In the wake of the African Grantmakers Network Assembly, Halima Mohamed, from Trust Africa, takes stock of the state of African philanthropy. The recent African Grantmakers Network Assembly held in Johannesburg, South Africa, provided a defining opportunity, a space where African philanthropic institutions of many varieties and orientations and African activists, thinkers and leaders, came…
Workshop reflections from Barry Knight, Centris UK, and consultant to the Foundations for Peace Network. “It’s great that this session managed to get peace out of the closet”, said a senior funder to me at the end of a workshop organized by Foundations for Peace at the European Foundation Centre conference in Belfast on 7th…
The recent European Foundation Centre (EFC) annual gathering held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in June 2012 provided a well-attended platform for the discussion of aspects of peace and social justice. Representatives of Charitable Trusts and Foundations from across Europe and beyond considered a wide range of issues including, among other sessions: Effective Investment in Post…
At a table discussion during a convening of social justice philanthropy practitioners in February 2009 in Cairo, Barbara Ibrahim of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement in Cairo pointed out “… where overt protest is repressed, arts and culture are a subversive way to give people voice… unfortunately from a philanthropic…
‘Oh, that’s not philanthropy… that’s just charity.’ Recently I’ve lost count of the number of times I have heard this phrase, or something very similar. At first I was puzzled, then worried. Now, after several local and international meetings where something akin to this has been voiced (and in a manner of disdain), I find…
Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres (FCAM)/Central American Women’s Fund (CAWF), Managua, Nicaragua and San Francisco, USA Written by Andrew Milner FCAM and the swallows ‘I remember the case of Veronica. While she was working [as a sex worker], a client shot her in the stomach and ran off. We, her colleagues and fellow sex workers, took…
A large part of philanthropic resources are committed to helping people from low-income and other marginalized communities by helping to alleviate the immediate crises they find themselves in. But the problems often remain. The impact of philanthropy is often constrained by concerns around the symptoms of poverty and injustice, missing in the process the factors…
I sometimes feel you can learn the most about the world by talking to cab drivers. At least they seem to be the ones on my travels that cut to the core of issues. On my last trip a cab driver said to me, ‘I should not be driving a cab in New York City.’…
Its a Generational Thing? Africa’s young majority is rising. But young people face endemic joblessness, poverty and social exclusion. Is Africa’s youthfulness a demographic gift or curse? In the past, struggles for freedom seized the hearts and minds of the youth. What’s shaping the social consciousness of Africa’s educated young people today? Have the elders…
A large part of philanthropic resources are committed to helping people from low-income and other marginalized communities by helping to alleviate the immediate crises they find themselves in. But the problems often remain. The impact of philanthropy is often constrained by concerns around the symptoms of poverty and injustice, missing in the process the factors…