On 4th June 2018, STAR-Ghana held a two-hour Dialogue Event on the theme ‘Resourcing active citizenship: Driving Innovation for Resource Mobilisation and Sustainability in Ghana’. The Dialogue Event was in line with activities spear heading the programme’s transition from a donor-funded project, as currently sponsored and organised, into an Independent National Entity (INE) and to take forward the conversation on innovative resource mobilisation for sustainability, drawing on the expertise of experienced leaders in the field.
Abigail Burgesson (Special Programs Manager, African Women’s Development Fund) spoke about ‘Developing an individual donor base.’ Karen Shormeh Sai (Director, the Resource Mobilization Centre), gave a reflection on ‘Unlocking the potential of private sector philanthropy.’ Isaac Ofosu Debrah (National Coordinator, SDG Philanthropy Platform, Ghana) discussed ‘Mobilising philanthropic and foundation support for active citizenship in Ghana.’ The event was attended by about 40 participants from across the civil society community and was moderated by Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, Chair of the STAR-Ghana Steering Committee.
In her remarks on developing an individual donor base, Abigail Burgesson observed that Ghanaians have a culture of giving and mutual support that tends to focus on the extended family, religious communities, school networks and charitable causes like clinics, humanitarian emergencies, child welfare and so on. There is less of a focus on giving to long term development and social change work. These needs, and support to local civil society development organisations, have been largely left to international donors and government. Abigail highlighted the need for a fundamental shift in thinking and attitudes among Ghanaians towards local giving to support social justice work.
Addressing the question of private sector support, Karen Shormeh Sai emphasised the need for CSOs to do their homework and spend time on researching potential partners. Simply sending generic funding proposals to business and corporate donors is unlikely to work. Increasingly, corporates are looking for partnerships not just a place to give many. There is a need to engage with business partners from the beginning of a project or programme, involving them in ‘co-creation’ and nurturing ‘co-ownership’ of initiatives. As CSOs, we need to be clearer on what we have to offer to corporate partners. We must look for possible corporate support that goes beyond money such as technical assistance, knowledge and expertise, marketing skills, communications capacity, and IT support. Private sector leaders often welcome the chance to serve on CSO boards and advisory structure.
Amplifying similar comments from Abigail and Karen, Isaac Ofosu Debra focused on the critical problem of the weak enabling environment for philanthropy in Ghana. He called for a ‘joined up platform’ to grow philanthropy in the country. There are some encouraging developments. There is a growing number of philanthropy networks, like the Ghana Philanthropy Forum, the SDG Philanthropy Platform and the recently formed Venture Philanthropy Forum.
The African and international landscape of funding and philanthropy is changing. We need to understand and adapt to these changes – and we must undertake more careful donor research when we are seeking to diversify our support base. Some donors are thinking beyond grants and endowments funding towards impact investing. ‘Crowd-sourcing’ and ‘crowd-funding’ are on the rise and would hold real promise if the right ‘architecture’ for philanthropy and social investment were in place.
Drawing out salient points from the panel reflections, STAR-Ghana Chair Esther Ofei-Aboagye observed that careful messaging is critical for effectively resource mobilization, along with diligent research and proper targeting. We need to shift from ‘grant-seeking’ to ‘partnership-building,’ convening and catalyzing opportunities to bring potential partners together. We must also explore opportunities for non-financial support from the private sector and others. Esther noted the shared call from all speakers to prioritize work on a stronger architecture and enable environment (this has already been taken up by STAR-Ghana and WACSI in their joints convenings around the NGO Bill).
In the group dialogue that followed the panel conversation, key discussion points and questions focused on:
- What is the state of online giving in Ghana?
- How can STAR-Ghana leverage existing official donor support (from DFID, EU and Danica) to raise new funds?
- How can we ‘tell a new story’ to potential supporters in a different way?
- How can we engage religious organizations in Ghana around giving to development and active citizenship?
- How good is the exiting data on private sector philanthropy in Ghana?
- What is the ‘end-goal’ for work on the enabling environment?
Social Inclusion Training for Programme Management Team
A three (3) day workshop on Social Inclusion (SI) has been held for the STAR-Ghana Programme Management Team (PMT) in Accra. The purpose of the workshop was to increase the understanding, confidence and effectiveness in SI programming among the PMT.
In August 2017, STAR-Ghana conducted a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) audit in which the operationalization of the principle of ‘GESI at the heart of STAR-Ghana’ was critiqued. Generally, while there was considerable evidence in support of STAR-Ghana’s advancement of GESI in the different arms, a few pointers were highlighted for improvement.
At a PMT validation meeting, some recommendations were made. Key among them was the need to clarify STAR-Ghana’s expectations of staff in relation to GESI and supporting them to meet same. To ensure that the PMT understand and implement these effectively, a Social Inclusion (SI) Tool Kit was developed with support from Social Development Direct (SDD), a consortium partner of the STAR-Ghana Programme.
The PMT reviewed the SI Tool Kit and among others shared practical, easy-to use tools for SI, and practised the embedding of GESI in different work streams within the STAR-Ghana programme. The Team was privileged to have Mr Alex Bankole Williams of the University of Ghana Assistive Tecnology Lab, and Member of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD). Mr Williams highlighted key protocols that need to be observed in programming to achieve optimum inclusion.
Participants at the event included the STAR-Ghana PMT, a representative of SDD and Staff of Christian Aid Ghana Country office.