Cover photo by Annie Spratt
By Tendai Murisa, ED at SIVIO Institute
Philanthropy has gone native. It is no longer the game of the rich in the Global North supporting the rest of the world. A new set of players has emerged, including Africa’s High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and the foundations they establish. We have seen a growth in high-profile African giving to causes across the continent. Their contribution in many instances is not just about money- they bring their entrepreneurial capabilities, they leverage their global influence in raising more resources and become advocates for important causes.
What does the rise of African philanthropy suggest? Could it be a new epoch for Africa’s transformation?
HNWI giving and Africa’s transformation
Before answering these questions, it is important to understand the context in Africa. Regarding philanthropy, there is an urgent need to establish laws and incentives that promote giving and collaboration among African foundations; there is no significant advocacy energy toward policy reforms to enhance the growth and sustainability of the sector; the movement of money across the 54 African countries is still based on a largely US-dominated international system; and the emerging foundations have not invested in adequately measuring impact.
Economically, Africa faces a problem of stagnation and reversal of development gains. It remains a continent of deep-seated poverty focused on producing primary goods or on extractive economies like mining and forestry, and weak to ineffective social service delivery systems. Governance challenges e.g. the abuse of executive power and corruption loom large.
The rise of Africa’s billionaires has led many to assume that the continent is ready to fund its development agenda. African billionaire foundations are yet to be fully seized with addressing the aforementioned systemic issues. There are however islands of best practice that suggest the emergence of a model to follow.
Mo Ibrahim has led in the area of governance reforms through funding and producing the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. The Index examines governance trends across all 54 African countries. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation works with Afrobarometer a pan-African research institution conducting public attitude surveys on the continent. He funds the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership which celebrates achievements made by heads of state. The inaugural winners (laureates) were Joaquim Chissano (Mozambique) and Nelson Mandela (South Africa).
Tony Elumelu and his foundation the Elumelu Foundation in Nigeria have led the charge for an African version of capitalism which he calls ‘Africapitalism’ in which the private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development through entrepreneurship, long-term investments, creation of a development dividend and shared purpose1. The Elumelu Foundation has “empowered 15,847 young African entrepreneurs and provided more than US$80million in seed capital to support.”
Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa’s giving through Higherlife Foundation and Delta Philanthropies has contributed immensely towards resolving social service delivery, especially in Burundi, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. The focus of their giving has been mostly on supporting improved access to education. They have played a leading role in the response to the Cholera outbreak, Cyclone Idai and Covid-19.
Aliko Dangote has, through his foundation, the Dangote Foundation, collaborated closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 2012 in the eradication of polio in Nigeria. Furthermore, the foundation entered into a strategic partnership with the Wellcome Trust of the UK to carry out research on Ebola. At the peak of the Ebola crisis in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the previous African Union Commissioner Nkosazana Zuma mobilised support from African billionaires to create an African response team that was deployed to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Gaps in HNWI Interventions
However, there are some concerns about African HNWI’s philanthropy and we remain very cautious for several reasons:
Long-term Sustainability – We are yet to see the foundations established by the HNWIs being independently run and setting up an endowment for perpetual existence like their northern counterparts (Murisa, 2016, 2018).
Unevenly distributed – the giving by Africa’s HNWIs is unevenly spread across the continent. It is mostly concentrated in countries with the highest number of HNWIs.
Inadequate connection with existing initiatives – there is a concern about the HNWI’s penchant for establishing new things instead of building upon what exists and at times their preference to give outside of the continent. Available evidence indicates that their contributions in terms of grants to NGOs remain very low compared to international philanthropy foundations. In the process, some of the HNWIs have established implementing foundations which potentially marginalise local NGOs. In a survey carried out in 2018, no HNWI-established foundation was providing institutional support funding to local NGOs.
Lack of systemic change – African HNWIs foundations have not demonstrated the need for an alternative framework of accumulation and governance. In many instances, actors under study became billionaires through the existing murky rules of capitalist exploitation. They have not spoken against it nor funded initiatives that improve conditions of work and more equitable frameworks of accumulation. Only a handful have committed their funds toward governance reforms. In many instances, the foundations established by HNWIs remain as appendages of the corporate company. In many jurisdictions, these corporations are subject to government compliance measures and/or tenders. There is limited interest in the governments to re-imagine solutions to intractable public problems such as social service delivery. Furthermore, it is also unclear whether their collaboration with multilateral organisations will in any way correct the ongoing marginalisation of local NGOs.
Limited collaboration with others – there is no clarity on the appetite for collaboration amongst HNWI’s foundation to create synergies. Broadly, the levels of collaboration are low across the board with the most common form of collaboration being with local NGOs and multi-lateral agencies. There is very limited collaboration amongst African philanthropy organisations suggesting possibilities of ‘silo-based’ interventions. Infrastructure platforms such as the African Philanthropy Forum can play a more meaningful role in ensuring collaboration.
In conclusion, we can say that the rise of HNWIs is a necessary development, potentially contributing towards a locally led and funded transformation process. However, these are early days and there are a number of issues yet to be addressed to create effective ecosystems of development. If African HNWIs can close the gaps identified above, philanthropy could make a signifcant contribution to the continent’s transformation.
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1. The vision of ‘Africapitalism’ aligns with that of Africa’s renaissance originally made popular by Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal in the 1940s and brought back into the limelight through Thabo Mbeki.
Download the ‘High-Net-Worth Philanthropists: Case of Three Selected Countries (Mauritius, South Africa and Zimbabwe)’ by SIVIO Institute (Zimbabwe) here.
Tendai Murisa is the current Executive Director of SIVIO Institute (www.sivioinstitute.org) . He has written extensively on philanthropy in Africa. His reflections are based on working within a grant making institution and ongoing attempts at nurturing philanthropy as development practice within the continent. He is active in building communities of practice and nurturing institutions that aim to enhance giving by Africans. Tendai holds a DPhil in Sociology from Rhodes University.
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