CAF Southern Africa conference

Event CAF Southern Africa conference: Innovating for Sustainability – ‘Africans Investing in Africa’
Date 17-18 September
Venue Johannesburg, South Africa

In mid-September 2008, CAF Southern Africa, a member of the CAF International network, hosted its biennial conference in Johannesburg against the backdrop of mounting societal frustration at the intractable nature of poverty and inequity in South Africa. A recent World Bank study of global poverty[1] shows the very slow progress made in Africa’s fight for sustainable advancement. Fifty per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is destitute. The Gini Coefficient, used to measure income and associated inequities, shows that South Africa, the most economically advanced country in the sub-region, remains one of the most unequal societies in the world.[2]

The conference theme, Africans Investing in Africa, was chosen by CAF to highlight the urgent need for self-reliance and entrepreneurial action by civil society in the face of these problems. While social investment alone can never be a comprehensive panacea against poverty, successful cooperation between investors and NGOs has potential to provide some relief. At CAF’s conference, about 200 delegates and speakers engaged over two days on social investment prototypes that leverage local resources; innovative social enterprise models; various forms of private equity investment with associated accountability for results; and new thinking which blends the potential of private capital and business knowledge with the entrepreneurial actions of organizations serving poor communities.

In his keynote address, Sipho Mseleku, CEO of SADC Chambers of Commerce and Industry, emphasized the need for Southern African organizations to develop entrepreneurial skills, and for social investors in the region to support this development. Mseleku urged Africans to invest in their own communities, saying that business and civil society cooperation is vital for sustainable advancement. The potential for investment partnerships between business and NGOs was explored through presentation of a black economic empowerment deal between an IT corporation and an NGO empowerment trust. The CEO of the Trust explained how the deal is bringing the corporation tangible return on investment while allowing the Trust to plan for a sustainable future, thus moving away from the confines of pure donor funding.

Kojo Parris, leader of SPESA, a social private equity fund, and also director of the social entrepreneurs’ department at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, stated that social enterprise should be recognized as a new element of the socioeconomic framework for development. Parris predicted diminishing corporate social investment (CSI) funding for NGOs as global macroeconomic challenges affect South Africa. Social enterprise organizations must mobilize to influence more favourable government policy for social venture finance and action. Replicable forms of social finance, complemented by technical skills transfer, need to be generated in order to support these important ‘social value add’ organizations. The Heart of Healing, one of SPESA’s partners, demonstrated how finance from SPESA is used to generate ongoing and sustainable income for social development. The partnership between SPESA and Heart of Healing has already demonstrated the potential of social enterprise that delivers both social and financial value.

Bea Devlin from CAF UK presented Venturesome, a high-risk fund set up to provide UK charities with a lending or investment option in the space between a grant and a loan. Venturesome is neither a banking model nor traditional philanthropy. Rather it is prepared to take higher levels of financial risk than a bank would in exchange for a social return on its investment. CAF Southern Africa is currently investigating this model as a possible option for the South African social enterprise market.

In addition to innovations such as those discussed above, CAF’s conference also highlighted more traditional models of giving and social investment. There were panel discussions on CSI and on employee volunteering, presentations on individual giving and on philanthropy in the small business sector. This variety demonstrated CAF Southern Africa’s intention to showcase and promote a diverse range of options, drawing on both local and international models of best practice.

In the face of existing cycles of dependency and failed development projects; ongoing conflict and vulnerability of populations; human rights abuses, not least of which is the rise of xenophobic attacks; and ongoing political and economic transition, South African civil society needs to mobilize as an effective force for change. CAF’s role is not only to encourage and increase a wide variety of resource mobilization for the sector, but also to help social investors and their NGO partners to enhance the leverage potential of their activities in the larger struggle for social equity and stability in the region. CAF Southern Africa will be working in partnership with some of the conference presenters during the coming year to test these new options, and to promote their potential for increasing the social value provided by organizations of civil society.

1 Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallio (August 2008) The Developing World Is Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight against Poverty, Policy Research Working Paper 4703, World Bank Development Research Group.

2 www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000990/index.php

Colleen du Toit is CEO of CAF Southern Africa. Email cdutoit@cafsouthernafrica.org
 
For more information
A full transcript, a summary report and several of the conference presentations are available on CAF Southern Africa’s website www.cafsouthernafrica.org