Alliance Online - December 2007

When AGAG came back home – to Africa

Akwasi Aidoo

EVENT Funding Impact Conference: Partnerships, Networks and Collaborations – A learning opportunity
Date 4-6 February
Venue Johannesburg, South Africa
Organizer Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group

AGAG (the Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group) is one of those entities which, if it didn’t exist, would have to be created. Comprising a motley collection of predominantly US foundations, big and small, it fills a critical and continuing need to stimulate support and new ideas for a more effective philanthropic engagement with Africa. Its tagline says it’s ‘a resource for grantmakers’, and its mission is ‘to promote increased and more effective funding in Africa through building and sharing knowledge’. What’s most exciting about the AGAG narrative, though, is that it was conceived in Africa (having evolved from SAGA – the Southern Africa Grantmakers’ Association), born in the USA, and recently held its best ever annual meeting on African soil, in Johannesburg.

AGAG is very active on Africa. Every year since its establishment in 2001, AGAG has organized well-attended retreats for its members to share ideas and knowledge, and to explore common ground for collaboration. It has published, in collaboration with the US Council on Foundations, an authoritative collection of experiences and advice on how to make a difference in Africa through grantmaking (titled Making a Difference in Africa: Advice from experienced grantmakers). It has produced pioneering reports on the state of funding for health and education in Africa. And, through a ‘conversation series’, it has begun to keep Africa on the radar of US foundations in ways that didn’t exist before. But, never once had it met in Africa, until last week when it met in a big, memorable way in Johannesburg.

The meeting, which was co-sponsored by TrustAfrica, was in two parts: a conference followed by an annual retreat of members. It succeeded in bringing together over 100 participants from 55 grantmaking institutions, of which 23 were Africa based. The conference theme was ‘funding impact’ and the retreat focused on strategies for ‘working together to support development efforts in Africa’.

The meeting was unique in two main respects. First, it focused attention on some of the best examples and practices of donor collaboration in Africa. One session on the Africa Higher Education Partnership, which comprises six major US foundations, brought together two generations and three categories of higher education professionals from across the continent to tell the story of how some of Africa’s hitherto dilapidated universities are being revived through partnership with external donors. Another session involving Canada’s International Development Research Center and TrustAfrica generated an insightful discussion of the dynamics, opportunities and daunting challenges of covering the diverse continent through donor co-funding. Informative sessions were also held on funding for women’s human rights, advocacy, media strategies to engage youth for HIV/AIDS work, and African philanthropy.

The second unique aspect was that it was the first time AGAG had met in Africa. This meant that more African grantmakers were able to attend, thereby bringing to the table and discussions the voices, concerns and perspectives of those ‘closer to the ground’ and making it the most diverse meeting AGAG has ever organized. Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi of the African Women’s Development Fund, for example, took centre-stage with an inspiring session on changing Africa’s profile inside and outside philanthropy.

The conference started with a session on African perspectives on African development. The session was led by a panel of six philanthropic leaders from across Africa and drawn from a wide spectrum of foundation types – community foundations, corporate foundations and private foundations that work locally, nationally and continentally. It is likely that, following this first meeting in Africa, AGAG will see a surge in its African membership.

To be sure, there were some gaps, such as the absence of participants from North and Central Africa, but this was, by every measure, the best of AGAG’s meetings. It is unfortunate that the local and African media did not cover this historic meeting, but the general feeling was that AGAG had finally ‘touched base’, had come back home – something that no doubt bolsters its credibility, relevance and traction in Africa.

Akwasi Aidoo is Executive Director of TrustAfrica. Email aidoo@trustafrica.org

For more information
www.africagrantmakers.org

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