Since we started building it, exciting things have been happening in the PSJP network around the world. In case you missed any of it, we wanted to bring you up to speed.
Africa
A few network participants convened a group of social justice philanthropy practitioners in Johannesburg in October 2012 to provide space to begin a collective discussion on how to advance debate, build a body of knowledge, inform good practice and strengthen the impact of social justice philanthropy in Africa and the Arab region. The report ‘Developing A Collective Framework & Agenda To Advance Social Justice Philanthropy, In Africa And The Arab Region’ highlights key emerging themes from the convening and reflects the implications for our practice. The discussions raised concerns around leadership and power in philanthropy, ownership of agendas and narratives, resource governance and an enabling environment for African philanthropy. These themes were further discussed at a session in July 2013 at the Annual Philanthropy Conference organised by the East Africa Association of Grantmakers in Mombasa.
Both discussions (Johannesburg and Mombasa) identified the development of partnerships and building of knowledge as strategic leverage points to advance the practice. An open group, committed to finding ways to work on the strategic leverage points and to seeding this work in the existing philanthropic infrastructure structures in Africa, has been emerging slowly and organically. So far this group comprises of representatives from the Africa Grantmakers Network, Trust Africa, the East Africa Association of Grantmakers, Ikhala Trust, the Kenya Community Development Fund, Akiba Uhaki, Africa Women’s Development Fund and the C. S. Mott Foundation in South Africa.
The group is an open space where others committed to advancing the practice of social justice philanthropy in Africa are welcome to join. To know more drop a message at chandrikasahai@gmail.com.
Arab Region
‘Social Justice’ as a term has resonance across the Arab region. However its understanding as a concept has no uniformity and it can be the reason for much confusion with numerous interpretations. An enormous gap exists between social justice aspirations as reflected in the waves of mass citizen activism during the Arab Spring as well as the work of many CBOs and hybrid entities and the interpretations at a level of policy. The multidimensional interpretation of the term ‘social justice’ also has repercussions for the practice of social justice philanthropy. On the one hand there is institutional philanthropy which has in most cases failed to meet social justice needs on the ground and on the other hand there is the emergence of structures and tools of unorganised philanthropy in few entities and movements of citizen action.
The starting point for a discourse around the work thus needs to happen at a level of practice and not at a level of contested and complex definitions of ‘social justice’. A research project to map foundations and networks (whose philanthropic goals and strategies are driven by the needs and aspirations of the citizens and the social movements in the region that embody the values of dignity, freedom of expression, citizen’s engagement, transparency and equity before the law) is under way.
The objectives of the project are to: 1) define/redefine “Social Justice Philanthropy” in the Arab World from the practice, experience and perspective of various stakeholders active on the ground and 2) to develop evidence based understanding that is supported with direct relevant qualitative and quantitative data based on actual work on the ground. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months!
Europe
A number of foundations and philanthropy networks are slowly converging around concerns about the role of philanthropy in dealing with challenges of xenophobia and democratic instability that the current economic crisis has brought with it in Europe. These issues pose pressing concerns for foundations that are advocating a social justice and peace agenda.
Preliminary results from an ongoing survey of foundations in Europe pointed to a lack of effective tools among them to manage the complexity of what is needed to address change, to tackle the EU system, to strengthen civil society, or to mobilise populations to engage with these issues. There is a strong sense of powerlessness among respondents, and this often manifests itself in the sense that they feel alone with too few resources to tackle the depths of the problems properly. People complain of the lack of a widespread vision about what could be different.
A few practitioners are now exploring how we can best work on these issues, come together to develop a sense of solidarity with each other and build confidence. There is more work ahead but stay tuned.
Asia
In September 2013 the Working Group on Philanthropy for Social justice and Peace and the Global Fund for Community Foundations convened a small group of grassroots indigenous foundations in Shillong in the North East of India. The convening included foundations from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.
At a time when philanthropy in South Asia and South East Asia is growing very fast, the conversations at the convening urged the need and importance of informing and influencing the new philanthropic discourse by the common values of this cohort and others like them. There was also recognition that in order to be heard they needed to leverage their collective voices and speak from a position of strength.
We are now beginning to work together to define the “value-added” of this emerging breed of organisations in Asia and strengthen our interpersonal connections so that we speak as a collective voice to shape the way mainstream philanthropy operates. You can read interviews with two practitioners from this cohort here: Interview with Amelia Fauzia, Social Trust Fund, Indonesia and Interview with Sumitra Mishra, iPartner India, India
Latin America and the Caribbean
In 2013 a process was started to understand and define an emerging field of small indigenous foundations in Latin America and the Caribbean that are serving as channels that offer the infrastructure and resources for movements for structural and systemic transformation. A convening of 21 philanthropy practitioners and consultants was held on May 9-10, 2013 in Bogota, Colombia to explore a shared agenda to advance social justice philanthropy in Latin America and the Caribbean. The convening was organised by the Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (WG-PSJP) and Network of Independent Funds for Social Justice –Brasil (NIFSJ- Brasil) in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Women’s Funds (CONMUJERES).
In order to advance the practice, the group emphasised four areas:
1. To better define social justice philanthropy to capture the theoretical and practical essence of the work in the Latin American and Caribbean context in order to make our voices heard and included in the mainstream philanthropy discourse
2. To share knowledge and tools and reflect on our own practice in order to be better at what we do
3. To promote the development of a local philanthropic culture in the region to support social movements and organisations in their struggle for social justice and peace.
4. To develop a community of practice that can help to do this
Watch this space for the baseline study and for conversations to strengthen and grow the community of social justice and peace philanthropy practitioners in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Thematic Work: Arts and Culture
Increasingly, practitioners of social justice and peace philanthropy from across the world are articulating and exploring intersections between arts & culture and social justice & peace building work. PSJP network participants have noted the role of arts and culture in relation to shifts in the Arab world; the role of arts and culture in the women’s movement around the world; the Dalit movement in India; the LGBTQI movement around the world, to support peace building and conflict transformation efforts and to speak up against human rights violations everywhere.
While there exists a mass of practitioners of PSJP interested in exploring the use of and support for arts and culture in the their philanthropic practice, there is still little organised information and knowledge about links with social justice and peace building work and the opportunities and challenges in funding this work. There is also an absence of tools, evidence, knowledge of best practices.
In order to address these gaps, in 2013, the Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace undertook a project (guided by Moukhtar Kocache, formerly Programme Officer at the Ford Foundation in Cairo for arts, culture and media issues) to begin to stimulate and leverage conversation about how philanthropy can use arts and culture for social justice and peace work. Based on this project a resource paper will soon be produced with the key objective of opening up discourse among funders for social justice and peace about inculcating funding around arts and culture in our work. It will focus on three broad areas:
• An overview on the space at the nexus of social justice, peace, arts and culture
• The key dynamics and questions around philanthropy’s engagement at this nexus
• Recommendations to increase the impact of funding at this nexus
We are also very excited to announce that based on the work and learning on this thematic work so far, a proposal was submitted to the Alliance Magazine for a special issue. The proposal has been accepted and a special issue that will explore the practice at the nexus of arts and culture and social change is now scheduled for March 2015!
We would love to get feedback from you. Also, if you’d like to join the regional or thematic conversations, get in touch with us!