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FOCUS ON...The new challenges of global philanthropy

International funding presents vast, multifaceted problems that require almost unlimited resources if they are to be solved. Most foundations have relatively limited resources – how do they ensure they are adding value? How do they remain focused when the problems communities face are so interrelated? What role can smaller foundations play? These are the basic questions addressed by the various contributors to this issue’s special feature on global philanthropy.

Guest editors Peter Laugharn, Executive Director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS, each offer funders six things to think about if they want their funding to be more effective. Agnès Binagwaho, head of the Rwandan national AIDS programme, insists that foundations must align their activities with national efforts, while Peter Piot of UNAIDS stresses their role as ‘thought leaders’. Luc Tayart de Borms argues that donors’ exclusive reliance on civil society to achieve their goals may do more harm than good, while Andrés Thompson looks at the dilemmas facing foundation programmes that develop human capital but leave people jobless.

Other articles in the special feature look at a new study of UK foundations that fund overseas to the tune of less than £1 million a year and the recently published Principles of Accountability for International Philanthropy. Finally, a panel of bilateral funders talk about how they see the role of foundations in international development.

Also in this issue of Alliance, Nnimmo Bassey questions the value of the new Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, while Jo Andrews reflects on Great Philanthropic Mistakes.

CONTENTS

• Editorial 2
• Letters 3
• News from around the world 6
• Opinion: Bill Drayton 10
• News in brief 12
• What's new at … 14
• Conference reports 18
• UBS Philanthropy Services 20
• Spotlight on business in Argentina 22
• Opinion - Bruce Sievers 23
• Opinion - Nnimmo Bassey 24
• Books 55

ARTICLES

Interview FREE ARTICLE
Ashok Khosla explains why he thinks BOP is too good to be true 25

Intervening at the inflection point
Max Martin talks about how to time a successful philanthropic intervention 27

How can we do better? FREE ARTICLE
Peter Laugharn looks at the current state of international funding and makes some suggestions aimed at helping foundations make a more significant contribution 30

Interview
Agnès Binagwaho and Peter Piot talk to Peter Laugharn about how foundations can add value to national efforts in the area of HIV/AIDS 35

International funding – how and why?
Sarah Lock looks at a new study of UK foundations that fund overseas to the tune of less than £1 million a year 39

Still not completely natural?
A number of bilateral funders describe how they see the role of foundations in contributing to international development 41

Supporting civil society – a dogma for our time?
Donors’ exclusive reliance on civil society as the agents of change sometimes does more harm than good, argues Luc Tayart de Borms 45

Hard lessons for economic development
If foundations want to support economic regeneration, they must take on a broker’s role and be prepared to engage with local politics, says Andrés Thompson 47

Obedience to the unenforceable?
Rob Buchanan and Sevdalina Rukanova describe a transatlantic attempt to devise a set of principles of accountability for international philanthropy while Ceri Oliver-Evans describes the Cape Town consultation 49

Voices from the South
Ceri Oliver-Evans describes the Cape Town consultation on the Principles of Accountability for International Philanthropy 51

Philanthropy or foolanthropy?
Kumi Naidoo reflects on the other contributions to the special feature and puts forward his own six suggestions to make global philanthropy more effective 52

From Alliance, Vol 12, No 2, June 2007

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