An invitation to breakfast

‘European foundations are reaching out to the world like never before,’ says EFC Chair Dario Disegni, writing in the EFC conference programme. ‘But they can do more. This year’s conference gives foundations the opportunity to come together to further their global engagement.’ So are European foundations adopting what Disegni calls ‘new and dynamic roles on the global stage’? More interestingly, what could, and should, they be doing?

The opening and closing plenaries focused on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown talking about progress in meeting the Goals. He took the example of water. Between now and 2015, 250,000 people a day need to be hooked up to water. What can foundations do to help meet this enormous challenge?

Supporting the Millennium Development Goals

One thing foundations can do is help broker relationships. Partnerships of governments, multilaterals, private capital and CSOs will be needed if the MDGs are to be achieved. Another thing they can do is support the development of measurement systems. According to Malloch Brown, there are now 40 countries measuring how they’re doing against the MDGs. This is helping drive the political agenda, he believes, galvanizing action from governments and others.

David Lane described how the Gates Foundation is helping to support what he calls ‘evidence-based advocacy’ by funding efforts to measure progress against the MDGs. Reports can then be used as CSO advocacy tools. Foundations can thus play a role in enabling CSOs to be more effective advocates.

Brian Jenks (UNDP) also stressed the importance of ‘data’. As he put it, the MDGs provide a vehicle for looking at accountability and governance in North and South. In the North, we can ask if countries are matching their rhetoric. In the South, are governments meeting the targets? According to Jenks, there is ‘clear empirical evidence’ that ‘the collection and proper use of data’ is having an effect on policymakers. UNDP’s role is to capture and transmit evidence as fuel to take forward projects. MDGs are a vision approved by 150 heads of state. By providing evidence of the level of commitment of different players, you can leverage policy. Good data and reporting can also bridge the gap between giver and return that exists with international giving (unlike when you’re donating to a community you’re close to).

Amidst all this talk of the MDGs, Graça Machel provided a timely reminder that the Goals are the minimum we should be aiming for, the first step towards removing the world’s inequities. ‘Embrace our common humanity,’ she exhorted. ‘If I’m in the US or Europe and I see Asia and Africa as places for aid, then the gap in conditions will not be bridged.’ But she didn’t lay the blame for such perceptions entirely on rich countries: ‘Africa has not been telling the rest of the world what it has to offer,’ she said. ‘She has presented herself as the weakest link, the recipient of aid. … We need partnership.’

Supporting African grantmakers

What this really means was the main subject of discussion at the Sub-Saharan Africa Interest Group meeting. ‘Formation of the East Africa Grantmakers’ Association is a statement to the rest of the world that African grantmakers do exist and they welcome partnership with funders from outside,’ said one speaker. Helping build the capacity of these grantmakers is then a key role for external foundations. If support for African civil society is ‘the only way to go’ (Graça Machel), how do you engage with European foundations that are more issue-oriented, focused on specific areas like women’s health or informal education? Meeting participants were emphatic: ‘You need to challenge them with the opportunity and need to support indigenous philanthropy.’

The meeting ended with a suggestion for forming something like the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network for the exchange of ideas and information between African and European foundations. The Group was not developing into an affinity group for funders but a forum for dialogue between Africans who care passionately about their country and Europeans who want to work with them.

International grantmaking an EFC priority

Rien van Gendt, Chair of the EFC International Committee, reaffirmed that promoting international grantmaking is now an EFC priority, as is fostering relationships with multilateral agencies, mainly the World Bank and United Nations. He also had criticisms of the way these agencies operate: too often, they approach foundations at the very last minute, ‘at five to twelve’, seeing them only as sources of money. The UN Foundation for International Partnerships, he suggested, could provide a platform to show what foundations can do.

But it will not necessarily be easy to persuade European foundations to become more involved outside their own borders, as a breakfast meeting held by the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe demonstrated. The meeting was a specific call for European involvement in their own backyard: ‘The development of civil society in CEE does not need to be based exclusively on the previously well-funded American model,’ said the letter of invitation. ‘Success would be much bigger and richer if European foundations brought in other approaches and views.’ It can be hoped that the non-attendance of European foundations was no more than an indication that Europeans haven’t yet fully acquired the American penchant for breakfast meetings.

EVENT European Foundation Centre 14th Annual General Assembly and Conference
Date 1-3 June
Venue Lisbon
Present 600 delegates from 55 countries
Theme The Citizen Facing Challenges of Globalization

For more information
www.efc.be