An open letter to International NGOs who are looking to ‘localise’ their operations

Our plea is that you work with us, not against us. We need to be supported, not competed with.

This letter, which originally appeared on Open Democracy and has since also been translated into French, Portuguese and Spanish (see above for links), is the product of a protracted, heated, angry and passionate discussion that took place on the #ShiftThePower WhatsApp group in early March. Several people on the group had been approached separately by International NGOs who wanted to learn about their experiences in local fundraising and building community philanthropy, but in ways that all felt were ‘extractive.’ These interactions point to the growing trend for INGOs to look further afield for resources to fill the funding gap that many are experiencing.

March 5th 2020

Dear INGOs:

Thank you for taking an interest in our countries. We represent a wide range of national and subnational organisations based in countries – mostly in the global south – where you often work. We have probably even been in meetings together or have been represented in the success stories you give to your supporters.

We appreciate that over the years, many of you have sought to help deliver much-needed services, and have helped to elevate some issues of concern, like debt relief, gender or climate change, to the world stage.

But times are changing. And you have (rightly) been facing a number of critiques in recent years – around your legitimacy, your ‘whiteness’ or the fact that far more aid money ultimately ends up in the pockets of northern organisations’ headquarters than it does in the Global South.

We see that you’re trying to respond to these critiques by ‘localising’, as we’ve been asked to meet with your highly paid consultants on numerous occasions. The strategy is pretty common: usually you start by creating a ‘local organisation’ with a local board. A next step that we’re seeing is that you enter the world of DRM – ‘Domestic Resource Mobilisation’ – to raise money from within our countries. This latter aspect is probably also down to the fact that your traditional incomes from the rich North/West are starting to diminish, so this has the added bonus of replenishing lost incomes.

In theory, this probably sounds great to your northern ears: local middle-income people should indeed ‘own’ their civil society, especially as a response to growing concerns around closing civic space and authoritarian governments. We couldn’t agree with you more on this principle.

But there are things we object to and some suggestions about how you can use your international muscle to help us more effectively than through this misguided localisation agenda.

What happens in practice is that these efforts only serve to reinforce the power dynamic at play, and ultimately to close the space for domestic civil society. This can be illustrated quite simply: a multi-million-dollar INGO, with an entire marketing, communications and fundraising team, whose project budget for this endeavour probably outstrips that of most of our national organisations for a year, then comes into the South to raise money ‘domestically’.

Perhaps the board has set a target of raising 30% of total income directly from the South. That’s not an additional million dollars, that’s a million or more dollars taken away from local civil society. And worse still, most of this money will be siphoned off to pay for their own inner workings, rather than be invested on the ground.

All of this serves to weaken us locally. It keeps us in a master/servant relationship continuously begging for grants from your institutions, while we remain bereft of core funding ourselves. This is not what we need or want.

Instead, here’s how you can be more helpful with your ‘DRM’ investment: if you are serious about ‘shifting power’ then reduce your footprint and brand and use your fundraising machinery to help grassroots organisations create the structures to fundraise for themselves and sustain their work.

We need the infrastructure for people to raise money domestically and from diaspora, not to be competing with big global INGOs. What is ultimately needed is to strengthen and scale up southern civil society, not to be pushed out of our own communities and markets.

Do you need to exist in every country with your brand? No. There are often local organisations, like ourselves, who work effectively on the ground, with better connections to the local community. And many of us also have the skills and capacity to represent our issues on the world stage.

We represent an eclectic mixture of organisations, but we are, increasingly, uniting under the banner or hashtag of #ShiftThePower and its “Manifesto for Change.”

Our plea is that you work with us, not against us. We need to be supported, not competed with, and certainly not replaced.

Sincerely,

1. A Mile Away (AMA), Zambia
2. Abibiman Foundation, Ghana
3. ACPDH/FS-DDH, Burundi
4. Activate Labs, Mexico/US
5. ADESO, Kenya
6. Advocacy Core Team, Zimbabwe
7. Africa Health and Nutrition, Kenya
8. African Diaspora Relocation Agency
9. African Network of Youth Policy Experts, Botswana
10. African Philanthropy Network
11. AFroIDEA, Kenya, Uganda, Swaziland and Nigeria
12. Agency for Peace and Development, Kenya
13. Airavati Organisation (Hlaing Tsp), Myanmar
14. AJSA, India
15. Albanian Society for All Ages, Albania
16. Alliance for Holistic and Sustainable Development Communities (AHSDC), India
17. Ammbr Communities, South Africa
18. AMO Programme, Ghana
19. Approche Participative, Développement et Santé de Proximité (APDSP), Cameroon
20. Arid Lands Development Focus, Kenya
21. Arusha Municipal Community Foundation, Tanzania
22. ASDA, Chad
23. Ashake Foundation, Nigeria
24. Assembly of Social Mobilization, Sri Lanka
25. Association Cri de Cœur pour l’Equité et le Développement (ACCED), Burkina Faso
26. Balance Promoción para el Desarrollo y Juventud AC, Mexico
27. Bala Vikasa Social Service Society, India
28. Banadir Development Foundation, Somalia
29. Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum, Bangladesh
30. Bangladesh NGO Network for Radio and Communication, Bangladesh
31. Burundi Child Rights Coalition, Burundi
32. Butterflies, India
33. Care for Nature Zambia, Zambia
34. Caring Volunteers Network (CAVNET), Ghana
35. Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), Philippines
36. Center for Development Support Initiatives, Nigeria
37. Center for Economic Development – Cameroon
38. Centre for Peace and Democracy (CPD), Somalia
39. Centre for Trade Policy and Development, Zambia
40. Centre Résolution Conflits (CRC), Democratic Republic of the Congo
41. Child Care Center, India
42. Children and Youth Development Society, India
43. Civil Society Empowerment Network, Afghanistan
44. COAST, Bangladesh
45. Comite Regional de Solidarite des Femmes pour la Paix en Casamance, Senegal
46. Community Care for Emergency Response and Rehabilitation, Myanmar
47. Community Foundation for the Western Region of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
48. Community Self Reliance Centre, Nepal
49. Community Transformation Foundation Network (COTFONE) , Uganda
50. Community World Service Asia, Pakistan
51. CORAFID Centre for Innovation and Research, Nigeria
52. Councillors for Development & Trainings, Pakistan
53. Coxs Bazaar CSO/NGO Forum, Bangladesh
54. Dakar Community Outreach, Senegal
55. Dalia Association, Palestine
56. Dalit Community Foundation, India
57. Dalit Women Fight, India
58. Development and Justice Initiative, India
59. Development Expertise Center, Ethiopia
60. Development Research and Advocacy, Ghana
61. Dr Meheret Ayenew, Research Fellow FSS and Adjunct Faculty, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
62. East Africa Philanthropy Network
63. Ecumenical Commission for Human Development, Pakistan
64. Emma Crewe, SOAS University of London, UK
65. Equality for Growth, Tanzania
66. Equilibrium Centre, South Africa
67. Equilibrium SDC, Peru
68. Family for Every Child
69. FemPlatz, Serbia
70. Firelight Foundation
71. Foundation for Civil Society in Tanzania, Tanzania
72. Foundation for Social Transformation, India
73. Free Expression Myanmar (FEM), Myanmar
74. Friends, Bangladesh
75. Fundaçâo Micaia, Mozambique
76. Fund for Congolese Women, Democratic Republic of Congo
77. Gargaar Relief and Development Organisation, Somalia
78. Ghana Philanthropy Forum, Ghana
79. Global Fund for Community Foundations, South Africa
80. Global Information and Social Resource Foundation – GISRF
81. Global Peace Association, Ghana
82. Golden Red Foundation, India
83. Graca Foundation, South Africa
84. Gramin Evam Nagar Vikas Parishad (GENVP), India
85. Greenline Africa, Zimbabwe
86. Greenfield Africa Foundation, Ghana
87. Green String Network, Kenya
88. HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, India
89. Hard Rock Self-Sufficiency Foundation, Nigeria
90. HEAPIDER-Concern, Inc., Liberia
91. Help Foundation for Victims of Insurgency in Nigeria, Nigeria
92. Helpers Social Development Foundation, Nigeria
93. Hope for Young Girls and Boys, Zambia
94. Hope Village Society, Egypt
95. Horn of Africa Voluntary Youth Committee (HAVOYOCO), Somaliland and Ethiopia
96. House of Consciousness (HoC), Zambia
97. Inclusive Climate Change Adaptation for a Sustainable Africa
98. Indonesia for Humanity (Indonesia untuk Kemanusiaan / IKA), Indonesia
99. Initiative Pananetugri pour le Bien-etre de la Femme, Burkina Faso
100. Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo (ICD), Uruguay
101. International Foundation for Students and Youth Development (IFSYD), Ghana
102. Jijenge Youth Organization, Kenya
103. Joint – Liga de ONGs em Mocambique, Mozambique
104. Kaalo, Somalia
105. Keepers Zambia Foundation, Zambia
106. Kenya Community Development Foundation, Kenya
107. Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Alliance Trust, Kenya
108. K & R Welfare and Placement Services, Papua New Guinea
109. Lasphumakhona Community Development Projects (LCDP), South Africa
110. L’Association CEDRE 17 pour Un Développement Inclusif et Durable (AC17), Morocco
111. Les Jeunes Ambassadeurs de l’Environnement pour le Développement durable, Guinea
112. Let Them Help Themselves (LTHT), Uganda
113. LetsStopAIDS, Canada
114. LifeLine ONG, Benin
115. LIN Center for Community Development, Vietnam
116. Majal, Bahrain
117. Makutano ya Wajasiriamali (MAWA), Tanzania
118. Mars Football Foundation, India
119. Masila Ghana Foundation, Ghana
120. Maurisante, Mauritius
121. Mauritius Council for Social Services, Mauritius
122. Mbao Ngula, Zambia
123. Migrant Support Network, Guyana
124. MILAP, Nepal
125. Mizu Eco-Care, Zambia
126. Mona Younis, Human Rights Advocate
127. Mukono Multi-Purpose Youth Organisation, Uganda
128. Multikids Africa, Ghana
129. Nabadion Youth Alliance Southwest State, Somalia
130. Ngetha Media Association for Peace (NMAP), Uganda
131. Nguzo Africa Community Foundation, Kenya
132. Nigerian Women Agro Allied Farmers Association, Nigeria
133. Nneoma Health and Educational Development Support Foundation, Nigeria
134. Norsaac, Ghana
135. N’weti, Mozambique
136. NZP+ Mufumbwe, Zambia
137. Okereke Ukeje Foundation, Nigeria
138. Olive Luena Education Trust, Tanzania
139. Orbeliani, Georgia
140. PACT Foundation, Romania
141. Pallisa Civil Society Organisations’ Network, Uganda
142. Pan African Positive Women’s Coalition, Zimbabwe
143. Passion to Serve, South Africa
144. Participatory Action for Community Empowerment Foundation (PEACE), Zambia
145. Participatory Development Associates, Ghana
146. People’s Action Forum (PAF), Zambia
147. People’s Process on Housing and Poverty, Zambia
148. Personal Initiative for Positive Empowerment (PIPE), Kenya
149. Positive-Generation, Cameroon
150. Professor Emma Crewe, Director, on behalf of Global Research Network on Parliaments and People, UK
151. Rawa Creative Palestinian Communities Fund, Palestine
152. Reaching the Unreached Tanzania (RUT), Tanzania
153. Reality of Aid Africa Network, Kenya
154. Reformed Open Community Schools, Zambia
155. Reproductive Health and Rights Advocacy Initiative (REHEaRD), Nigeria
156. Réseau des Organisations de la Société Civile pour le Développement (RESOCIDE), Burkina Faso
157. Resilliance, Morocco
158. Rita Thapa, Founder of Tewa – the Nepal Women’s Fund and Nagarik Aawaz, Nepal
159. Romanian Foundation for Children, Community and Family (FRCCF), Romania
160. Ruth Foundation, Zambia
161. Sahakarmi Samaj, Nepal
162. Sahara Advocates for Change, Ghana
163. Salamander Trust, UK
164. Sangama, India
165. Save Somali Women and Children (SSWC), Somalia
166. SEED Malaysia, Malaysia
167. Selma Foundation, Ghana
168. Sense, India
169. Sera Thabiti, Kenya
170. Social Empowerment for Economic Development, South Africa
171. Social Life and Agricultural Development Foundation, Somalia
172. Solidarité Féminine pour la Paix et le Developpement Integral “SOFEPADI”, Democratic Republic of the Congo
173. Solidarity Foundation, India
174. Somalia Humanity Support, Somalia
175. Somalia Women and Youth Empowerment Initiative, Somalia
176. STAR Ghana Foundation, Ghana
177. Success Capital Organisation, Botswana
178. Surman Sansthan, India
179. Sustainability Leadership Kosova, Kosovo
180. Sustainable Impact for Development in Africa (SIDAF), Cameroon
181. Taakulo Somali Community, Somalia and Ethiopia
182. Tanzania Community Foundation Network, Tanzania
183. The People’s Matrix Association, Lesotho
184. Thubutu Africa Initiatives, Tanzania
185. Twerwaneho Listeners’ Club, Uganda
186. UDYAMA, India
187. Uganda National NGO Forum, Uganda
188. UHAI-EASHIRI, Kenya
189. United Social Welfare Society, Pakistan
190. Usikimye, Kenya
191. Vision Changers Kenya, Kenya
192. Watershed Organisation Trust, India
193. WASDA, Kenya
194. Wajir South Development Association, Kenya and Somalia
195. West Africa Civil Society Institute, Ghana
196. Whole Planet Initiative, Nigeria
197. Women Aspire Network, Ghana
198. Women for India Foundation, India
199. XOESE – Le Fond pour les Femmes Francophones, Togo
200. Yayasan Usaha Mulia (Foundation for Noble Work), Indonesia
201. You-Nik Children’s Initiative, Zambia
202. Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) Mongu, Zambia
203. Youth Development and Voice Initiative (YOVI), Ghana
204. Youth Gate Zimbabwe Trust, Zimbabwe
205. Youth Harvest Foundation, Ghana
206. YouthNet Nagaland, India
207. Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB), Zambia
208. Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD), Zambia
209. Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC), Zambia
210. Zambian Governance Foundation for Civil Society (ZGF), Zambia
211. Zamzam Foundation, Somalia

If you wish to add your name or organization to this list, please insert the details in a comment below, or email Wendy Richardson at the GFCF (wendy@globalfundcf.org). A version of the letter can also be downloaded in French, Portuguese and Spanish.