What does it mean to develop a collective framework and agenda for social justice philanthropy in Africa and the Arab region? Where do we even begin? What are the core issues we need to interrogate before we can do so? These and many other questions had been plaguing a number of us interested in this area of work for some time now and last year, the moment seemed to be just right to begin to take some initial steps on this; and so we did what we all do when starting from scratch… hosted a convening!
“Let us not become resolutionaries” warned Akwasi Aidoo of TrustAfrica as we began the discussions; and in trying to live up to this, the 33 participants – bringing in diverse perspectives from across the African continent and the Arab region – had the challenge of both critically examining what this area of work meant in our contexts, for our practice and in line with our own narratives as well as simultaneously identifying the core issues that we needed to collectively engage on at the level of theory, field building and; importantly, in relation to our organizations and our individual practices.
It was a challenge that was well met — from linking philanthropy to everyday life and the role of philanthropy in addressing (or exacerbating) issues of exclusion, access and power; to critically examining the need to move away from focusing on ‘other people’s money’ while engaging on the challenges of philanthropy in relation to resource governance; to the practical recommendations for action that range from knowledge building to steps that show that the change has to begin with us– this report attempts to provide a reflection of some of these core issues, debates and opinions that emerged during the convening.
I feel a disclaimer is necessary: This report is not a convenient package of solutions – in fact, the discussions raised many questions that we need to interrogate – but, this discussion was but only the first step in this collective effort. We are hoping to both deepen and broaden the collective engagement on this area of work, and to that end we are we sincerely asking practitioners on the African continent and in the Arab region to engage with the issues raised in the report and to take a minute to complete this poll. The purpose of the poll is to let us know what are the key issues you may be interested in engaging on, and in what capacity; based on the feedback you provide you will then hear back from us shortly to ask for your participation in taking forward the next steps.
The convening was hosted by TrustAfrica, The Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (PSJP) and the African Grantmakers Network, in collaboration with the Global Fund for Community Foundations and the Arab Foundations Forum.
If you have any questions or wish to talk to us in more depth at this stage, you are most welcome to contact Halima Mahomed from TrustAfrica and PSJP (Halima@trustafrica.org) or Chandrika Sahai, the PSJP Network Coordinator (chandrikasahai@gmail.com).
We hope to hear from you soon!