A civil investing strategy for putting communities in charge

The recent rise of the Gates Foundation as a major donor of overseas aid has focused attention on the role of private institutions in development. Traditionally solely a funder of programmes – rather than institutions i.e. ‘indigenous capacity’ – the huge resources at their disposal has ensured that private philanthropy is now included in the perennial debate on how best to deliver development assistance.

This paper argues that there can be no sustainable socio-economic progress without imbibing the recipient (community) with a sense of ownership or control. However, the authors determine that philanthropy has too often relied on the advice of experts or community elites to specify what is needed on behalf of the public. So, the paper asserts, this has the consequence of turning recipient communities into dependent clients and so justifies the need for endless philanthropy i.e. the powerless are further disempowered and the dysfunctional relationship is cemented.

So how can development philanthropy fully encourage ownership and promote ‘indigenous’ development? The authors determine that the civic investor needs to:

• ensure that the proposal is community-wide and not driven by a few elite voices
  
• encourage the community to diagnose its own 'problem’ – it is too easy to deal with the symptoms and fund a specific project which does not address the root cause
  
• allow a full community-led exploration of all the different ‘solutions’ – a full democratic decision process will be more sustainable
  
• at the planning stage allow the community to decide what needs to be done and concentrate on providing technical assistance i.e. how it can be done
  
• not insist on the implementation of the original plan but appreciate that a democratic process will inevitably see changes in a project.

The paper concludes that civil investing is possible if development philanthropy relinquishes its drive for short-term results and is willing to radically transform power relationships between donor and grantee.