The University of Botswana, in Gaborone, Botswana.

In 1976, after a traumatic event, Botswana’s government decided to build the country’s first university, but it had no money for the massive project. It turned to the practice of batho ba dithuso (people of help), a concept that highlights the collective responsibility of people to contribute to state-led efforts for the benefit of society. Contributions flowed from across the country, and the campaign led to a new university and demonstrated the high status of giving in Botswana, as Eshban Kwesiga explains in an article in “.”

His powerful story is one of many in a pilot project of 20 short articles that define deep-rooted giving practices across Africa. Launched by and the National Philanthropic Trust, in collaboration with , the 20 articles describe the history and diversity of African giving traditions, such as takaful (an Arabic term for the practice of social solidarity among people in Muslim-majority African countries) or chilimba (a Zambian tradition involving a system of reciprocal mutual support, where members, often in women-led groups, pool resources).

“As Africans, we are connected, but we do not know much about each other,” explains Bidemi Adedire, who’s with the Media and Communications Department at GivingTuesday. “It is nice for cross-country collaboration with this pilot project.”

“And there is interest to continue this work, to grow beyond 20 articles,” Adedire adds. “How can we gather 200 more traditions, or a thousand more? Africa is such a big continent. Within Nigeria alone, I can talk about 10 traditions.”

Read the.

With 70% of its population under the age of 30, Africa stands as the world’s youngest continent, and by 2050, 20% of the global population will reside here. Despite such potential, youth unemployment in Africa remains a critical challenge, threatening the continent’s peace and security. This is the situation that we at the pan-African are dedicated to transforming. We view our youthful demographic not as a challenge, but as the cornerstone for our continent’s prosperity.

Founded in 2010 by African investor and philanthropist and , the Foundation has become one of the world’s leading philanthropic foundations, empowering young entrepreneurs in all 54 African countries and bolstering Africa’s private sector.

Tony O. Elumelu (third from left) and Somachi Chris-Asoluka (middle) meet the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Ramin Toloui (third from right), as well as members of the Nigerian creative industry, to discuss ways that the industry can power Africa’s economic growth.

Our mission is to redefine Africa’s economic development agenda, shifting the focus from foreign aid to sustainable growth driven by young entrepreneurs. In 2015, our founders to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 young entrepreneurs across Africa over ten years.

Today, in 2024, we’ve fulfilled that promise and doubled it, disbursing approximately US$100 million to 20,000 young African men and women, who have created more than 400,000 jobs and generated US$2.5 billion in revenue. We’ve also provided access to training to more than 1.5 million young Africans on our digital platform, .

Our commitment is rooted in the philosophy of , which sees Africa’s private sector, particularly every young entrepreneur, as instrumental in driving the continent’s social and economic transformation.

We believe that philanthropy must be catalytic, combining traditional tools, like grants and donations, with business acumen to advance self-sufficiency for communities and generations. Such catalytic philanthropy can equip our youth with the resources, opportunities and visibility not only to create livelihoods for themselves but also to drive job creation and community development. Entrepreneurship offers the most transformative vehicle to reshape our continent’s narrative within our lifetime—to create jobs and generate revenue, while pursuing sustainability, inclusion and social impact.

The Foundation also engages in vital research and advocacy to enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa. The policy reforms we’ve influenced have improved perceptions of Africa as a high-yield destination for long-term investment. Our work aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on job creation, poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment, ensuring that our efforts contribute to broader global development objectives.

At the Tony Elumelu Foundation, in our journey to support more young entrepreneurs and contribute to Africa’s sustainable development. We can all have a part to play in creating a prosperous future where every young African has the opportunity to thrive and make a difference.

Somachi Chris-Asoluka is the Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Read the Ups & Downs of Philanthropy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Priorities in philanthropy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, many governments have a selective embrace of philanthropy. When, for instance, in the face of a humanitarian crisis, philanthropy is embraced. However, whenever, let’s say, a social movement calls for fundamental changes or an overhaul of structural issues causing inequality, then almost every single African government that I know of has been very uneasy about philanthropy.

The continent is also guided, to a large extent, by , which is part of the African Union’s broader policy frameworks, in addition to regional frameworks, such as the , that inform how countries behave regarding philanthropy.

Some countries, like Rwanda, have done quite a bit in terms of policies that try to structure philanthropic interventions. Philanthropy institutions have a lot of interest in in Rwanda. The , and there are many other foundations.

There’s a lot of duplication in philanthropy and, therefore, there’s a need to have a policy that guides operations and the need to have a specific ministry through which organizations can engage. One way of avoiding duplication and chaos is to say, “These are our national development priorities,” or to say, “These are ,” as opposed to organizations choosing what they want. In this regard, Rwanda is probably more advanced than most other countries in terms of policies that structure philanthropy.

In addition, nearly every single African country has been able to prioritize philanthropy’s interventions around sectors like health and education. Here, in South Africa, there’s also a huge focus on job creation, especially for young people.

Laws related to philanthropy that do and don’t operate

Communities in various African countries stand to benefit in one form or another if policies or tax laws guide philanthropy.

On the whole, from a policy perspective, perhaps the most important element related to philanthropy is the tax law in each country. A second element is the relationship between government and the nonprofit sector broadly. Some countries have tried to create an enabling environment, and that “enabling environment” helps governments to respond to immediate or social development needs and brings value in terms of taxes. In other words, governments want something positive coming out of philanthropy.

In some cases, tax laws indicate that organizations can benefit in terms of tax rebates or exemptions related to what they’re trying to do. However, in many countries, tax laws are complicated and don’t fully operate, either because of the bureaucracy or the type of documentation required. Ethiopia is an extreme example of too much regulation, which, for example, dictated that some organizations can’t operate in certain sectors. A backlash ensued, because the philanthropic work and resource mobilization of organizations was overly constrained.

Also, I was talking to someone who operates a community-based organization in Zimbabwe, and she said her organization was hit by a sudden, retroactive, tax demand going back five years – and she thinks it was punishment for asking important questions about the relationship between mining companies, governments and communities. So, many philanthropic organizations in the region operate without applying for tax benefits.

Three exceptions are Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa, which have better developed tax exemption systems for nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, among other regulations. For instance, instead of relying only on the goodwill of mining companies to work with community nonprofit groups, South Africa has specific laws that require companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to invest at least 1% of post-tax profit into corporate social investment (CSI). It’s 2% in Mauritius.

More countries may want to do this, if these examples are anything to go by. There’s a huge component of private-sector input, but also nonprofit organizations’ input in terms of processes. It ensures that certain investments go to communities, especially in places with huge extractive industries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has nothing to show after years of mining. Communities in various countries stand to benefit in one form or another if policies or tax laws guide philanthropy.

Read another story about philanthropy in Africa

The start of feminist funds

Women have been philanthropists for a very long time. They give to their communities. There’s a long history across Africa and the Middle East of women moving resources to support communities, supporting communities in times of crisis for example — everything from HIV-AIDs, to conflict, to Ebola, to Covid.

Feminist funds were created in the late 80s in the Netherlands and the US, with Astrae Foundation, . They were set up because traditional philanthropy were mainly private foundations in the US that weren’t focused on grassroots women’s organizations, gender equality or gender justice.

Across the African continent, women’s funds and feminist funds, like , and the , were created in the early 2000s in response to traditional philanthropy and to move resources differently across the continent. There are now at least eight feminist funds in Africa, working in various languages.

These funds have different relationships with communities and move money differently, compared to traditional philanthropy. Feminist funds are often set up by women who come from movements, women who come from the communities they serve, and women who have proximity to the issues they’re working on.

And the feminist funding principles that many of them use are about giving money in trust-based ways, giving for multiple years, and giving core support, not only project support, because organizations need both core and project funding, especially because many of them are institution builders and lead social movements and feminist movements over a long term.

Why feminist and women’s funds are needed

There’s evidence that shows that this kind of funding is needed if gender equality and gender justice are to become a reality — and we’re very far from that reality now.

All indicators show that if you’re born as a woman or you identify as a woman, then opportunities are restricted in many ways because of oppressive social norms, lack of access to adequate resources, gender discrimination, and anti-gender ideological movements that are rolling back abortion access and LGBTQ rights, and that define violence in restrictive ways, such as looking at gender-based violence and ignoring structural violence. So, feminist funds work to fund social movements and feminist movements in ways that will help those movements achieve their objectives, and not just achieve funder objectives.

Feminist funds tend to move money both as rapid-response funding and long-term funding. For example, the Doria Fund, based in Lebanon, moved money when the earthquake happened in Morocco and Turkey to support communities that were most affected, and it moves money quickly when war happens, such as in Gaza and the West Bank.

They also fund groups who are building a feminist vision of a different world — a vision of a world grounded in gender justice and gender equality — and to do that you have to have a long-term vision and long-term resources. For instance, the Doria Fund funded the first study on femicide in Algeria, recently published, and there’s a feminist analysis around climate, and around democratic systems, that are being funded by feminist funds.

Feminist funds and philanthropy in Canada

The other thing is that feminist funds move resources beyond only financial capital. Non-financial resources include capacity support, capacity strengthening, knowledge building, research, and policy work across the feminist movement. And there’s a strong role — and you see this also in Canada, with the — to influence the philanthropic, development and humanitarian sectors, so that it’s not just about money coming into your fund. It’s also about, overall, how these sectors are thinking about where money comes from, where wealth comes from, how they move money in different ways, and the advocacy and policy work related to feminists demanding feminist foreign policies, gendered international development policies, and decolonized philanthropic, development and humanitarian sectors.

For Canada, it’s important to think about how resources are moved differently — through international development assistance and the Equality Fund — and how to move resources directly to communities at local levels. This means using intermediaries who speak the local language and who have proximity to communities and to the issues Canadians want to fund.

Proximity is really important, and that’s something that feminist funds provide, especially when looking at community agendas and human rights, and supporting those who are most impacted by intersecting harms and marginalization. That’s an important piece for Canadians to think about.

Leila Hessini is on .

Read African Philanthropies: Our Narratives, on Our Terms, the next story in our series.

The context for philanthropy related to working with communities

Ronny Dempers speaks at the 30th Anniversary of Namibia Development Trust.

Namibia’s global economic status is ranked by the World Bank and other international institutions as an “,” but that’s misleading. Namibia does have financial resources, domestically, that can be tapped into for philanthropy, but that wealth is owned and shared by a very small minority. The great majority of people in Namibia live in abject poverty and unemployment rates are very high. I must also say that policies and legislative frameworks in Namibia aren’t conducive for tapping into the wealth of the minority.

Also, because of the “upper middle income” status, there aren’t many foreign donors that are eager to fund development activities. After independence, in 1990, the honeymoon of increased donor funding ended, and many donor institutions have withdrawn from the country.

Private-sector funding is also limited, because there are very few incentives to attract private funding to nonprofit activities. The private sector channels a lot of funding into sports development and activities related to marketing. The nonprofit sector finds it very hard to raise funds from these domestic sources.

Barriers to the nonprofit sector

“Philanthropy” isn’t a formally used concept in Namibia, even in the nonprofit sector, but there are foundations and social-development programs. We’ve seen a trend in Namibia: instead of putting funds into existing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private companies set up their own internal foundations, such as the .

The private foundations implement their own social responsibility programs, with their own corporate goals.

Government para-statal agencies also have their own foundations. That’s another trend developing in Namibia. They’re primarily funded by the government, and specialize in a particular sector, such as transportation, telecommunications, the energy sector and the diamond industry.

These trends make it difficult for the nonprofit sector to start substantial development work for communities living in poverty.

Policy and regulatory challenges

Ronny Dempers talks about the Small Grant Programme, during a workshop with the Conservancy Regional Association, in Namibia.

To avoid getting grey-listed, Namibia had been forced into a situation where it had to upgrade and update its policy instruments. Parliament has developed and passed through legislation — I think there were 12 acts that were updated and bulldozed through Parliament — without proper citizen participation and without following some parliamentary processes, such as creating committees for civil society to give input. We have a strange political system in Namibia in which our Parliament is dominated by the executive when it comes to creating laws.

For example, the Financial Intelligence Act put restrictions on how nonprofit organizations are regulated, how they should be managed, and even how they should do their banking. It’s quite a process for a nonprofit organization to open a bank account. And it’s difficult to even register a nonprofit. Some of the requirements are so difficult, and some of the potential penalties are so strict, that some nonprofits, including mine, are registered as a trust.

Potential solutions

NGO’s need to advocate for a more enabling environment that would include, among other things, unlocking domestic resource mobilization for the NGO sector. Also, the government of Namibia is currently developing a for 2024-2027. This provides an opportunity to improve the enabling environment for civil society in Namibia.

Ronny Dempers can be found at . Photos are courtesy of the Orange River-Karoo Conservation Area and the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations.

Read another story in this series: African Philanthropies: Our Narratives, on Our Terms.

Four characteristics of African philanthropy

People tend to think of African philanthropy from one perspective — that people give to their neighbours and family, and that’s it. The reality is that it’s much broader and deeper. For instance, there’s everyday individual, communal and association-based giving, and there’s institutionalized giving, but the everyday giving – what I call embedded giving – is the least understood in global philanthropic discourse. While one can’t generalize too much about embedded giving practises on the African continent, because there’s a lot of nuance in how philanthropy is expressed, there are clusters of characteristics that are widespread.

The first is that giving is rooted in notions of solidarity, mutuality and collective identity. It isn’t only transactional.

Without romanticizing Africa, I do think when we talk about African giving practices, they’re rooted in notions such as ‘ubuntu’ – an understanding that ‘my existence is intertwined with yours,’ and ‘my progress is intertwined with yours,’ and ‘my liberation is intertwined with yours.’ Collective identity and collective humanity are important, even more so in relation to contexts where external pressures are extractive and/or exploitative, both at a national level and international level if you look at global political-economic systems and legacies of colonialism and apartheid.

The second point is related to the dominant narrative about how and why philanthropy flows: the general take we’re told is: you live your life; you make your profits; and you give the excess you have. But in Africa, giving also means giving from a place of scarcity, not only excess. The majority of everyday giving comes from people who don’t have a lot to give, but they know there’s a brotherhood and sisterhood there, and that if they’re in dire straits, neighbours and friends will be there for them as well.

That leads to a third point: kinship. In Canada or the west, when you think of family, you think of the nuclear family. Here, family is also your extended family, but as important is the notion of kinship, which can be family, can be your neighbour’s father’s, can be the child on the next street who suffered some misfortune. Kinship is understood through links of family, community and association with others.

Last, it’s vital to emphasize that Africans do also give to institutions, to movements and to civic organizations, not just to their families and communities. These different types of giving happen simultaneously and through multi-directional flows.

Philanthropy in Africa doesn’t focus only on wealth

For approximately the last 20 years, there’s been a concerted effort in Africa to challenge the notion that philanthropy is an imported, western notion related to wealth.

Giving practices have a long history in Africa, but we don’t call it ‘philanthropy.’ We call it ‘ubuntu’ (which references collective humanity), ‘kujitolea’ (to volunteer or sacrifice), ‘teraanga,’ (hospitality), ‘harambee,’ (all pull together), ‘takafol’ (solidarity; mutual guarantee), and there are many other names.

And there’s been push back against the idea that Africa is a ‘begging bowl’ and that it’s a recipient of mainly western philanthropy.

The point is that we understand philanthropy to be significantly broader than institutionalized, top-down giving from high-net-worth sources, especially if you consider non-monetary giving, such as donated time, labour and social capital and asset sharing. We’ve been very deliberate in re-framing philanthropy to focus on what’s happening within our own sharing and giving systems on the continent. If we remove the high-net-worth, top-down, institutionalized framing, and look at everyday practises that people are engaged in, and analyze those practises in terms of giving and sharing, then we find some very different practises — and we find philanthropy that isn’t only transactional. In Africa, the act of giving itself holds immense value.

Change is happening globally as well

We also think that we need a new narrative of global philanthropy, not only a new one for African philanthropy, because we see similarities in other societies around the world – other communalistic societies in the global South, as well as other indigenous societies globally. For example, you can extend this to Indigenous communities in Canada or the US, or even to African-American or African diaspora communities, where you’ll see giving practices that, we would say, has a ‘resonance’ here in Africa. These exist in many places, they just don’t form part of the dominant narrative of philanthropy.

There’s no revolution in philanthropy (yet), but we’ve had change

Change is iterative. Twenty years ago, there were no pan-African philanthropy conferences; this year alone, we’ve organized several for the next few months. When I used to go to global philanthropy conferences, there were very few of us from the continent present; today there’s a presence in numbers. Back then, our infrastructure was nascent and narrowly focused in terms of geography; today, we have pan-African institutions like , the , the , and others. When I did my Masters, we had no programs, nor any lecturers experienced in philanthropy at my university; today, we have a cadre of Masters and PhD students from across the continent.

It’s not just that there are new institutions and spaces; there’s also a significant pushing of boundaries on how we understand what philanthropy is and what role it plays in society — and critical knowledge building on alternative narratives within which to understand these.

There’s the new initiative, which is advancing a values-based vision of the philanthropy that Africa needs. There’s the recently launched program, which centres on the diversity and significance of women’s multidimensional philanthropic roles. And there’s a strong and growing African feminist philanthropy sector on the continent — and a lot of transformation stemming from that, as well as more spaces where new participatory models are being developed.

Still, there’s a lot to be done, because we’re pushing against entrenched narratives and erased histories, but we’re a long way from where we were 20 years ago. We’re defining our own narratives — and on our own terms.

For more about Halima Mahomed’s work and African philanthropy, please download her two recent papers produced under a TrustAfrica Fellowship: (1) Philanthropic Privilege & Constituency Agency, By Halima Mahomed, 2023; and (2) Our Giving, African Philanthropy & the Narrative Divides, By Halima Mahomed, 2023. Photos are courtesy of TrustAfrica and CAPSI. TrustAfrica can be found on , and .

Read the next story (from Kenya) in the African Philanthropy Series

If you stop any Kenyan on the streets of Nairobi and ask them if they’re a philanthropist, their most likely answer is “No,” but if you ask them how many fundraising groups they’re in, you’ll most likely get a resounding “Too many!”

Philanthropy isn’t a commonly used word in Kenya, but looking at the , from , Kenya is ranked third, out of 142 countries, in terms of “Helped a stranger,” “Donated money” and “Volunteered.”

Community gathering in Kenya to fundraise in the spirit of ‘Harambee’.

One distinctive attribute of philanthropy in Kenya is the use of technology in giving, which is founded on the country’s motto of Harambee, a Swahili word for “pulling together.” Harambee is Kenya’s official motto and appears on our country’s coat of arms – and is a long-standing tradition in raising funds as a group, working collectively on community projects and promoting community advancement. The Harambee ideology has led to the creation of many self-help groups managed by women and young people at the village level and has significantly contributed to the success of community philanthropy models in Kenya.

Kenya is known for the fast growth of mobile-money applications that have reached the sections of society that don’t have access to hassle-free banking. The applications essentially brought hundreds of thousands of small-scale business people into a world of real-time, hassle-free money transfer. Mobile-money apps and social media platforms have provided a conducive environment for quick and efficient fundraising initiatives in Kenya that thrive on our Harambee spirit. These have led to various opportunities for the growth of community philanthropy in Kenya through the quick mobilization of financial resources towards national causes, including funds for drought relief, scholarships, community projects and on a more familial level, burial expenses and medical bills of loved ones.

There’s much to be learned from this, including the opportunities for community philanthropy, organizing and funds mobilization towards development and social justice issues that are premised on historical ideology and values. There are opportunities for us to globally harness technological advancements to easily and quickly raise funds for causes that address systems-change approaches, and not just sporadic emergency fundraising.

With the lessons learned from Kenya, the philanthropy space can leapfrog into systems-change fundraising that’s easy, quick and efficient.

Grace Maingi is on . Photos are courtesy of KCDF.

Philanthropy in the Middle East is Rooted in History and Culture – and is Changing Rapidly

What makes philanthropy unique in Egypt and for the Middle East is that philanthropy is historical and started from a religious or communal standpoint. Charity, not necessarily philanthropy, but charitable giving specifically is rooted in Egyptian culture across all socioeconomic levels and through different mechanisms. There weren’t formal foundations and formal mechanisms for giving — charity wasn’t announced and monitored — but within communities, charitable giving to education, to community, and to healthcare goes back a long way in the Middle East. In fact, it’s difficult to get data on that kind of giving, because most of it is anonymous, with no connections to tax benefits, as in other parts of the world.

Noura Selim sits on a panel, “Tapping into the Power of Philanthropy to Support Local Community Response,” with H.R.H. Princess Nouf Muhammad Al Saud (CEO of the King Khalid Foundation) and Matt Reed (CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation).

Over the past 50 years, charitable giving has progressed to become more formalized, led by the private sector and corporate social responsibility (CSR) announcements. Companies now give in the space where individuals gave; both are happening together. Companies fund to build hospitals, improve education and support children for example. That’s what we call philanthropy. This included the beginning of private family foundations. The was the first, founded in 2001.

Now, there are a number of family, corporate and international foundations, and they’re focused on Egyptian needs, such as building and maintain huge hospitals that provide free healthcare.

The population in Egypt is 104 million, and there are more than 55,000 formal, established non-governmental organizations. This is on top of the large number of anonymous and religious giving that’s still ongoing and still a part of Egyptian culture. This is a distinctive attribute of philanthropy in Egypt. –Noura Selim

More Coordination of Philanthropy is a Good Thing in Egypt

The Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) was established in 2001 with an endowment from the Sawiris Family in Egypt. SFSD focuses on addressing the most pressing issues facing the most marginalized Egyptians, such as poverty, unemployment, provision of health services, and little access to quality education.

Egypt isn’t a wealthy country. It has two extremes, with many people living below the poverty line and with a huge percentage of young people. The Egyptian government can’t provide enough social safety nets for everyone, so a lot of official development assistance (ODA) flows into the country, filling roles that the government can’t, such as in the case of large, privately funded hospitals that provide free healthcare to the general public.

However, the Sawiris Foundation and the biggest foundations here coordinate with the government and ODA programs. This is important, because you get many entities working on the same problem, such as youth unemployment. You get international organizations, the Egyptian government, large foundations, the International Labour Organization, the World Bank and others, all working on youth unemployment for example. If possible, some sort of national syndication or coordination does help.

We Need More Evidence-Based Philanthropy

Microcredit does have its pros, but we need to know exactly what it solves and doesn’t solve. Overall, it’s good that more evidence-based tools are being used to assess ODA programs. This is one good thing that I hope philanthropists, globally, are watching.

The sector globally, and this includes Egypt and the Middle East, is moving into more professionalism, more scientific methods, instead of randomly training people or just distributing food here and there. Looking at evidence, and what works and doesn’t work, is important. For example, many people have been talking about microcredit as a save-all, but a lot of studies have come out showing that microcredit doesn’t lift people out of poverty. Microcredit does have its pros, but we need to know exactly what it solves and doesn’t solve. Overall, it’s good that more evidence-based tools are being used to assess ODA programs. This is one good thing that I hope philanthropists, globally, are watching. Even if it means spending more money on research and collecting more data and more evidence over a longer period of time, this is critical work if we want to solve serious problems in the long term.

Communities Know Their Needs and Abilities Better than External Stakeholders Do

The other things are contextualization and localization. In Egypt, we’re the recipient of a lot of aid and many foreign-designed programs. I have respect for global experience, but at the same time, if a program isn’t localized and contextualized — if you’re not going to work with local people and look at local communities — then you may be doing more harm than good with foreign-designed initiatives.

I have seen many international organizations that are well intentioned, but if they come in with a western view, with a program that may have empowered women in Canada, for example, but that might not work in Egypt, that might lead to more violence targeted at women, which I’ve seen here. The social structures between men and women in Egypt are different, and a program here should consider that context and shouldn’t lead to putting women in more vulnerable positions.

I would stress that philanthropic work should focus on local communities and truly understanding their context — especially balancing top-down approaches with participatory approaches.

Many communities might be more marginalize, less educated, and more economically poor, but they know their communities, their abilities and their needs better then external stakeholders do. It’s something we, sitting in Cairo, remind ourselves all the time — and it’s something international philanthropists should remind themselves also.

Noura Selim is on . Photos are courtesy of Sawiris Foundation.

Read about philanthropy in Ghana.

As a sector and field of research, philanthropy is relatively new in Zambia, despite the practice being entrenched in the country’s way of living. Zambians have a to their families, church programs, community activities and other causes. In addition, there’s a growing recognition across the corporate sector that social investments make good business sense.

For many years, mobilising community involvement has relied on the passion and self-commitment of different community stakeholders, with no compensation for their time, skill and knowledge sharing. Gradually, however, civil society organisations have emerged and now promote a philanthropic approach to local development by encouraging communities to locate and leverage their resources.

What is “Philanthropy” in Zambia?

A 2019 study found that people will give to what they know and can connect with. It concluded that local philanthropy has a better chance of success.

As defined by Lucy Muyoueta, a founding member of the (ZGF), philanthropy is the ‘giving of finances, skills, time, in-kind materials and local productive resources, such as land, water and raw materials, to support a noble undertaking or giving for a good cause.’ It can be a catalyst for social change at a community level, including steps to build local trust and ownership.

The benefits of such philanthropy can’t be completely understood without considering its social implications, including gender analysis. The different roles, responsibilities, motivations and decision-making power of women and men are critical. A Capacity and Vulnerability Assessment Framework that is used recognizes these implications and can help communities take the lead in their own development.

The Benefits of Philanthropy in Zambia

As its states, ZGF champions the growth and scope of philanthropic giving in Zambia. This creates an opening for the country to engage in and foster a philanthropy discourse by building the capacity of local community voices to inform and positively influence policy reforms and practice. This opening can strengthen the field of philanthropy starting from informal community-oriented giving and cascading into more institutionalized and formalized giving at the country level. The fact that ZGF is one of the civil society organisations (CSOs) promoting community philanthropy is emblematic of the role these organisations can play in the governance of a country by providing alternative thinking and acting as true partners with government to meet community needs.

In addition, philanthropic research and advocacy can provide insights on the various practices and motivations of giving and on the innovations that can drive positive change in the livelihoods of all. For example, a 2019 ZGF found that people will give to what they know and can connect with. It concluded that local philanthropy has a better chance of success if the entities involved are seen as having credibility with the issues they work on, and if the causes are ones to which people can relate.

Four Actions to Promote Philanthropy in Zambia:

1. Academic and research institutions can work with the Zambia Statistics Agency to gather and provide more evidence on how communities can identify, unlock and utilize local resources for their own development.
2. ZGF and other CSOs can support diversity and inclusion in philanthropy programs by working with local authorities, the private sector and local development committees to spread sensitivity and raise awareness.
3. ZGF and other CSOs can map policy and legal frameworks and advocate for appropriate policy and law formulation to accelerate philanthropic approaches at all levels.
4. Zambia’s Private Sector Development Association can devise a mechanism to tap their members’ corporate social investments in order to contribute the resources needed for sustained local development.

Engwase Mwale is on . She was the Executive Director of the Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) for 17 years, leading the coordination of more than 100 organisations in Zambia in promoting women’s empowerment and gender equity at community, national and international levels.

Read about philanthropy in Egypt.

Philanthropy in Ghana has many faces, but I focus here on indigenous philanthropy, which is distinctive from the western model of philanthropy — different from foundations, impact investing, venture capitalism, formal volunteering, etc.

Indigenous Philanthropy in Ghana

The West Africa Civil Society Institute was established in 2007 to reinforce the capacities of civil society in the region.

Indigenous philanthropy here is communal, interdependent, reciprocal and is a moral obligation, focused on intent and purpose and the wellbeing of a community. Traditional institutions, such as family, community and traditional leadership, play a critical role. The world view of this philanthropic practice is three-dimensional and considers spirituality (not religion) as a key aspect of philanthropy. Everybody is a philanthropist and gives to others and equally receives. Philanthropy isn’t the preserve of the wealthy.

What to Do

Let’s move away from individualism and recognise our common humanity — and that we’re all connected and interdependent. Let’s be more transformational and less transactional in our giving. Let’s decolonise philanthropy. Let’s stop prioritizing the western model of philanthropy, which hypes giving by the wealthy to the poor and excludes the everyday giving of ordinary people. Let’s recognise the giving that occurs in other cultures and give it equal value.

Diaspora giving, for example, far outweighs Official Development Assistance or private philanthropic giving, yet it’s not given the needed recognition. Philanthropy should move beyond the emphasis of money as the main gift. Time and other assets, such as social and reputational capital, are as important as donated money; development projects that engage partners from the global south need to recognise what everyone contributes. It may not be money that’s contributed, but without other types of philanthropic contributions, projects wouldn’t be implemented or sustainable.

At a national policy level, one of the challenges is to recognize indigenous philanthropy as one of the sources of support for national development, particularly as the government has been touting a “Ghana-beyond-aid agenda.”

There’s also little data on the different philanthropy sources, mechanisms and avenues in the country. Philanthropy is still perceived with the lens of the west, and not only are traditional ways of giving not adequately recognized, but traditional institutions that support traditional giving are mainly ignored.

Government needs to create the right policy environment to support indigenous philanthropy. Research centres in the non-profit space and in academia have to collate relevant data on philanthropy in Ghana — the different typologies, actors, institutions, scope and impact in Ghana. And public institutions must not only recognise indigenous philanthropy, but there must be the needed infrastructure to support it, as well as better registries, data-collection systems and programs to incentivise local giving.

Nana Asantewa Afadzinu has been the Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) for nearly 14 years. She was also Country Coordinator for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and has worked in the nonprofit sector for decades and has focused on organizational management, international law, policy analysis, program evaluation and volunteer management. Nana Asantewa Afadzinu is on . Photos are courtesy of WACSI.

Read the next story (from Senegal) in the African Philanthropy Series.