies and philanthropists in the pursuit of maximising the impact of social investment.

NOVEM B ER 4 - 5 Co-hosted by the American University in Cairo and Abu Dhabi University, the fifth edition of Takaful will highlight the most pressing issues in Arab civic engagement and philanthropy and the region’s own growing engagement strategies.

N O V E M B E R 17-18 Empowerment, rights and the challenge of human trafficking and modern-day slavery will be on the agenda as legal experts, rights activists and pioneers in the field of women’s rights gather in London for the annual Trust Women conference.

GLOBAL EYE

BARE NECESSITIES Though taken for granted in the west, toilets and clean drinking water are luxuries still denied to millions in the developing world, finds a joint WHO and Unicef report

FOR 2.4 BILLION people around the world, dirty drinking water and open defecation remain a daily way of life. One in three people globally live without toilets, raising the risk that reservoirs and wells will be contaminated and creating a direct threat to public health. The issue is one of dignity, but also of economic growth. The repercussions of poor sanitation range from lower child survival rates, to family breadwinners losing work through sickness. Twenty-five years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef began to track global access to drinking water and

toilets. Much has changed since then, but the world has yet to achieve its goal of universal access. While 90 per cent of the population now has clean drinking water, just 68 per cent have access to a toilet. South Asia is particularly blighted: 610 million people in the region still defecate outdoors, the vast majority of which come from the rural poor. This patchy progress on sanitation threatens to subvert hard-won gains on clean water, by spreading disease and risking the health of millions worldwide. For many in poorer nations, the battle for lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basic rights goes on.

RUNNING DRY

NOT A DROP TO DRINK: THOSE WITHOUT CLEAN WATER

WATER IS CRITICAL to human life, still many people are forced to walk for hours to secure what those in wealthy countries gain just by turning on a tap. Happily, this situation is changing. In 1990, more than 340 million people drank water collected from a river or stream. In 2015, 91 per cent of the global population has access to an improved water source: a protected well, spring or piped water. Such progress holds much promise for the 663 million people still missing out.

319 MILLION

134 MILLION

65 MILLION

61 MILLION

Sub-Saharan Africa

Southern Asia

Eastern Asia

Southeastern Asia

GLOBAL EYE

URBAN AND RURAL DIVIDE

IN SOME REGIONS, the problem is not access to an adequate toilet – but having a toilet at all. Although the rate has fallen since 1990 from 38 per cent to 25 per cent worldwide, 946 million people today still defecate in the open. The majority – some two-thirds – live in southern Asia. Progress has mainly been seen in richer urban areas, and has largely bypassed the rural poor, who lack the

same access to municipal sources of water and connections to a utility-operated sewerage system. The impact is vast, especially for children. Some 161 million globally suffer from stunting or chronic malnutrition, caused in part by open defecation and waterborne diseases. In India, there has been little change in sanitation habits over the last 20 years for the country’s poorest rural inhabitants.

HIOPIA ET

*Source: 'Progress on sanitation and drinking water 2015 update and MDG assessment'; UNICEF and WHO

KISTAN PA

56%

36%

BUILD TOILETS, SAVE LIVES

FAILURE TO FLUSH

SOME 2.1 BILLION people have gained access to toilets since 1990, marking a significant win for global child health. Better sanitation means more children survive past their fifth birthday, shielded from diseases spread by poor water. The UN says fewer than 1,000 under-fives die each day from diarrhoea, compared to over 2,000 15 years ago.

IN 1990, JUST over half – or 54 per cent – of the world’s population had access to an adequate toilet, defined as one that keeps human waste out of the environment. Today, that figure stands at 68 per cent. Significant progress has been made in South Asia – the region with the most woeful record in 1990. In 25 years, an average of 63,000 people each day have gained access to a toilet in the region, adding up to some 576 million people over the period.

340,000

USE OF IMPROVED SANITATION, BY REGION

Global deaths per year of underfives from diarrhoeal diseases

89% 72%

NORTHERN AFRICA SOUTHEASTERN ASIA

GLADES AN

INDIA

64%

NEPAL

FALL IN THE PRACTISE OF OPEN DEFECATION SINCE 1990 (%)

33%

31%

47% SOUTHERN ASIA 30% SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

ONE DAY

‘OUR PATIENTS JUST WANT TO LIVE NORMAL LIVES’ Dr Gregory Keane gave up a successful career as a psychiatrist in Australia to join Médecins Sans Frontières. Today, he oversees the global nonprofit’s mental health programme in the West Bank. Here, he takes Philanthropy Age through his day W R I T E R TA M A R A WA L I D

01 Dr Gregory Keane left a career in Australia to take up a post with MSF in Palestine’s West Bank 02 ‘‘The great thing about working with children is how resilient they can be,’’ says Keane

arrived in the West Bank in February of this year. I thought I had at least some idea of what I’d face: after all, I grew up watching the intifadas and the endless cycle of failed peace negotiations on television. But the reality of the situation hit me hard. You see signs of the occupation everywhere here. There are massive walls, checkpoints, Jeeps and soldiers, Israeli settlements and Palestinian villages separated by electronic fences, and the less visible but grinding system of permits and restrictions. I saw the separate number plates and roads for Israelis and Palestinians, the different laws, and the fact that Palestinians have no control over 60 per cent of the West Bank, and limited control over the rest. It is clear how the situation might cause depression, anxiety and trauma-related disorders. My morning starts with a meeting with our clinical staff. We have a multidisciplinary team made up of psychologists, social workers and doctors, working in Nablus, Qalqilya, Hebron and the Gaza Strip. We sit down each morning and talk about what happened yesterday and what we’ll be doing today. This is important because we share patients to help with different aspects of their lives. We coordinate our tasks for the day and off we go. We typically see patients in the field; more than half the time we do home visits. There are people in smaller villages and those who can’t leave their homes for

different reasons, such as worrying they might be demolished when they go out. My first patient in the West Bank was a nine-year-old boy who struggled with bedwetting and nightmares. His mother described the search operations by Israeli soldiers into their house late at night, how the family was woken at 1am by banging on the door. Imagine: all these soldiers with helmets, guns, dogs, bursting into your bedroom. It’s shocking. Who wouldn’t have nightmares after experiencing that? You can’t help but wonder sometimes; ‘Am I doing this, patching someone up, so they can go back and face this again, tomorrow night?’ It’s an ethical dilemma, but in the end, our patients are just like everyone else, everywhere else. They want to go to school and learn, to work, and share meals with their families. People want to live normal lives. We can help them reach some of those goals. A lot of our patients are mothers. We know that women are usually the emotional support for their families; they do the practical caring, and carry the burden of worrying. There’s no doubt that men suffer too, although they have different expectations placed on them by their culture and their community. The great thing about working with children is how resilient they can be. To experience a traumatic event like those we see here, then after six or 12 sessions of therapy show this huge improvement – it makes you see the value in therapy.

It’s also satisfying to see a family with our doctor, a therapist and social worker. The whole team works together to support their needs – therapy for mental health symptoms, treatment for any medical conditions, then possibly support in finding training opportunities, or thinking about a way to earn money from home. Everybody can make a difference in their own way. Even though I’ve worked as a doctor for 15 years, working with children who have been through traumatic situations can be quite difficult, especially when you know the trauma can reoccur. It’s emotionally heavy for all of us. On average, we would do five to seven sessions per therapist per day. There are four of us and we’re adding another therapist. It’s critical to stay focused and do the best job we can while looking out for each other as a team, so we can go home at the end of the day, be functional and live our lives.

This is one of my key responsibilities as a clinical manager, in supervising all of our clinical staff. Some cases can be quite traumatic, sad, sometimes scary, and can trigger different emotions. I have to make sure the team is OK, so I check in with them at the beginning and end of each day. Once a week, we discuss their cases and the things they found hard to deal with or want to celebrate.

goes back to work; a child gets up in the morning, awake and energetic for school; a mother supported in her grief can start parenting her other children again: there’s a fire in a lot of the people you meet here, a refusal to give up. You have to be humble about the changes you attempt to make. As a psychiatrist who has come to help people with mental health disorders I find

“YOU CAN’T HELP BUT WONDER; AM I PATCHING

SOMEONE UP TO FACE THIS AGAIN TOMORROW NIGHT?”

My mission here is for nine months, and saying goodbye is not going to be easy. When you leave somewhere, you take a part of the people you’ve worked with, and hopefully you can leave something of yourself too. The team here is awesome. They live the occupation but keep working day after day to build something with the lives they patch up. One person

the concept of resilience here fascinating. What makes people strong? What pushes them to get up each day? Some people have faced enormous loss; their family, a loved one, their home, their job or their whole country, yet they can be joyful, they can contribute and live fulfilling lives. For me, watching that is fascinating. It’s something to which I can only aspire.

COMMENT

THE EVOLUTION OF ZAK AT Zakat is not just a means of alleviating poverty, says Azim Kidwai. Used creatively, it can be a tool to deliver real change among needy communities through impactful investment

AZIM KIDWAI is founder and chairman of the National Zakat Foundation UK, and the CEO of Ramadan TV. He is a board advisor to the National Zakat Foundation and chairman of the UK-based organisation Charity Right

he GCC is no stranger to charity. Philanthropy is embedded in the social fabric of the region, with billions of dollars pledged to good causes each year. Much of this giving comes from a distinct source: zakat. This obligatory form of alms giving is a pillar of the Islamic faith, and requires each Muslim to give 2.5 per cent of their net wealth to benefit the needy. Giving is often directed towards relief projects in developing nations, and funnelled through established charities. This philanthropy is admirable. But it could go further. I believe there is scope for those with an interest in sustainable progress to use their zakat as a means of impact investment, to help drive social change in communities around the world. At issue is the definition of ‘needy’, and its expansion beyond the regular meaning of those in absolute or relative poverty. The Quran says: “Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakah] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveller – an obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is knowing and wise.” (Quran, 9:60) By this definition, zakat is not simply a means to manage poverty, but rather is inherently focused on building honour,

dignity and self-sufficiency in the wider community. This is clearly shown by the diversity of the categories of genuine zakat recipients. ‘Needy’ refers to more than just the poor and destitute and includes those facing circumstances, which if unresolved, will lead them to poverty and destitution. This may include those struggling with debt, for example, or refugees fleeing conflict. There are eight categories of giving. Too much charitable work looks to the first and second categories of zakat – “the poor and for the needy” – and too little attention is given to the others. There is no doubt that poverty is a pressing global concern, but that would also have been the case when zakat was legislated. And yet six other considerations were made by God when establishing the Islamic tradition and the pillars of faith. With this in mind, we can be more creative in our giving. There is a real opportunity to explore the role zakat can have by redefining the ‘needy’ that we seek to serve. Viewing our contributions through the prism of social impact investment could have a dramatic impact in the way we give. A standard approach to investing is to create a diverse and balanced portfolio. Why not apply the same principles to the way we give our money away? Zakat has eight clearly defined categories that need attention. Taking care to give across the board to each would help maximise the impact of the substantial contributions made by the GCC – particularly at a time when the region is in bloom, with strong economic growth helping to generate greater zakat liabilities. Zakat is identified as something to purify wealth and inculcate selflessness,

“DOES OUR ZAKAT FEED

SOMEONE FOR A DAY, OR DOES IT HELP FREE THEM FROM THE SHACKLES OF POVERTY?”

COMMENT

and gratitude to God for the blessings of wealth. However, zakat also means growth. The payment of zakat is intended to bring growth to the wealth of those that give, not only to those that receive it. As the Quran says: “The parable of those who spend their substances in the way of God is that of grain of corn: it groweth seven ears, and each ear hath a hundred grains. God giveth manifold increase to whom He pleaseth: and God careth for all and He knoweth all things.” (Quran 2:261) We should ask; does our zakat actually do this? Does our zakat feed someone for a day, or does it help to liberate them from the shackles of poverty? Furthermore, when we consider need, why stop at material need for those living in absolute or relative poverty? Zakat has eight legitimate areas, and we can see all of them could have a major social

impact. Consider for a moment just one other category: ‘‘those in debt’’. In the wake of the global economic crisis, both individuals and whole nations lost their financial footing. This was particularly the case for those in the developing world, where local economies were often unduly affected by the decisions of national governments. I believe there is a role for philanthropists to engage local and national communities with zakat-funded entrepreneurship and development programmes, designed to help uplift whole regional and national economies. For the poor – who lack security and represent high-risk lending – zakat could provide a source of funding with the potential for enormous impact and an ability to absorb default risks like no other finance in the world.

This is just one example of how zakat could be deployed as a form of impact investment, but there are many more inspiring examples to be found. Research and progressive scholarship must lead the way in exploring how all the divinely prescribed categories of zakat can find their correct place in the modern world. Brave philanthropists working with smart, social entrepreneurs are ideally placed to give rise to a civil renaissance, with zakat at its very heart. We have an obligation to give zakat and an opportunity to be creative in how we use it for good. Let’s not waste it.

01 Zakat spans eight categories of giving, but much focus is given to the first: ‘the needy’ 02 A new approach to alms giving has the potential to uplift entire communities, writes Kidwai

THE MOMENT

“THIS WILL

HELP TO BUILD A MORE PEACEFUL, EQUITABLE WORLD FOR GENERATIONS TO COME”

THE MOMENT

GIVING, GCC-STYLE In pledging his entire fortune to charity, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal joins the latest trend among the world’s ultra-wealthy 01/07/2015

n a warm July morning in Riyadh, before a small crowd of reporters, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal joined the world’s most elite club. The billionaire investor pledged to donate his entire $32bn fortune to charity in one of the largest single philanthropic gestures in history, joining names such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Jack Ma, who have also committed huge parts of their personal fortunes to good causes. “With this pledge, I am honouring my lifelong commitment to what matters most – helping to build a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable world for generations to come,” he told media. The funds are destined for Alwaleed Philanthropies, the prince’s own charitable body, a channel through which he has already donated some $3.5bn. The gift, Alwaleed said, was inspired by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which last year gave $4bn to various causes. Alwaleed may be the first Gulf national to join the band of ultra-wealthy publicly committing to give their money away, but his bequest is the latest in a flurry of grand philanthropic gestures from the region. The UAE’s Abdullah Ahmad Al Ghurair and education entrepreneur Sunny Varkey have both also gifted huge sums to good causes. For many, it is a sign that the shoots of strategic giving are beginning to flourish in the wealthy Arab world.

PHILANTHROPY AGE

From how they give, to why they give: welcome to the first annual Arab Giving Survey, the most comprehensive study yet of giving behaviour among Arabs residing in the GCC The compulsion to help others less fortunate than ourselves is endemic within the religion, history and culture of the Arab world. Whether generous gifts to a neighbour in need, the giving of zakat, or simply a casual donation, the region has a charitable culture that begins with the drop of a coin into a donation box, and may blossom into coordinated acts of philanthropic endeavour. In May and June of this year Philanthropy Age, in partnership with global market research company YouGov, conducted a groundbreaking study of the giving behaviour of more than 1,000 Arabs living in the six Gulf states.

What they had to tell us paints a fascinating picture of modern attitudes towards the culture of giving prevalent in the region. From shedding much-needed light on donorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; priorities and what influences their giving, to suggesting how potential donors can best be reached, the survey is essential reading for all those in the philanthropic sphere, and for those seeking to reach them.

PRINTED COPIES OF THE FIRST ANNUAL ARAB GIVING SURVEY ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE, CONTAINING THE FULL RESEARCH DATA. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: INFO@ARABGIVINGSURVEY.COM

PHILANTHROPY AGE OVER THE PAST 12 MONTHS, HOW MUCH MONEY WOULD YOU ESTIMATE YOU HAVE DONATED TO CHARITY (US$)?

HOW, WHY AND HOW MUCH?

26%

OVER THE PAST 12 MONTHS, WHAT METHODS HAVE YOU USED TO MAKE FINANCIAL DONATIONS TO CHARITY?

20 18%

17%

12%

Other

None of these

Gave via a charitable trust I set up

Texted donation

2% Gave online (through credit card)

Donated to an individual, personally

Gave via a payroll giving scheme

Donated to a charity with a cheque

Called a charity donation phone line

Bought charity goods from a non-charity

Personally raised money for charity

Donated to a charity via a standing order

Bought goods that donate to a charity

Gave a one-off payment directly to a charity

Donated by direct debit to a charity

Entered a charity raffle

0 Sponsored an event or person for charity

12%

30%

Bought goods from a charity

58%

27%

14%

HAVE YOUR DONATIONS TO CHARITY BEEN PLANNED OR UNPLANNED?

20%

Put cash in a charity collection box

Spontaneous Planned/regular donations Both

28%

14%

12%

an individual, it is generous in spirit, but likely to lack longterm impact. It also speaks to the difficulty charities face in raising funds through regular direct debit donations in a region still dominated by a cash culture and low levels of banking services. Just 17 per cent of donations are made via regular bank transfers. Almost all donations made by respondents in the last 12 months were under $500 (94 per cent), with $207 the average donation. Those in the highest income group gave the most, with amounts declining in line with lower incomes. Most people (57 per cent) typically give to the same charities – an average of two per person – and plan to continue doing so. For half of respondents, inspiration to donate comes from friends, family and colleagues. This was especially true for residents of Oman, where 70 per cent of people highlighted their nearest and dearest as a key influence. Donors, especially in the UAE and Qatar, also respond strongly to humanitarian emergencies.

55%

The results of the first annual Arab Giving Survey are testimony to the generous spirit of Arabs in the Gulf. Nine out of every 10 respondents claimed to have made financial donations to charity within the last 12 months, and more than half of those had done so more than once. As might be expected, there was a clear correlation between having a higher household income, and the likelihood someone would donate more frequently. Religion plays a pivotal role in the giving of our respondents, with many (45 per cent) suggesting their decision to give is entirely linked to their religious belief. This is reflected in the timing of donations, two-thirds (63 per cent) of which are made on religious occasions such as Ramadan and Eid. Just over half of donors (55 per cent) give less than $150 annually; unsurprising when considered alongside the fact that a similar proportion (58 per cent) made their donations spontaneously. Most probably this spontaneous action was putting cash in a charity collection box, which topped the table of favoured donation methods (55 per cent), with more than double the responses of the next most favoured option (giving to an individual, 26 per cent). This builds a picture of casual donations made in passing and with pocket change. Like giving directly to

1% 2%

$1–$50 $51–$150 $151–$500 $501– $1,000 $1,001– $5,000 $5,001– $10,000 $10,001+

PHILANTHROPY AGE

Family/friends/colleagues

Adverts for charities in media Street fundraising and box collections

Direct marketing from charities Personalised communication Social media campaigns International appeals/annual events News coverage of charities in media Organisations’ websites

Other

20%

18%

26%

HOW MUCH WOULD YOU SAY YOUR CHARITABLE DONATIONS ARE LINKED TO YOUR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS?

44% 50

45%

40 27% 30

26%

25%

10%

9 10

TYPICALLY, IS THERE A PARTICULAR TIME OF THE YEAR OR OCCASION DURING WHICH YOU DONATE MONEY TO CHARITIES?

23%

26% No particular occasion 63% Religious occasions 18% Non-religious occasions 32% Humanitarian emergency 02% Before tax season 12% Personal important date 02% Other

17%

11% 9% 7% 7%

WHICH OF THE FACTORS BELOW INFLUENCES YOU MOST IN SELECTING A CHARITY?

A cause that is important to me The charity’s transparency in how it distributes its funds Access to charity’s results showing effectiveness in helping its cause An immediate and overwhelming need (e.g. disaster relief) Seeing a child, adult, or animal which will directly benefit from my gift Personal connection and belief in a cause/charity Sponsoring a friend/relative/colleague An easy mechanism for making payments Ability to easily run due diligence on the charity/nonprofit Media and marketing campaigns

On a 0 to 10-point scale, where 0=‘not at all’ and 10=‘totally’

TYPICALLY, WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INFORMATION ABOUT CHARITY AND ACTS OF PHILANTHROPY?

PHILANTHROPY AGE

4% 2%

DO RESULTS MATTER? Selecting a charity comes down to finding a cause that is important to the donor, a charity’s transparency and the visibility of a charity’s effectiveness. While these were top choices and may represent people’s ideals, they are responses hard to tally with the fact that a majority of donations are made on the spur-of-the-moment. Even so, the results reflect the global trend for donors to expect to be able to identify clearly how their funds are being used. Impact is important. The results a charity achieves with the money it gets are ‘extremely important’ to 61 per cent of respondents and ‘somewhat important’ to a further 24 per cent. However, it is difficult to give credence to these responses when so many donations are described as being spontaneous. Some seven out of every 10 respondents said they would stop donating if their selected charity was seen to be performing poorly. The largest proportion of donors prefer giving money to community-based organisations or those in their own city; the work of international NGOs was of little interest to respondents. However, these results conflict with people’s choice of preferred causes, where the top two were poverty or third-world issues, and overseas aid and disaster relief. This is difficult to align with a preference for working with local organisations, and

perhaps reflective of a wider uncertainty among those with a desire and the means to donate, as to how to do it most effectively. There is a greater demand for information about giving than there is supply. Lack of funds was cited as the primary barrier to making donations to charity, by 51 per cent of respondents, while 30 per cent said they preferred to give directly rather than involve an organisation, and 25 per cent said a lack of appropriate information restricted their giving. In terms of reaching donors, the influence of social media campaigns remains in question. For all their profile, they were only a top source about charitable projects for 5 per cent of respondents. By comparison, old media fared better and was cited as a useful source of information by a fifth of respondents. There is demand for greater publicity of charitable initiatives: more than half of respondents wanted to hear more about giving in order to raise awareness of charities, and while some were undecided, less than a quarter were against the idea. Nevertheless, despite their willingness to ‘participate’, the majority of those polled (79 per cent) still believe governments and corporations should carry the most responsibility in contributing to charitable causes. Less than 10 per cent said that individuals should shoulder that responsibility.

9% HOW IMPORTANT ARE RESULTS TO YOU WHEN SELECTING WHICH CHARITY TO DONATE TO?

24%

61%

Extremely important Somewhat important Neither important nor unimportant Somewhat unimportant Extremely unimportant

WHAT ARE THE MAIN OBSTACLES FOR YOU WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING FINANCIAL DONATIONS TO CHARITY?

51% Lack of funds/I can’t afford to 25% There is a lack of information on appropriate charities 09% I prefer to volunteer rather than give money 30% I prefer to give directly, rather than involving an organisation 13% I don’t think my money will be used effectively 15% I am worried the money will be spent on salaries and administration 04% The charity is too large 14% The charity is aligned with a political party/religion I am not sympathetic 19% I don’t know how the money will be spent 07% It isn’t immediately obvious how to make a contribution 02% I worry I will receive more solicitations 03% Many charities support the same cause; I don’t have time to investigate 05% I don’t trust charities/NGOs operating in the region 03% Legal/regulatory restrictions on making donations 01% Other 07% N o n e

PHILANTHROPY AGE

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO DONATE MORE TO CHARITY? IN YOUR OPINION, SHOULD GIVING BE MORE WIDELY PUBLICISED, RATHER THAN DISCREET, IN AN EFFORT TO RAISE AWARENESS OF CHARITIES AND NEEDY CAUSES?

3% 35%

55%

24%

22%

13%

11%

12%

35% A higher disposable income 22% Clearer reporting on how funds are spent 13% Clearer reporting on results they achieve 11% Ability to track the direct impact of my giving 03% G reater media coverage of charities and causes 12% A wider variety of easy ways to donate 04% Other

21%

50% 34%

29% 12%

WHAT CAUSES DO YOU PREFER TO DONATE MONEY TO?

WHO SHOULD BE MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTRIBUTING TO IMPORTANT CAUSES AND CHARITIES?

27%

16% 10%

34% Community-based organisations 16% City-wide organisations 10% National NGOs affiliated to international NGOs 08% National NGOs affiliated to government or royals 27% Don’t know/it depends 05% International NGOs

Governments Corporations/companies/private businesses Don’t know/not sure Individuals

49%

Overseas aid and disaster relief 26%

Schools, colleges, universities and other education

53%

Poverty/third world 8%

Animal welfare

34%

Hospitals 16%

Sponsored by religious body

25%

Local mosque, or other religious body

40%

Directly to an individual in need 10%

Medical research

19%

Children or young people People with disabilities

WHICH TYPE OF CHARITIES DO YOU PREFER TO DONATE MONEY TO?

32% 34%

The elderly Physical and mental healthcare

16%

Conservation, the environment and heritage

Sports and recreation

Arts

Refugees

28%

Other (including rescue services, human rights)

18%

Do not have a preference

8% 0

PHILANTHROPY AGE

WHO TOOK PART? The Arab Giving Survey targeted Arabs, be they nationals of the six GCC countries, or expatriates living in the Gulf. Half of respondents live in Saudi Arabia, with the UAE the second-largest contributor at 18 per cent. Arab expats dominated the results, at 70 per cent of respondents, while Gulf nationals made up the remaining 30 per cent. Notably, a significantly larger proportion of GCC nationals had made financial donations to charity in the last 12 months, compared to other Arab nationalities. While there was a fairly even split between men and women, males were more likely to say they have made a donation in the last 12 months. Most respondents (64 per cent) were aged 25 to 39, however the Arab world’s youth bulge was perhaps

MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD INCOME (US$)

underrepresented, with just 13 per cent of respondents aged between 18 and 24. While 21 per cent declined to reveal their monthly household income level, the majority (59 per cent) reported earnings of less than $5,000 per month, with 30 per cent below $2,000 per month. This lowest-earning 30 per cent represented the largest single income block, and goes some way to explain why the survey’s most frequently cited barrier to giving, was a lack of funds. The survey was conducted online through YouGov’s pure research panel of more than 425,000 members across the region. Responses were also obtained through PhilanthropyAge.com. A total of 1,008 people responded to the survey, with fieldwork being conducted between May 29 and June 8 2015.

1% 5%

10 %

Less than $1,000

$9,000 – $10,999

$1,000 – $1,999

$11,000 – $12,999

$2,000 – $2,999

$13,000 – $14,999

$3,000 – $3,999

$17,000 – $19,999

$4,000 – $4,999

$20,000 or more

$5,000 – $6,999

Rather not say

$7,000 – $8,999

HAVE YOU MADE ANY FINANCIAL DONATIONS TO CHARITY IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS?

87%

HOW MANY CHARITIES HAVE YOU DONATED MONEY TO IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS?

17% 3%

13 %

29%

14 % 4%

47%

16%

21%

3-4

5-6

7-8

13%

PHILANTHROPY AGE

WHAT IS YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE?

20 WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBES YOUR NATIONALITY?

0 GCC national Arab expat

18%

50%

10%

UAE

KSA

QATAR

KUWAIT

OMAN

BAHRAIN

30%

70%

ARE YOU...

55% Male 45% Female

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING RANGES INCLUDES YOUR AGE?

18-19

11%

20-24

21%

25-29

25%

30-34

18%

35-39 40-44

9% 5%

45-49 50-54

55-59

3% 1%

60-64

PHILANTHROPY AGE

HUNGER: ON THE FRONT LINE How do you solve a problem like world hunger? With generosity and public will, says Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian organisation WRITER JOANNE BLADD

f the litany of fears burdening Syrian refugees in the Middle East, the question of how they would feed their children was, until recently, not among them. Now it is. In September, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it would be slashing food aid to refugee families in Jordan due to a $278m gap in funding for the region. Those earning $2 or more a day would be cut from the aid programme in an effort to conserve funds for the most fragile; refugees existing on less than $1 a day. It is, says executive director Ertharin Cousin, an act of sifting the desperate from the more desperate. For the world’s largest humanitarian agency, it is also a matter of survival.

“When I talk to refugees now, they tell me stories about having to send their children out to work instead of school, because they are so worried about food,” Cousin says in a call from Rome. She’d returned hours earlier from Cairo, the final stop in a tour of the Middle East. “But this is the reality of the situation we face. We need additional funding.” The WFP, the UN’s food-aid agency, is a safety net beneath the ranks of the global hungry. In 2014, it fed 80 million people in 82 countries – almost two-thirds of whom were children – doling out more than 3m tonnes of food-aid in the form of school meals, handouts and emergency relief. On any given day, the

PHILANTHROPY AGE

80m

The number of people reached by the WFP in 2014, two-thirds of whom were children

795m

The number of global hungry, down from 1 billion people in 1990

81%

By buying much of its food in developing markets, the WFP aids smallholder farmers

01 Food aid cuts affected 28 per cent of Syrian refugees 02 The agency faces a $278m shortfall for its Syria response 03 Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the WFP

agency has some 20 ships, 70 aircraft and 5,000 trucks in play, dispensing WFP-stamped rations to impoverished or disaster-struck communities around the globe. From Ethiopia, to Yemen, to Sudan and Pakistan: the WFP – for many of the world’s poorest – is the thin line separating them from starvation. “Around the world, when we get it right; when we have the right resources and the capital, we can change lives,” says Cousin. “But how much assistance we can provide depends on how much money we receive.” In the Middle East, the line is fraying. Convulsed by conflict, the scale of the humanitarian disaster in the region swells by the day. Fighting in Syria, now in its fifth year, has driven nearly 12 million from their home. Many have sought sanctuary in the crammed refugee camps that dot Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Sunk in poverty, with few options for

work, a WFP stipend – at a maximum of $14 per person, per month – can be their only means of securing food. In Iraq, war has displaced 3 million people. More than half of them rely, at least in part, on the WFP to eat. In Yemen, the outlook is equally bleak. Ongoing war has starved the country of supplies, and impeded aid. A mix of food shortages, diminished fuel and a lack of clean water has created “the dawn of a perfect storm” for destitute Yemenis, the WFP said in August, with Cousin warning starkly of famine if aid workers were not given urgent access. At last count, 6.1 million people in the Arab state urgently needed food. “The nature of the work we do is being changed dramatically, by the number of refugees we have in the world, the scale of their needs and the number of crises linked to conflicts,” Cousin tells Philanthropy Age. “In the case of a quick onset emergency – a typhoon, or an earthquake – you provide emergency relief, and then you begin recovery.

“WE NEED DONORS AROUND

THE WORLD TO REALISE WE REPRESENT UNIVERSAL HUMANITARIAN PRINCIPLES” With war, there is no recovery. The same event occurs every day.” Like most aid agencies, the WFP often exists on a funding knife-edge. Wholly donorfunded, it was birthed by the UN in 1961 as a multinational institution able to respond rapidly to hunger crises and deliver food to the needy. In 2014, it raised a record $5.38bn, 27 per cent more than the previous year, but it is still facing a fiscal reckoning. The agency’s response to Syria alone requires $278m to stay afloat until the end of the year. It’s not that donors aren’t still digging deep, says Cousin, but simply that the quickening tempo of global disasters has decimated its reserves. “We are raising as much, or more, as we’ve ever raised. Our traditional donors are as generous as ever. It’s that the number of crises is outpacing the generosity,” she says. “We need those who have given to us to give more. And we need more donors to support the gap.”

PHILANTHROPY AGE

In part, this means rattling the tin in new markets. It also requires newly minted countries – those that are rising in the new world order – to chip in as their fortunes change. China is a case in point. Once a major WFP beneficiary, today it is a donor. “It’s not good enough that the United States and the UK, and Australia and Japan give money. We need new donors, who see our goals as part of their goals, as well,” says Cousin. “We need donors around the world to realise we represent universal humanitarian principles; not just those in western societies.” Still, the funding dilemma does raise the question of whether the wider aid system – which rests heavily on emergency appeals to keep supply chains running month-to-month – must evolve to reflect that situations in Syria, Yemen, the Central African Republic and elsewhere, are spiraling and need longterm cash. Do regular multimillion-dollar funding shortfalls suggest the industry is stuttering? Cousin says not. “I wouldn’t say it’s broken. The system is working. But the reality is that it needs more gas.” But how do you solve a problem like world hunger? It is a question that has preoccupied Chicago-born Cousin since she took charge of the WFP in 2012. Her term has been a baptism of fire. On her watch, the agency has grappled with West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, a post-typhoon Philippines, earthquake-hit Nepal and the largest global refugee crisis in decades, alongside protracted emergencies in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, to name just two. On any given day, the WFP is firefighting on multiple fronts. Set against this backdrop, its stated goal of ‘zero hunger’ is, to say the least, audacious – but, insists Cousin, one that is possible to achieve. “The reality is we know what will end hunger, and it requires one tool that we don’t have today, which is global public will,” she says. “The will to universally address the issues of hunger. It is a solvable problem.”

PHILANTHROPY AGE

“EVERY CULTURE IN THE WORLD, EVERY RELIGION IN THE WORLD, BELIEVES WE SHOULD FEED THE HUNGRY. IT IS AT THE BASE OF OUR HUMANITY”

Hunger is a febrile thing. An affliction shared across much of the developing world, its presence is a trigger for uprisings and conflict, and a fetter to economic growth. Globally, nearly 800 million people do not have enough food, with poor nutrition the cause of nearly half of deaths in children under five. In Asia alone, two-thirds of the population is affected by hunger. Around the world, lack of food kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Few know this better than Cousin. She recalls a visit to western Ethiopia’s Gambella region, home to thousands of refugees who have fled years of fighting in South Sudan. One mother had walked for three weeks, accompanied by her four children, to reach the camp. In the absence of food, and carrying her baby, she had fed them water lilies during the journey. “I was talking to a physician, when I heard a cry. It was a wail,” remembers Cousin. “It was this mother. And the physician said: ‘We lost one. She didn’t get here fast enough.’ The baby, not even two months old, died. That mother did 02

01 The WFP today can use cash and vouchers in place of food rations 02 “Kids give you hope. They believe life’s going to be ok,” says Cousin

everything in her power to save her child, and still it wasn’t enough. That sticks with you.” As the global humanitarian landscape evolves, so too has the WFP. The agency today is engaged in vastly more than just food relief. In the Middle East and other regions, it has rolled out cash and vouchers in place of traditional food rations; more nimble tools that allow beneficiaries to buy food and goods themselves, and help to shore up local markets. WFP itself uses its purchasing clout to back smallholder farmers, last year buying 81 per cent of its food in developing markets. Resilience-building activities, which see vulnerable people given food assistance, in exchange for building or repairing vital community assets – anything from roads, to planting forests – reached 12.7 million people last year. More than 75,500 schools are on the WFP’s books. In 2014, some 17 million children received meals or take-home rations from the agency. The scale of its operations are staggering, and often unseen. Another shift has been the use of technology to modernise and streamline its approach. Cousin has rolled out an SMS and voice call system that lets the WFP assess needs in distressed locations, without sending staff, helping to trim time and money. When disaster does strike, the agency now benefits from a network of supply depots around the world, including Dubai, able to deploy aid at a moment’s notice. “Hunger is a base need of every person in the world,” says Cousin. “I’ve said it before; every culture, every religion in the world believes we should feed the hungry. It is at the base of our humanity that people should not go hungry.” For all the heartwrenching aspects of her role, Cousin still sees the opportunities. In the last 25 years, the number of hungry people globally has shrunk from 1 billion to 795 million, and the prevalence of undernourishment has almost halved. With determination, she says, eradication of world hunger is within reach for the current generation. “Let me tell you the best part of my job,” she says. “Wherever I go, it’s the children. Kids give you hope. No matter what they’ve been through, you give them some food, and they will run and laugh and play. They believe that life’s going to be ok.”

PHILANTHROPY AGE

SYRIA’S GIRLS: VISION, NOT VICTIM

From teachers to painters and even an astronaut, meet the young Syrians determined to overcome the odds and shape their own futures PHOTOGRAPHER MEREDITH HUTCHISON

ome dreams are bigger than others. For the children of Syria, uprooted by war, their aspirations may seem little more than fantasy, but one organisation is determined to show them dreams can come true – and not to give up hope. In early 2015, the humanitarian NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) supported a programme for Syrian girls in Jordan aged 11 to 16, many from the vast Za’atari refugee camp. The ‘Vision Not Victim’ programme asked the girls to share their ambitions and make a plan of how to get there. They were then paired with female mentors from the community, such as lawyers and politicians; women who showed it is possible to overcome the challenges of social norms and lack of resources. Having experienced conflict first-hand, many wanted to use their skills to make a difference in their communities. At the end of the project, each girl directed a photo shoot that saw her pose as her future self. The IRC project offered the girls a glimmer of hope to counter what is often a bleak outlook. The United Nations estimates there are 2 million Syrian refugee children in the region and that just one of every two is receiving an education. Forced to swap school for work, close to half of all Syria’s young exiles in Jordan are now the joint or sole family breadwinners.

1/ H A J A ASTRONAUT

“I love being an astronaut because it lets me see the world from a new angle,” says the 12-year-old.

2/MALACK POLICEWOMAN

Malack surprised her mother with the confidence she showed wearing the uniform: “I can see her future.”

3 / FAT I M A POLICEWOMAN

“People are not afraid of me, but call me when they are in trouble,” she says. “I fight for justice.”

PHILANTHROPY AGE

Girls, especially, can suffer from the harsh reality of refugee life. An IRC study of Syria’s women and girls found the biggest challenges came from sexual harassment and exploitation, increased domestic violence, and early and forced marriage arranged by desperate families. Moreover, adolescence for many girls means the closing of doors, according to the IRC, while boys’ horizons start to expand. By empowering each participant to visualise and map out her future, Vision Not Victim encourages the girls’ ambitions and aims to shape how others see them – as pioneers, changemakers and as architects of their own futures. Not victims.

1/ M U N TA H A PHOTOGRAPHER

At age 12, she can see her future: “I use my images to inspire hope in others; to encourage love.”

2 / M E RWA PA I N T E R

This photo moved Merwa’s father: “Fathers must be more involved in supporting... their daughters.”

3/AMANI PILOT

“My brother always told me a girl can’t be a pilot, but I knew deep down this is what I wanted to do.” 05

4/WISSAM

PHARMACIST “Now that I am a pharmacist, I see myself as a role model for girls and a leader changing the world.”

5 / FAT I M A ARCHITECT

“I hope I am a model for other girls – showing them you should never give up on your dream,” she says.

6/RAMA DOCTOR

“To be able to give people relief and make them smile, this is what I love most,” says the 13-year-old.

PHILANTHROPY AGE

HOUSE OF CARDS Temporary cities from Egypt to India show the urgent need to tackle an acute shortage of housing for the poor, the needy and the desperate. We meet the agencies seeking to build solutions to a global crisis W R I T E R TA M A R A WA L I D

01 By 2050, nearly one-third of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population could live in slums, according to UN data

PHILANTHROPY AGE

here’s no running water. Children throng in dusty alleys between makeshift cardboard structures that offer little protection from the elements, while toilets and electricity remain unattainable luxuries. This is Manshiet Nasser. Described as Cairo’s largest, densest and poorest slum, it is home to some 1 million people, and a snapshot of life for the 45 per cent of Egypt’s population existing in poverty on the outskirts of society. From Mumbai to Nairobi, slums are an integral part of city life. Home for those priced out of mainstream living, these settlements are typically illegal, with little access to basic services such as education and healthcare. By 2050, almost a third of the world’s population could be living in such slums, according to UN estimates; a picture that could worsen amid the internationally-deteriorating refugee situation. While governments, NGOs and philanthropists are stepping in to tackle the issue, experts argue more drastic measures are needed to improve housing for the global poor. “Slums are a result of the inaction or indifference of governments to plan for migration of people to [the] innercity,” says Larry English, CEO of UK nonprofit Reall. “Urbanisation has been spiking since the early 1980s and governments haven’t been forward planning.” Reall, or Real Equity for All, works to improve living conditions for slum dwellers in Africa and Asia. Through investment in local organisations, it assists residents to secure land, build homes, earn an income, access safe water and sanitation and negotiate with governments. With its partners, it has built around 8,000 houses serving 40,000 people in India, and also offers micromortgages, collateralised by properties. The model enables the poor to own a home worth three to four times their loan. “While it’s not cash, it is an asset they can use if they face a crisis,” says English. Reall is also in talks with the nonprofit New Horizon Association for Social

40%

Percentage of the world’s population that will need housing and sanitation by 2030

55m

The number of new slum-dwellers seen worldwide since 2000

01 Slums are an integral part of global city life 02 There are 170 million slum dwellers in India 03 The world’s refugee crisis is an added strain

Development to tackle housing needs in Egypt. “We get slum dwellers to work together to fund their own solutions,” says English. “If governments aren’t helping, we need to help ourselves.” Help is certainly needed. Worldwide, migrants in ever-greater numbers are leaving farmland that is unable to support them and arriving in cities unprepared to receive them. The UN estimates some 3 billion people, close to 40 per cent of the world’s population, will require housing and access to basic infrastructure, water and sanitation by 2030; meaning some 96,150 housing units with serviced land need to be built every day to 2030. Global economies are far from meeting this goal. Since 2000, close to 55 million new slum dwellers have been added globally, with 80 per cent of people in some cities residing in makeshift cities. As governments struggle to keep pace, charities, nonprofits and social entrepreneurs are increasingly filling the gap. “Inclusive housing is not a natural and automatic output of a successful economy,” says David Smith, who started the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI) in the US 15 years ago. “You can do everything right in your country – you can have good governance, low taxes, a booming economy, a broadly inclusive

PHILANTHROPY AGE

SLUM POPUL ATIONS GLOBALLY Sub-Saharan Africa

199.5 m 190.7 m

South Asia

189.6 m

East Asia 110.7 m

Latin America & the Caribbean Southeast Asia West Asia North Africa

88.9 m 35 m 11.8 m

*Source: United Nations

society – and yet those very activities and successes create the unaffordability of housing for the bottom quartile.” In 2011, with financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AHI founded the Aarohi Fund to invest in promising, early-stage affordable housing entities in Global South countries. Aarohi closed its first investment in 2014 by injecting capital into SEWA Grih Rin (SGR), a housing finance firm in India that seeks to secure decent housing for (and with the participation of) poor women and their families. “The point of the fund is to make catalytic capital investments in early-stage innovators who are really doing something that is important and unproven, but that

has a dramatic need, and that we think has a sound business proposition,” says Smith. Thanks to Aarohi’s investment, SGR attracted six other domestic and international investors. Such initiatives may only chip away at a global problem, but can make a big difference to some of India’s 170 million slum dwellers. Close to 35 per cent of the country’s urban population resides in slums. In the Middle East, the Arab Spring revolts of 2011 were a hard lesson in the importance of addressing populations’ housing requirements. “In the last five years there’s been a dramatic increase in awareness in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that affordable housing is not thinly-disguised social welfare,” says

Smith. “It is in fact fundamental to the relationship between the ruler and the people and to the wider strength of civil society.” This role of providing adequate shelter to alleviate poverty is often underestimated, says Greg Foster, EMEA vice president at Habitat for Humanity. “We know that if you provide a poor family with better housing often their health situation changes, education and outputs improve and you can leverage shelter as a way of accessing credit and business opportunities,” Foster notes. Habitat helps build or renovate simple houses for those in need, in partnership with local communities across 80 countries where it operates. So far, it

We Wage Peace. We Fight Disease. We Build Hope. Join Us. www.cartercenter.org A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.

PHILANTHROPY AGE

SLUMS 2.0.: DESIGNING THE FUTURE

Jonathan Hursh is founder of Included, a nonprofit that works to bring access to a city’s wider services, to migrants in slums. He recently launched Utopia, a design and urban planning firm, focused solely on slums. Utopia aims to reimagine the future of informal housing by working with slum dwellers and the city itself to create a new blueprint: Slums 2.0. “I’ve seen firsthand over nine years of working with migrant slums just how powerful thoughtful design can be. Good design brings dignity and improves quality of life, often drastically,” says Hursh. He has secured an agreement from the mayor of Jakarta, Indonesia, to develop the city’s slums strategy and design a large-scale prototype for 25,000 riverside slum households. The model seeks to show these communities as an asset. Hursh is also in talks with the Philippines’ government and the mayor of Johannesburg, and is also looking to engage several cities in Asia and Africa. “We are pushing for [national] governments to provide a parallel legal status for migrant slums as places of positive transition, a Third Realm if you will. It’s recognising that slums have a legitimate role to play in their cities as places of positive transition,” he says.

has helped more than 1 million families, including 28,000 people in Egypt, 8,000 in Lebanon and about 6,000 in Jordan. “It’s a significant number for us but it’s really just a drop in the ocean in terms of the housing need in those countries,” says Habitat’s Foster. The NGO works directly with existing community groups, which receive training and interest-free loans to kick off their housing programmes, underpinned by funding from bilateral government donors and individuals. Foster believes more public-private sector partnerships are needed to make an impact globally. Governments should also address policies that are pro-rich, rather than pro-poor. Perhaps the biggest challenge exacerbating the housing shortage in the Middle East, however, is the region’s refugee crisis. More than 4 million Syrians have escaped a civil war that has left the country in tatters, most fleeing to neighbouring Arab states. “You have anywhere between 1 to 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, maybe 700,000 in Jordan,” says Foster. “That has a huge impact on the local housing market.” Habitat is seeking to partner with other international NGOs, as well as local groups. Foster hopes to raise sufficient funds to deal with those shelter needs in the next few months. For its part, Oslo-based NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is helping thousands of Syrians in Jordan

01 Utopia seeks to turn slums into city assets 02 AHI’s Smith dubs refugees ‘accelerated immigrants’

and Lebanon, many living outside refugee camps and unable to afford rent, through its Urban Shelter Programme. One in five refugee households live in substandard housing, which doesn’t offer basic protection from the elements or have adequate toilets and water supply. “We’ve realised that just giving cash to refugees for rent is not enough because it pushed prices up and is more harmful to the local market,” NRC’s regional spokesman Karl Schembri says. One tactic used by NRC is to approach landlords with unfinished properties, and offer to complete construction in exchange for the homeowner housing refugees rent-free for one or two years. So far, the programme has helped more than 13,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, and created some 4,000 housing units. AHI’s Smith says means to address the refugee crisis is through an initiative dubbed Instant City. Instead of perceiving these people as refugees, they can be seen as “accelerated immigrants”. “The fastest growing city in Jordan [Za’atari camp] didn’t exist five years ago,” Smith says. “When you have movements of desperate people, at that volume, the place that they move to needs to have a strategy to address it, otherwise you unintentionally create the worst result.”

PHILANTHROPY AGE

THE PROMISE OF YOUTH In an exclusive interview, Saudi royal and entrepreneur Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud explains how enterprise and more women in the workplace could unlock the true potential of the kingdom’s young and growing population WRITER ADRIENNE CERNIGOI

W “WE HAVE SUCH A MASSIVE

RESOURCE IN THIS COUNTRY AND THAT’S MEN AND WOMEN. TO NOT USE A RESOURCE IS SHAMEFUL”

01 The daughter of a diplomat, Princess Reema was instilled with a sense of duty at an early age

hat strikes you first about Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud is her energy. The Saudi royal and entrepreneur is eager to discuss the many initiatives she is driving, and the immense potential of Saudi’s youthful population. Nor are these token interests: Princess Reema is known for her handson approach to change. “If you stand still, your opposition has the power to knock you down,” she told the South by Southwest conference in America, in March. “If you keep walking, they have to follow you. I’d rather keep walking.” The path on which Princess Reema treads is guided by a determination to provide dignity and access to opportunity. This is particularly true of her efforts to enable more women to work in Saudi Arabia, a delicate mission given the kingdom’s social fabric. “We have such a massive resource in this country and that’s men and women,” she says. “To not use a resource is shameful… You need to give people the respect and the opportunity to deliver.” Largely as a consequence of a guardianship system that inhibits mixing of the sexes and the movement of women,

Saudi Arabia has a patchy record on female employment. The labour force participation rate for women in the kingdom was just 20 per cent in 2013, compared to a GCC average of 43 per cent, according to the World Bank. These low rates are not for lack of education: joblessness among university educated women is eight times higher than that of university educated men, according to the World Economic Forum. Returning to Saudi from the US a decade ago, Princess Reema took the helm of her family’s retail businesses, including Alfa International, which holds the Harvey Nichols licence in Riyadh. Disappointed by the lack of women on the shop floor, she and her team sought to identify areas where women could work legally. Working around the obstacles with a travel stipend and daycare facilities, the firm today employs some 70 women as make-up artists, dressing room attendants and in its buying and marketing departments. The real lesson for Princess Reema, however, was the need for training. She realised quickly that women lacked confidence that they could operate in the workplace, as well as work-related skills.

PHILANTHROPY AGE

The answer was to bring in a training company to fill the gaps. “We talked about financial planning, legal rights, how do you use a human resources department, what does your company owe you, what do you owe them,” she explains. “When we looked at what we were doing it seemed so basic. But nobody had ever taught [the women] these things.” Princess Reema’s efforts are contributing to an encouraging, albeit minor, trend in the kingdom. The Economist Intelligence Unit noted female employment in Saudi’s private sector rose from less than 100,000 women to almost 400,000 in the two years to 2013, with the biggest increase in the retail sector. Getting more women on the payroll goes far beyond economics, she believes. “A more confident woman entering the workplace gives us a balanced society, but it also helps the next generation of men to respect women with that skillset,” she says. “I think that’s where our generational change will happen.” Princess Reema, 40, is herself part of that shift. A businesswoman with her own private equity company (Reemiyah) and fashion brand (Baraboux), she grew up in Washington DC where her father served as Saudi ambassador to the US. The American attitude to giving – “Giving back to your community is drummed into you

20%

Estimated labour force participation rate for women in Saudi Arabia in 2013

43%

Average workforce participation rate for women in Gulf Cooperation Council states

from the minute you’re in kindergarten” – was an early influence, blended with a sense of duty given her family’s status. Princess Reema’s efforts, too, are a modern incarnation of a family tradition. Her grandmother, Queen Effat Al Thunayan, founded Al Nahda Women’s Philanthropic Society in 1962. Back then the centre taught women secretarial skills; today it teaches business skills. “Education and giving back is almost a family mantra,” she says. “There’s a very big difference between creating something that gives people a skillset that allows them to succeed, versus charity.” With this in mind, Princess Reema’s newest venture aims to support young

entrepreneurs. She has stepped down as CEO of Alfa to launch Alf Khair, a coworking and incubation space for budding businessmen and women. Due to open in January 2016, Alf Khair will charge a membership fee, with different tiers for different services, and offer expert advice on issues pertinent to new businesses. Right now, the startup scene in the kingdom is a source of frustration for the royal. A paucity of financing and limited mobility across the Gulf to hunt down funding – for men and women – hampers entrepreneurial efforts, she says. “These are [people] we’ve invested in, sent all over the world to get the best education. But the system they’re coming back to is not equal to their ambition,” she says ruefully. “[We] have to recognise this is a younger generation of people with different aspirations. If you’re telling them to get up and work, work to them might look different to my parents’ generation. We have to be accepting of that.” Alf Khair is designed to help these young people who approach work differently, who eschew public sector jobs in favour of enterprise. Princess Reema’s model focuses on advice rather than seed funding: by giving young entrepreneurs access to professionals such as marketing and legal advisers, it can help them make better decisions about allocating scant resources, and alleviate some of the risk and uncertainty of starting a business. Such an initiative is sorely needed to help tackle Saudi Arabia’s jobs crisis. The unemployment rate among Saudi nationals was 11.7 per cent in 2014, according to the Central Department for Statistics and Information, and the IMF predicts unemployment will balloon by up to 1.4 million by 2023. Moreover, nearly one-third of Saudi Arabia’s young people were jobless in 2012, estimates the World Bank. In a country where around twothirds of the population is under 30, this figure threatens to gnaw at the country’s economic and social underpinning. While Alf Khair tackles the jobs supply part of the equation, the other part of

PHILANTHROPY AGE

“THERE’S A VERY BIG

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CREATING SOMETHING THAT GIVES PEOPLE A SKILLSET THAT ALLOWS THEM TO SUCCEED, VERSUS CHARITY”

01 Princess Reema has sought to bolster the number of women employed in her family’s business 02 Unemployment is a key challenge in Saudi, where one-third of young people were jobless in 2012 03 10KSA aims to raise awareness of women’s health by gathering together 10,000 women in Riyadh

the social venture looks at the demand side: the “pandemic” skills mismatch between graduates and employers. Based on her Harvey Nichols experience, the Alf Dharb academy will comprise a roving training team to offer bespoke courses for businesses and colleges to equip Saudi youth with readiness to work skills. So far, retailers, restaurants and even a hospital have approached Alf Dharb and the academy trialled programmes in September, before a hard launch in 2016. Getting the private sector engaged is a challenge, explains Princess Reema. The government’s perceived largesse has largely let corporates off the hook when it comes to strategic philanthropy, although that sentiment is starting to shift. A fierce advocate for women and an entrepreneur to boot, she shies away from the role model moniker. It is hard, however, to not be inspired by her actions. “I didn’t grow up with the mental barriers of ‘I can’t’ or ‘I shouldn’t’… [so] you appear to be daring when you’re just doing what you should,” she says. “If someone says stop, then you stop. So far, nobody has said stop.”

BRE AKING RECORDS Women’s health is a sensitive subject in Saudi Arabia, but that hasn’t stopped Princess Reema’s latest initiative, 10KSA. On December 12, she plans to break the world record for the largest human ribbon by gathering 10,000 women at the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh to raise awareness of breast cancer. The disease is the leading cause of death for women aged 20 to 59 in the kingdom. Stigma and the worry of being branded as unhealthy prevent women in rural areas from seeking help, she says. Women in Arab countries are typically diagnosed some 10 years younger than their Western peers, and in the much later stages of the disease, radically reducing their chances of survival. Princess Reema hopes 10KSA will also get people talking about women’s health in general. “While our focus is breast cancer, our dialogue is on total health awareness,” she says, adding that she hopes the event will raise SAR5m ($1.3m) to kickstart an endowment fund for the Zahra Breast Cancer Association, which she helped found. Sponsors in Saudi Arabia such as Alwaleed Philanthropies, Uber, GE and the Al Saif Construction Company have already pledged their support.

PHILANTHROPY AGE

SAVING THE WORLD Climate change is arguably the fight of our lifetimes, yet it attracts a fraction of global philanthropic funding. With all nations feeling the impact of a warming world amid droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels, is there a case for putting climate change at the top of the social agenda? WRITER JOHN VIDAL

t is said to be the defining issue of our time, an urgent global crisis that affects everyone and every area of life. Yet rich governments meeting in Paris this December for the UN climate summit will quibble over giving paltry amounts to help the world’s most needy adapt to global warming, and it is believed that just 2 per cent of all private philanthropic money is being spent to address it. For Larry Kramer, president of the US-based William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (WFHF), which has assets worth over $9bn, the lack of giving for climate change is an anomaly that needs addressing. “Climate change threatens everything that philanthropy seeks to do. Whether it is to improve health, alleviate poverty, reduce famine, promote peace, or advance social justice, [climate change] is a problem that can and must be solved,” he has written. “It isn’t just an environmental problem. It is an everything problem. Its effects touch all cultures, all incomes, and all geographies. Climate change disrupts earth’s natural systems. It threatens public health and safety. And it hurts the world’s poorest people – those living on less than $2 a day – most of all.” Philanthropists together control multibillion-dollar budgets, but tackling something so enormous as climate change appears to paralyse them. The reasons for not giving are complex; ranging from funders being too narrow, an assumption that others are doing it, and that not all foundations are scientifically on board. But climate change poses other problems. Traditionally, philanthropists want to measure success and see real impact, but how do you measure

atmosphere, they ask. Should foundations address its causes or solutions? Do you work on a global or local level? Is it better to address technologies or changing people’s behaviour? To get companies to leave fossil fuels in the ground or to use them more wisely? How, indeed, can relatively small contributions change anything on the planetary scale? According to Jeremy Leggett, founder of UK solar energy company Solarcentury and SolarAid, a social enterprise which has brought solar energy to over 1 million people in Africa, there are several ways that foundations and philanthropists can successfully fight climate change. “The first is to invest in zero or lowcarbon climate-solution companies and projects; the second is to divest from fossil fuels and to reinvest in clean energy companies; the third is to campaign to put shareholder pressure to end spending on exploration for and development of new fossil fuel reserves,” he says. “The fourth is to accelerate zero or low-carbon markets... by giving grants – on a scale they never have before – to the multitude of projects that can make a difference across the greenhouse gas emissions spectrum.” Leggett also chairs Carbon Tracker, a team of foundation-funded financial, energy and legal experts aiming to curb future greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, they got the winners of environmental prizes from 46 nations to call on global foundations and philanthropists to use their financial muscle to dig into their endowments to create a tipping point in climate action – “to trigger a survival reflex in society”. But foundations and philanthropists are both individual and used to following

PHILANTHROPY AGE

GRE E N CITIE S Cities are on the front line of climate change. As contributors to a warming climate, they are also at the coalface when it comes to keeping large populations safe from flooding, rising sea levels and drought. It is a threat many urban authorities are keenly aware of – and willing to do something about, according to James Alexander, head of finance and economic development, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. “At the moment, city leaders are among a very small group of people calling for and implementing the significant changes required to keep us on a trajectory that avoids catastrophic climate change,” he notes. “Cities have big plans across different types of sustainable infrastructure.” Those plans include waste-to-energy plants, green transport networks and adapting to climate threats such as coastal erosion. But infrastructure does not come cheap. Getting financing relies on

a healthy credit rating, something many cities lack. A meagre 4 per cent of cities in the world’s largest developing nations have an international credit rating, says the World Bank – a significant hurdle to low-cost capital for green projects. C40, a decade-old members network of 78 cities, thinks it can help. This year, it set up a Creditworthiness Network to help cities boost their credit rating and “show investors they are serious players” Alexander says, so they can get money from development banks or the private sector to fund climate-related projects. Each dollar spent improving creditworthiness can unlock $100 in private sector funding, says the World Bank. The network’s first academy in May in Amman, Jordan, gathered senior finance officials from Amman, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Karachi, Curitiba, Dar es Salaam and Durban – together home to 70 million people. The workshop set out a plan for each city to improve its credit standing

over the next four years, including increasing reliable revenue sources and setting and sticking to realistic budgets. Such steps would go some way to raise funds for projects such as Amman’s planned Bus Rapid Transit system. The creditworthiness initiative is backed by the UK-based Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). “Climate change poses the single biggest threat to the future health and livelihood of today’s children,” said Shirley Rodrigues, CIFF’s climate change director. C40 hopes to run more workshops in future and is working closely with ratings agency Standard & Poor’s. The network estimates that with proper investment, the C40 cities could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8 gigatonnes by 2050. “Funders, organisations and the finance community are waking up to the fact cities are where it’s at when it comes to climate change,” says Alexander. “Any [UN] deal in Paris… will be delivered predominantly in the big cities of the world.”

their noses, with the result that climate giving is extremely varied. For American investor Tom Steyer, who made his fortune from hedge funds, climate change must be addressed politically. He is funneling money via his charity Nextgen at the 2016 US presidential race, challenging candidates to declare their positions and backing with hard cash those who are prepared to take action on climate change. “We are committed to supporting candidates, elected officials and policymakers across the country that will take bold action on climate change – and to exposing those who deny reality and cater to special interests,” he says. Others, like British entrepreneur Richard Branson, have identified climate change as an urgent issue, but also as an opportunity to make money by investing

PHILANTHROPY AGE

01 Amman has big plans for green transport 02 Climate effects threaten the poorest 03 UAE-based solar power project Shams 1 04 MENA is one of the regions most at risk

in new low-carbon energy sources, such as biofuels, for transport. Branson set up and funds the Carbon War Room, a business NGO which aims to reduce carbon emissions on an industrial scale and has now merged with the Rocky Mountain Institute, one of the world’s leading energy think-tanks. The two are now moving into China and India where they believe their advice on energy could bring massive change. In the Middle East, there has been a significant new understanding of the risks involved in climate change – and the solutions. Described as “one of the world’s

most climate vulnerable regions” by the World Bank, countries from Iraq to the UAE have this year experienced some of the highest temperatures ever recorded, possibly a foretaste of the extreme weather and more frequent heatwaves and water shortages that climate scientists have forecast will occur more often in future across the region. A recent World Bank study found that if the global temperature rises by 40C, the average number of extremely hot days in Middle Eastern cities could exceed 115 per year. That would make life outdoors intolerable for hundreds of millions of people for much of the year. Arab governments have taken a global technological lead and carved out a reputation for investing heavily in massive solar power array projects such as the UAE’s Shams 1. With Irena, the world’s inter-governmental renewable energy body, now based in Abu Dhabi, the UAE is also developing future technologies for desalinating water, generating electricity and reducing waste at industrial scales.

“CLIMATE CHANGE ISN'T

JUST AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM. ITS EFFECTS TOUCH ALL CULTURES, ALL INCOMES AND ALL GEOGRAPHIES”

Meanwhile, the region’s philanthropists are working at corporate and grassroots level to back a wide variety of social enterprises, environment and sustainability groups to educate people and help them adapt to a warmer world. Because Arab societies are increasingly urban rather than rural and likely to have to face extremes of heat and water shortages in future, making cities liveable has become increasingly important. Abu Dhabi-based Masdar City, a $30bn laboratory of future life in the desert, is taking old architectural ideas about how to live in extreme heat, and applying them to show that

PHILANTHROPY AGE

07%

A study of UK-based philanthropic groups found together they raised £68m for climate change; equivalent to just 7 per cent of their incomes

30m

The number of people in Bangladesh who would be permanently displaced if sea levels rose by 1 metre according to World Bank forecasts

modern life does not need air conditioning or carbon-heavy building. The message is getting through. “Climate change forces upon us all a serious discussion on green building and the promotion of sustainability,” Egypt’s minister of housing and urban development Mostafa Madbouly told the Arab world’s first Forum for Sustainable Communities and Green Building in December. “This is no longer a luxury.” One response in Arab countries has been to improve green urban infrastructure. Cities including Dubai, Beirut and Riyadh have adopted green building codes and others are working to ensure new buildings cut their emissions and electricity consumption. One model for philanthropic foundations is the UK-based Skoll Foundation, which aims to drive large-

8.8%

The percentage of GDP South Asia could lose by 2100 if the world does not cut its reliance on fossil fuels, says the Asian Development Bank

Renewable Energy, Ceres – a coalition that uses financial leverage to get businesses to be more sustainable – and a training programme for local governments in tropical countries to learn how to use satellite technology to track deforestation. Many however, such as the Gates Foundation, say that they do not invest directly in climate change but contribute to the solutions. “While we do not fund efforts specifically aimed at reducing carbon emissions, many of our global health and development grants directly address problems that climate change creates or exacerbates,” a spokesperson for the US-based foundation says. “For example, our Agricultural Development Initiative works to help smallholder farmers who

“WE CAN NO LONGER

SIDESTEP THE THREAT A WARMING PLANET PRESENTS TO ALL THE GOOD WE SEEK TO ACHIEVE IN THE WORLD” scale change by investing in social entrepreneurs. It has given $15m to the Climate Reality Project, a global initiative for public education on climate change, which has 7,500 activists working to educate and empower communities in more than 125 countries to take action. Other groups that have received Skoll funding include the American Council on

live on less than $1 per day adapt to increased drought and flooding, through the development of drought and flood resistant crops, improved irrigation efficiency, and other means.” In fact, some of the foundations and individuals most associated with the environment often do not give the most to climate change. A study by the James Goldsmith Foundation, which supports hundreds of environment groups in the UK, found that together British groups raised only £68m ($107m), or 7 per cent of their incomes, for climate change. This compares with £284m – or 30 per cent – raised for biodiversity and species preservation activities. “We don’t expect every foundation to make climate change its top priority. There are many urgent issues demanding attention. But there is a role for every organisation to play in the fight against climate change,” says WFHF’s Kramer. “We can no longer sidestep the threat a warming planet presents to all the good we seek to achieve in the world.” 01 Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City is at the forefront of sustainability efforts

PHILANTHROPY AGE

THE 60FT TSUNAMI Indian businessman and philanthropist Uday Khemka tells Philanthropy Age why turning the tide on climate change should be a priority for the philanthropic community W R I T E R S T U A R T M AT T H E W S

rgency and focus are two words Uday Khemka uses readily to describe the kind of action philanthropists need to take if they are to tackle climate change. As managing trustee and CEO of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, he has spurned what he calls ‘programmatic’ giving, in favour of a strategic approach. Khemka and his foundation work to bring different actors together – from the fields of science, business, government and academia – to ignite collaboration. The results are being felt everywhere; from high finance to low-rise rooftops. Here, Khemka expands on strategy, solar power and rallying philanthropy to climate’s cause. Q. What can philanthropy do to fight climate change? A. If you have people willing to make the time and financial sacrifice, you can find tremendous white spaces in the area of philanthropy where you can bring together entire sectors to influence policy in a good, objective and rational

They asked for our help. So the Khemka Foundation created the Solar Rooftop Policy Coalition to bring everyone together. We now have 245 major institutions in India and globally involved in an exercise to look at how we create a really optimal policy, at the state and federal level, to make this solar rooftop revolution take off. I am also co-chair of India’s Clean Energy Finance Forum, which aims to crack how we raise the capital required for India’s renewable energy revolution. Q. Why did you choose this big picture approach?

way. Philanthropists are creating systems change and that’s exactly what we need if we’re going to crack a problem as big as climate change. Q. How has this approach worked in practice for you? A. I’m a passionate believer in the solar energy rooftop revolution. We went to the [Indian] government, which had announced a huge target of 40GW for distributed rooftop power generation, and asked if they had looked at different policies. Had they looked at the best policies in the US or Germany? Had they looked at grid integration, utility incentives?

A. If you pit scale and urgency against the limited resources of a single foundation, you realise that the most important thing to do is to bring people together. In other words, you swallow your ego and say it’s completely irrelevant what I do or don’t do, what is important is to bring together everybody to solve a problem. Q. Is it tough for philanthropists to find opportunities to work on climate change? A. I don’t think it’s hard; it is horses for courses. There are different kinds of philanthropists who can do different kinds of work. Some are taking on a subsector, as I’ve taken on rooftop solar. Climate change arises from every kind of

human activity, so there are a thousand opportunities for philanthropists in climate change, if they want to engage. Q. Do philanthropists need to think out of the box to find a way to contribute? A. You don’t have to think out of the box: think in the box if you prefer. You could think about your business, you could think about your personal environment, it really doesn’t matter. It needs every one of us to do what we can from our particular competencies. We’ve done what we’ve done, but it doesn’t mean it’s right for everybody. Other people will be able to influence [the climate] in different ways.

“WE NEED TO

INCREASE THE RESPONSE, URGENCY AND FOCUS ON THIS EVERY MINUTE” Q. Are enough philanthropists acting on climate issues? A. There will never be enough. At the end of the day there is a 60ft tsunami coming towards all of us on this planet and we’re building a 20ft dyke. It’s just not fast enough. We need to be increasing the response, urgency and focus on this every single minute.

WFP/Dina El Kassaby

Syrians in despair are taking extreme measures to cope. Thousands risk their lives returning to Syria or ďŹ&#x201A;eeing further. All in the pursuit of hope. The World Food Programme is helping them by providing food, vouchers or e-cards to buy food.

Learn more: wfp.org/emergencies/Syria

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PHOTOGRAPHER V E R K O I G N J AT O V I C

PHILANTHROPY AGE

LISTEN UP NAME: Mohamed Elwazer AGE: 26 FROM: Egypt Mohamed Elwazer’s light bulb moment came from watching kids play a Nintendo Wii, using their movements to manipulate the video game rather than a controller. The game reminded him of a scene from the streets of Cairo, where he’d watched a young deaf boy try to make himself understood by a policeman. Here was somewhere that such movement-sensing technology could be put to good use, thought Elwazer.

“WE DON’T BELIEVE IN CHARITY. CHARITY IS UNSUSTAINABLE”

WRITER ADRIENNE CERNIGOI

The Egyptian, now resident in the UAE, has developed KinTrans, a device comprising a computer, software and cameras, which translates sign language into audio and on-screen text, in real time.

Elwazer’s idea could be gamechanging for communication between deaf and hearing people, particularly when it comes to essential services. He envisions the device being used in airports, hospitals and police stations. “There is a big need for such technology,” says Elwazer, citing United Nations data that estimates 360 million people globally have disabling hearing loss. “Human interpreters are very costly and are not always available. There is also the issue of privacy, for example, such as when accessing medical care.” KinTrans is being tested at Dubai’s airport, police headquarters and Roads and Transport Authority. Elwazer moved to the emirate two years ago to leverage $30,000 in seed funding and support from local startup accelerator, Turn8. KinTrans is currently on track to raise a further $90,000 in funding, Elwazer says, and is seeking a further $750,000 to bankroll the official launch of the product

YOUNG, ENGAGED AND GIVING From Beirut, to Cairo, to Riyadh; meet the young Arabs tackling the challenges of social enterprise and daring to do good

in October and develop a mobile app “so the deaf can have access anywhere, any time,” he says. Elwazer hopes to sell each KinTrans device for around $10,000 “to provide a better service for deaf people and expand a new customer segment for [each] business”. If all goes to plan, KinTrans aims to sell 300 to 500 units in the UAE over a two-year period, and possibly 1,000 in the US and Europe. Elwazer, a computer systems engineer and imageprocessing expert, always hoped to invent something with a social purpose. He believes the rising number of social enterpreneurs seen in the Arab world reflects a change in the way younger generations view giving back. “[Social enterprise] seems to appeal more to the younger generation than the older one. Before, you gave to charity if you wanted to help society. Now if you want to help society then you make something valuable you can sell, and sell in such a way you don’t exploit the people with the problem,” he says. “We don’t believe in charity. Charity is unsustainable.” The entrepreneurial path is one many of his peers hesitate to follow, often facing pressure to find a stable job. For Elwazer, the chance to show a social business can succeed is perhaps even more important than solving this particular issue. Disrupting the market “would be the biggest success of KinTrans,” he says.

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THE REAL DEAL NAME: Ahmed Rashad AGE: 27 FROM: Egypt Ahmed Rashad is a man with a plan. And it’s a big one. The graduate wants to solve a problem that threatens every person in Egypt, but which many never know is there: counterfeit medicines. Fake drugs are pervasive in the North African country. The Ministry of Health estimates between 10 and 30 per cent of all medicines in Egypt are

“WE TRY TO PUT SOCIETY FIRST”

counterfeit. Consumers are at risk of buying a product that doesn’t treat their ailment or – worse – one that is dangerous and potentially life threatening. On the part of pharmaceutical firms there is fall-out too, from lost income to investing in costly fixes. Rashad and his team of software and IT developers came up with a tag and scan

ASLY A

ASLYA

technology to determine whether a product is real. Aslya (meaning “genuine” in Arabic) sees customers scratch off a sticker on the product to reveal a QR code they can scan, using a free app downloaded to their phone. The QR code is a complex encryption of letters, numbers and symbols, which tells consumers in an instant whether the product they are buying is the real deal, or not. Firms can get Aslya to print the tags, or buy a licence to print the tags themselves. Either way, Rashad puts the price of the technology at less than $0.01 per unit. The system can be used with any product, but it is the pharmaceutical industry that Rashad has in his sights. He hopes to win over 3 per cent of Egypt’s pharmaceutical market in the next two years, before moving on to cosmetics, another victim of knockoffs. Aslya plans to relaunch an improved mobile app in September and continue trials: so far, the startup has tested more than 1,500 units and detected 480 fakes. Aslya has attracted around EGP65,000 (about $8,277) of investment and is in talks with several multinational drug firms in Egypt. “Investors are looking for projects that create money, very fast,” says Rashad. “But we try to put society first and I hope [our success] creates awareness of giving priority to such projects.”

HUNGRY FOR CHANGE NAME: Maya Terro AGE: 29 FROM: Lebanon “A lot of people expect an old lady to be running FoodBlessed and they’re surprised to see me,” says Maya Terro, 29, founder of the Beirut-based enterprise. “I tell them age doesn’t matter as long as you have the passion to do what you love.” Terro set up FoodBlessed in 2012 in her native Lebanon to tackle the twin evils of food waste and hunger. Her entirely volunteer-run organisation pairs with restaurants and catering agencies to distribute leftover food to the homeless and poor,

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via local nonprofits. Around one-third of all food grown for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, according to the UN’s food agency. Nearly a third of those helped by FoodBlessed are Syrian refugees, estimates Terro. In a bleak reflection of the crisis wrought by the ongoing conflict in Syria, UN figures show there are 232 refugees to every 1,000 inhabitants in Lebanon. The vast majority live on the poverty line, unable to work or support their families.

“WE PROVIDE MEALS TO THOSE IN NEED, REGARDLESS OF NATIONALITY, AGE OR RACE”

The organisation has also worked with Palestinian refugees and female prisoners from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, in addition to Lebanese citizens, she adds. “FoodBlessed was set up to fight hunger in Lebanon,” says Terro. “We provide meals to those in need, regardless of nationality, age or race.” Growing from 10 to 100 food partners, FoodBlessed has helped feed 221,000 people in Lebanon in the three years since its launch, through soup kitchens and collecting and distributing 1,400 boxes of dried food goods. Still, the organisation needs money to operate – around $1,000 a month – and has raised $50,000 in inkind donations and $15,000 cash in three years. Now Terro hopes to raise enough money to buy a food truck for her latest venture: Souper Meals on Wheels. Once purchased, the “soup kitchen by day, food truck by night” will be self-sustaining and will target the needy in rural areas where little food aid is available. People’s willingness to gift their time is at the heart of the organisation. Terro works part-time jobs to make ends meet, and FoodBlessed relies on the hard work and good humour of its many regular volunteers. “Volunteering is not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle,” says Terro, who first volunteered at the age of 16. “People who volunteer are active change makers, individuals who lead by example. I believe every generation needs them.” That FoodBlessed can call on so many people to give freely of their time to help others may surprise many, but not Terro: “All our volunteers are hunger heroes in disguise.”

BRIGHT SPARK NAME: Maha Al Otaibi AGE: 19 FROM: Saudi Arabia Ask what most 19-year-olds do in their spare time and the answer is likely to be hanging out with friends rather than inventing a device to help the hard of hearing. But Maha Al Otaibi is definitely not your average student. Last year Al Otaibi entered, and won second place, at the Emirates Award for Arabian Gulf Youth (EAAGY), a competition hosted by the UAE’s Emirates Foundation. The award is aimed at encouraging young GCC venture philanthropists to come up with solutions to important social issues. Al Otaibi’s invention is a more robust hearing aid that can withstand moisture. Waterlogged devices are one of the most common reasons for them to stop working. Using nanotechnology, Al Otaibi's hearing aid continues to work when it gets wet. It was her 14-year-old brother, Faisal, who inspired Al Otaibi to invent the waterproof hearing aid as she saw how he struggled when performing wudu (washing before prayers), swimming or going to the beach. “I wanted to help him overcome his fear and stress when it comes to being in the water,” she says.

The young inventor won AED70,000 ($19,000) from EAAGY to further the project and the next steps are to test the device with multiple users and take it to market. In addition to the technical barriers, Al Otaibi has had to overcome social hurdles too. “Universities weren’t very accepting of the fact I was young and wanted to invent something,” she admits. “They couldn’t fathom the idea I wanted to start a project – to invent – as a young Saudi, Arab, woman. But I believe if you have determination this will not deter you.”

“WE NEED TO

HAVE A SOCIAL IMPACT AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE” But the positive social impact her device could have has given her the determination to persist. “I want to say to anyone who has an idea or an invention to not be deterred by challenges,” she says. “[My] project started out, and continues, with the goal to serve society.” Al Otaibi believes her university friends and peers share her socially conscious mindset: “We know we need to have a social impact and make a difference.”

BIG PICTURE

BIG PICTURE HUNGARY – BUDAPEST PHOTOGRAPHER – BERNADETT SZABO

In September, Budapest’s Keleti train station became home to more than 2,000 migrants, a flashpoint in the crisis engulfing Europe. The sheer number of mostly Syrian refugees among them sparked an outpouring of calls from EU citizens for their governments to do more, with Germany alone expecting around 800,000 refugees

ILLUSIONS, MOHAMMAD This painting is one of a series by Mohammad, a member of the minority Muslim Rohingya from Burma. Mohammad used diluted instant coffee powder to create the artwork, a technique he learned from a fellow Iraqi asylum seeker.

PHILANTHROPY AGE

REFUGE IN ART The experience of arriving on new shores, facing an uncertain fate, is one that can be impossible to describe. Australia-based Refugee Art Project helps asylum seekers express these feelings of exile, hope and endurance. Since 2010, some 500 artworks created by refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sri Lanka and Burma have gone on public display in visual tribute to their journeys

A REFUGEEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LIFE, KAMALESHWARAN SELLADURAI

FREEDOM, KAMALESHWARAN SELLADURAI

A Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka, artist Kamaleshwaran Selladurai spent more than two years in detention centres in Australia. Sri Lanka experienced more than 30 years of conflict, which ended in 2009, with more than 275,000 displaced in the final phase of the civil war.

Now resident in Sydney, Australia, Selladurai taught himself to paint for the first time while waiting to hear the verdict on his application for asylum. The number of Sri Lankans risking the trip by boat across the Indian Ocean to Australia peaked in 2012-2013 at 4,949 people.

PHILANTHROPY AGE

SNAKES, MONA MORADVEISI

SMOKING RUINS, MURTAZA ALI JAFARI

Moradveisi is from Iran. She journeyed to Australia from her homeland with her mother and sister in 2011. Some 8,200 asylum applications were lodged in Turkey – today, the world’s top refugee hosting country – by Iranians in 2014 and there are more than 82,000 Iranian refugees globally, according to the United Nations.

A Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, Jafari’s family fled from the Taliban first to Quetta, Pakistan, where he worked a series of jobs including as a fruit seller and electrician, before continuing to Australia. Art was good for his mental health, the 25-year-old artist says, keeping him busy during this difficult period of upheaval.

LIVING LIFE IN LIMBO, MOHAMMAD

SNAKES AND LADDERS, MONA MORADVEISI

Mohammad spent more than five years in Villawood detention centre in Australia. The internet, one of the few ways detainees can communicate with the outside world, is one of his inspirations. Many of this series of paintings illustrate the difficulties refugees face, such as high rates of depression, suicide and self-harm.

Moradveisi has been a regular participant in Refugee Art Project's workshops for women refugees since 2013. The nonprofit holds workshops with those at Villawood immigration detention centre, Sydney, and refugees in the community. The subsequent artworks – including paintings, sculptures and photography – go on public display.

FREEDOM, MOHAMMAD Mohammad is from the Rohingya community, a Muslim minority group from northwest Burma (Myanmar). More than 800,000 people in Burmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rakhine state, where many Rohingya reside, lack citizenship, according to UNHCR. More than 240,000 are displaced in the country.

COMMENT

NATIONAL PRIDE: AN OPPORTUNITY Fostering a culture of giving in the UAE, a country defined by its generous welfare state, is a challenge. The answer lies in tapping Emirati national pride, writes Khalid Al Ameri

KHALID AL AMERI is a social columnist for UAE newspapers The Gulf Today and The National, as well as a motivational speaker and youth coach

t its core, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – my home – has always prided itself on a ‘people come first’ attitude. Very little, if anything, happens in the UAE without the welfare of its citizens being taken into consideration first. No expense is spared. Emiratis benefit from social services such as housing, education, healthcare and the like. They also have access to opportunities for growth and employment through higher education and industry training programmes. But how do you build a culture of giving in a country where the citizenry has become so accustomed to receiving? Given the UAE has been identified by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as the world’s largest donor of development aid, relative to its national income, you may also wonder why this culture of philanthropy has not already trickled down to the people. A survey conducted by Abu Dhabi’s Al Bayt Mitwahid Association among Emiratis aged between 16-24 may hold part of the answer. It showed that only 25 per cent of these young Emiratis rated ‘civic or social responsibility’ as one of their top three values. These results are

not ideal if we are really trying to develop a sense of social responsibility among citizens, especially our youth. What these results tell me is that there might be an inherent belief in our community that, no matter how big or small a problem is, there must be some entity, foundation, or charity set up by the government to take care of it. The challenge we have is to change this belief and engage people in their civic duty. There have been several philanthropic initiatives across the UAE that have done phenomenal work in engaging youth. A few that stand out to me are the Emirates Foundation’s Takatof Volunteering Programme, Dubai Cares and Noor Dubai. However, even these entities have relied heavily on government support to get things started and citizens still play a reactive role. That said, pockets of youth are starting to take social responsibility into their own hands, playing a proactive role in supporting our government and its projects on the ground. One such example is team1971, a nonprofit organisation set up by a group of Emirati youth, headed by the young entrepreneur and philanthropist Khalifa Bin Hendi. Team1971, with support from local initiatives like Social Bandage, has been responsible for several philanthropic projects across the UAE, including Ramadan food drives, bike giveaways to labourers, campaigns to bring neighbours and communities closer together, and humanitarian walks to raise awareness. What is refreshing about team1971 is that it is something built from the ground up by a group of young, passionate Emiratis who wanted to play a greater role in bringing positive change and development to their country. Their work could be a catalyst in driving a larger number of Emirati citizens to place a

COMMENT

“HOW DO YOU BUILD

A CULTURE OF GIVING IN A COUNTRY WHERE THE CITIZENRY HAS BECOME SO ACCUSTOMED TO RECEIVING?”

higher value on civic responsibility. The government can also play a greater role in spreading the culture of social responsibility among its people by placing groups such as team1971 on a pedestal, supporting their movements, and making champions of them. This will show citizens and residents alike that the

people who give back to their community are our true leaders. It could redefine what it means to be a leader in our country today. Definitions of leadership in the Arab world traditionally come with big budgets and fancy titles, leading many to prioritise individual wealth, business and seniority in their place of work before giving back. Even when MasterCard undertook a survey of how affluent people in Asia, the Middle East and Africa defined success, the people of the UAE saw it as ‘a way to fuel a lifestyle of luxury and enjoyment’. For philanthropy to become a priority, this view has to change. When it comes to what makes Emiratis happiest it is a sense of national pride. Indeed, national pride was the number one ranked value among Emirati youth. We are proud of our country and will do

anything to support its wider strategy and its leadership. We want our leadership to know we love our country, just as much as they love us. Therefore, if someone were to ask me how we can develop a more engaged, hard working and socially responsible youth in the UAE, my only suggestion would be to have the leadership and government communicate very clearly that civic responsibility is the ultimate showcase of our national pride. If we can redefine what it means to be successful in our society, we will shift mindsets. And we can build a social environment that wants to give back, before it receives. 01 Some Emirati youth are starting to take social responsibility into their own hands, says Al Ameri 02 GCC states can help by positioning philanthropy as the ultimate expression of national pride

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BEYOND THE BOTTOM LINE Hailed by global partners such as USAID and the UN, Sudan's DAL Group is demonstrating the power one company has to help a country WRITER SHAUN MCGUCKIAN

hab Daoud is standing quietly at the back of a crowd outside the headquarters of DAL Group, in Sudan’s dusty capital, Khartoum. It is hours before the launch of the firm’s first food festival – a celebration of Sudanese culture held for local residents – and Ihab, managing director of the group’s food division, looks on as a speech is given in his honour. The unassuming businessman may flinch at taking centre stage, but the speech exposes a list of philanthropic achievements for which he can feel rightly proud. “Success is often measured in dollars: many companies can be successful,” says Ihab. “For DAL, there is more to it. We’re very much about leaving a legacy.” DAL is an unlikely champion. Based in Sudan, a state that has teetered close to bankruptcy amid years of unrest, sanctions and bureaucratic bungling, it has beaten the economic odds to not only survive, but thrive. DAL is today the country’s biggest firm, capturing sales of more than $1bn a year, and with a presence across much of Sudanese industry. Its portfolio spans real estate, healthcare, food and agriculture, among other sectors, all propelled by a 7,500-strong workforce. That DAL has also succeeded in making social enterprise the beating heart of its business model, is little short of astonishing. “Philanthropy is part of day-to-day business for us,” says Ihab. “We seek out opportunities where there is a link between what we can do to help society, and how we can support our business.” It is costly work. DAL estimates it has fed millions of dollars into corporate social

responsibility (CSR) efforts since the early 1980s. Its initiatives range from incomegenerating schemes for women’s groups, to reforestation efforts, to providing free milk for schoolchildren. But Ihab says he is most proud of the company’s bakery school, which launched in 2000. The project began life as a class for professional bakers, training some 60,000 staff in 11,000 external bakeries across Sudan, before DAL took the decision to open the school to the wider public. “It started from a very simple idea,” Ihab explains. “We were offered senior bakers by one of our suppliers, to train our customers. There was huge demand for training and the bakers were also very keen to take part. We began with a small bakery development centre and it grew into something much bigger.” In the 15 years since, DAL has trained 200,000 people in safe baking techniques, including housewives who attend the thrice-daily classes. A free bus service helps transport those for whom the trip might otherwise be impossible, while a further five buses operate as mobile bakery units, touring the roads and outlying villages in northern Sudan. DAL funds the running costs of the school at $2m a year, and has gone so far as to offer seed funding to a number of pupils, enabling them to launch microenterprises to sell their baked goods. In a country where less than a third of women are active in the workforce, and where gross national income per capita is estimated at $1,550, such help is highly prized. “It’s very critical assistance, because it helps them to earn,” says Daoud.

01 In poverty-stricken Sudan, DAL Group is a driver of positive economic change

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As the biggest wheat importer and miller in Sudan, DAL has substantial sway. Its efforts to eliminate the use of potassium bromate – a potential carcinogen once widely used in Sudan as a bread improver – by introducing bakers to proved flour, have had an industry-wide impact. The Sudanese government outlawed the substance in 2003, but made little headway in curbing its use. According to DAL, more than 90 per cent of Khartoum’s bakeries are now potassium bromate-free, following its campaign. “By training people, we’ve eliminated its use,” explains Ihab. “The value to the community is, we feel, immense.” A private, family-run business, DAL occupies an unusual niche. The conglomerate has flourished despite Sudan’s turbulent history, including almost four decades of civil war. The last century of Sudan’s existence witnessed the highest civilian death toll of any conflict since World War II. The Arab-African country lost an estimated three-quarters of its oil reserves, its primary source of revenue and cash for food imports, when South Sudan seceded in 2011. It still faces US trade sanctions, first imposed in 1997, which curb access to credit and the wider global markets. In Khartoum, where tea shacks and other microbusinesses jostle for space at the side of busy roads, the government is trying to move towards a more structured, commerce-driven economy. But, with more than 46 per cent of the country’s population living below the poverty line, according to data from Beirut-based research firm ICARDA, the task ahead is vast. “We try to do the best for DAL Group, the best for society and the best for the country,” says Osama Daoud, Ihab’s elder brother. “Actually, in many ways, I think all these elements fit together.” As chairman of the company, Osama is the driving force behind its philanthropicled outlook. The 65-year-old leads an organisation that is proud of its local heritage and has always sought out ways to give back to society. “You know, we’re trying to create a good organisation

“SUCCESS IS OFTEN

MEASURED IN DOLLARS. WE’RE VERY MUCH ABOUT LEAVING A LEGACY”

01 Locals join DAL in a celebration of Sudanese culture 02 Ihab Daoud, managing director, DAL Food 03 Food security in Sudan is a corporate priority for DAL 04 DAL’s school milk scheme has bolstered attendence 05 Nearly half of Sudanese live below the breadline

that will last beyond me or anybody else,” he says. “Hopefully, we’ll be like our Nubian pyramids.” DAL takes this duty seriously. As a major agricultural player – the group has a 10 per cent share of Sudan’s dairy market – food security is high on its agenda. Despite fertile land, Sudan produces too little to feed its 37.2 million people and remains partly reliant on food imports. Food price inflation puts staples beyond the reach of some communities, while a fragmented agricultural sector curbs efforts to ramp up local production. Some 3.3 million Sudanese face ‘stressed’ and ‘crisis’ levels of acute food insecurity, found a January 2014 report. UN agencies estimate some 35 per cent of the population may suffer from stunting brought on by malnutrition. DAL’s dairy operations began at Osama’s behest, with 25 young cows and a small farm. Today its largest farm Ailafoun, located just outside of Khartoum, stands at 500 hectares and is home to some 5,000

PHILANTHROPY AGE

$2 MILLION The annual cost of DAL’s bakery school, which trains some 5,000 bakers and housewives each month in safe cooking techniques

cows. A further 9,000ha holding sits on the River Nile. In developing the farm, the firm rolled out modern irrigation and animal husbandry methods, training smallholder farmers to increase milk production. DAL Food buys this extra yield, at market price, boosting the farmers’ livelihood. The milk initiative doesn’t stop there. Seeking to displace powdered milk, which is cheaper but imported, DAL believes it can slash the cost of milk for everyone by improving production and creating demand nationally and across the wider region. “It’s all about making basic foods affordable, that’s our aim,” says Osama. “We call it our white revolution.” DAL’s efforts to place social enterprise at the core of its business activities have not gone unnoticed. The group has netted dozens of awards for its work, including being named a Social Investment Pioneer by the UN Global Compact (UNGC). Following a recent visit to Sudan, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the former Shell chief and chairman for the foundation for the UNGC, described DAL’s ethos as “truly impressive”. “You have some of the best examples of corporate responsibility, as an integral part of day-to-day business, rather than as an add-on, that I have seen in visits to many different parts of the world,” he remarked. “DAL is a company I would have been proud to work for.” The Daoud brothers’ father, Daoud Abdelatif, founded DAL in the 1960s, after winning a distribution contract from US-based machinery giant Caterpillar. A self-made man, who served as a politician for a time after Sudan’s independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956, he did much to shape DAL’s approach to corporate philanthropy and employee development. “We empower the people we trust,” says Osama. “We give them authority and responsibility. We create a good work environment and we support them, fully.” His influence can also be felt in DAL’s school milk initiative. The firm’s dairy operations introduced free milk into the education system in 2011, after identifying an issue with children skipping classes,

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01 Osama Daoud, chairman of Sudan’s DAL Group 02 DAL’s school milk scheme is supported by USAID 03 The company believes in inclusive economic growth

PRE SE RVING TALE NT Years of unrest drove many young Sudanese to seek opportunities abroad, creating a vacuum of educated talent in the ArabAfrican nation. The challenge that DAL Group – and indeed Sudan – faces today, is two-fold: how best to entice these professionals to return home, and how to retain the next generation of graduates. The group is tackling the issue with two initiatives. The first is a scheme whereby an annual intake of 20 promising graduates spend two years with DAL, learning about the firm’s myriad operations. The firm reports that more than 90 per cent of interns choose to stay on at the end of the programme, accepting permanent roles. The second initiative is an international school, built to offer a top-level education to students and cater for the families of Sudanese expatriates. The firm’s strategy was simple: to bring in exceptional teachers to work with – and train – locals. Today, the school has students and staff spanning some 39 nationalities. “We want to bring up the new leaders in the country and for them to have an international outlook,” explains Osama. “Our children have gone to... top universities all over the world. [It] is a good sign that in Sudan there is the talent and it can be done.”

in order to work to earn enough money to afford a meal. Net attendance in Sudan’s primary schools is just 75 per cent, according to estimates from the UN. DAL began by supplying 45 schools and approximately 20,000 students in Khartoum and the Red Sea State with free milk. By providing incentive and nourishment, DAL says pass rates among students rose from 68 per cent in 2011 to 80 per cent in 2014. The annual cost of this scheme, which DAL funds directly, is $1.25m. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has recently joined as a donor, and the company is keen to partner with other agencies to expand the initiative across Sudan. “It has no direct business advantage,” explains Osama. “We do it as our way of paying back society. We feel a responsibility to help.”

Looking ahead, DAL sees growth in the pipeline. The company has plans to expand not only within Sudan, but also into neighbouring African countries where it feels its model of inclusive economic growth can help ignite change. A public listing is another option, as a means to further underpin DAL’s future. But whatever shape that future takes, social responsibility will remain at the company’s core. “We are determined to do certain things and if we face difficulties, we don’t give up,” concludes Osama. “You know, we just keep going.”

BIG PICTURE YEMEN – SANAA PHOTOGRAPHER – KHALED ABDULLAH ALI AL MAHDI

Yemen, already the poorest country in the Arab world, has buckled under the impact of fighting, which escalated in March. Civilians are vulnerable to disease as water and fuel run dry and 80 per cent of Yemenis – 21 million people – desperately need aid, according to the UN

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE

THE ROAD TO EQUALITY Sir Fazle Hasan Abed is the founder of Brac, the largest NGO in the world. He shares the story of its birth, its vast gains for the poorest in Bangladesh, and his hopes for what has been described as “the most astounding social enterprise in the world” In 1970, I was working as

an executive with Shell in Pakistan, when a cyclone hit the east of the country. Some 300,000 people died; most of them poor. They were washed away into the sea. For the first time I felt the fragility of their lives, and that the life I was leading as an executive in a global corporation was meaningless. By 1971, shortly after Bangladesh’s independence, I’d left London to help resettle the refugees returning from India. And that is how Brac was born. I never thought I would give my life to this work, but 44 years on, here I am.

“I NEVER THOUGHT

I WOULD GIVE MY LIFE TO THIS WORK, BUT 44 YEARS ON, HERE I AM”

My primary concern is the

dynamics of poverty. Poor people are poor because they are powerless. Our task is not to end poverty, but to create the right conditions to allow people to defeat poverty themselves. The tools we offer through Brac included microfinance, healthcare, family planning services and education. Schools are critical, and we wanted to reach the next generation. We began with pilot projects in small areas, but as soon as we knew they were effective, we replicated them nationally. Small is not beautiful. I always wanted to have a national impact on poverty. When I started Brac, the average life expectancy in Bangladesh was 48 years. Now, it is 70. Infant mortality is down from 250 babies in every 1,000, to 40. I used to go house-to-house in Bangladesh, teaching mothers how to make oral rehydration fluids to combat diarrhoeal mortality. In education, fewer than 60 per cent of children in Bangladesh used to enrol in school. Now, more than 97 per cent do. We have educated more than 7 million children, many of whom have gone on to become doctors and engineers. Wherever I go, I find people who attended a Brac school, who tell me that we helped give them a new life.

The world is becoming less equitable. There are more refugees, more displaced people, more conflict. We need to build societies where everyone has a chance. We need equality of opportunity, not necessarily of wealth, so everyone has an opportunity to rise through his or her hard work. That means providing quality education to children, and eradicating extreme poverty. These are the next generation of challenges we must face and win. For the first time in history though, I think that we can.

I sold my house in London to start Brac, with £9,000 [about $13,652]. We later got funding from Oxfam and other donors, and now we run several social enterprises with all the revenues coming to Brac. Our Bangladesh budget is about $1bn, of which $750m is generated by our businesses and about $250m comes from donors. We have more than 100,000 employees. Our budget in the remaining 10 countries is about $120m. My background is in business, and I’ve brought that to bear on Brac.

unfinished agenda of my life, and I think it will remain so for a long time to come. It is very hard work, but vital. Human society would be much happier if we could offer equal opportunities for all men and women, girls and boys.

Not being entirely donorfunded gives us opportunities. We can run pilot projects, test them, and then – once we can deliver results – ask others for funding. It gives us the freedom to design our own programmes. People can see evidence of what we can achieve with their money.

01 Abed founded Brac in 1972 with just £9,000 02 Education leads Brac’s anti-poverty agenda

My philosophy has been to help people live a meaningful life. I want a dignified existence for all humans, and to help end the dehumanising effects of poverty. To eradicate extreme poverty: that is something the world could be very proud of.

Gender equality is the

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

PHILANTHROPY AGE

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE The stories on these pages are just a start. Many of the organisations we feature are changing lives on a daily basis, but they need support to survive. Get in touch to learn more about the issues – or to get busy solving them – and take the next step on your own philanthropic journey

FEED THE WORLD

BROAD REACH

Millions of people worldwide rely on the World Food Programme (WFP) for daily nutrition, and to feed their families. Funded entirely by donors, the organisation is in urgent need of money after years of unprecedented demand brought on by war, drought and turmoil. Each year, WFP assists 80 million people globally, with the goal of eradicating hunger worldwide.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been on the ground in Syria since conflict erupted. It helps Syrians with medical needs and rights issues, while also tending to the displaced. Your donations can help the IRC provide everything from clean water to education in some 40 countries around the world, all facing humanitarian disasters.

WFP.org

Rescue.org

FRESH STARTS

CLIMATE 101

AID WITHOUT AGENDA

Included helps new migrants to adjust and integrate into their new environments. It ventures into slums where migrants crowd at the margins of a metropolis, offering greater access to the opportunities and services available in these cities. Your donation could fund a community centre, set up a programme to assist new arrivals or just help where it’s needed most.

Confused by the many issues related to climate change? The Climate Reality Project can help. Founded by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore, the organisation seeks to turn awareness into action, build support for a global deal to reduce our footprint on the planet, and promote the switch to a low-carbon economy.

Doctors, nurses, midwives and other medical specialists are recruited to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), often from within the very countries where the organisation works. This medical humanitarian organisation would use your donations to offer emergency aid to people in 67 countries, without the influence of bias, politics or allegiances.

Included.org

climaterealityproject.org

MSF.org

PHILANTHROPY AGE

IN THE NEXT ISSUEâ&#x20AC;Ś FOR WOMEN, FOR MEN, FOR ALL

n the next issue of Philanthropy Age, we explore the vital role that women can play in the social, economic and cultural development of the region. Empowering the mothers, sisters and daughters of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA), and keeping them safe from violence, will help drive poverty eradication and support inclusive economic growth. It will change the course of history, and unlock the true potential of the wider region. MENASA governments recognise this and are beginning to translate pledges into practical progress. In the next issue, we celebrate what has been achieved and highlight what is still to be done. We examine the challenges that remain to gender equality, and we emphasise what can be achieved if the hitherto underserved women of the region are offered an opportunity to realise their abilities and goals.

TO BRIGHTER FUTURES

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to the generous, people like you, who have helped Water.org change lives. For a village in Haiti, the change began with safe, accessible water. For a family in India, it started with their own toilet.

For 2.5 million people worldwide, our solutions have meant a brighter future. Join us, and together we can raise a glass of safe water to health and hope. Donate today. Water.org/raiseaglass

Marlie Decopain Haitian-born illustrator

EVERYWHERE