All not quite well with microfinance?

While the global eye has been on the traditional capital markets, there are some whispers that perhaps a bit more attention should be cast towards microfinance. After a year of rapid food and fuel inflation, the risk officer of one of the major microfinance networks was recently heard noting that stories are flowing in from affiliates about clients who can no longer repay their loans. Huge shifts in currency markets are also causing some problems: many of the largest MFIs borrow in dollars but lend in local currencies, and many of these have fallen in value by more than half in the last few months. Will we see a microfinance bank default in the coming months? And if we do, will it be a for-profit or a non-profit that goes insolvent? Click here to read ...

Scottish animal health charity to benefit from Gates grant

The Gates Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) are to fund Scottish-based animal health organization the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) to the tune of $28 million over three years. A collaboration between Farm Africa, Pfizer Animal Health and Intervet, GALVmed began in 2000, setting itself a target to develop, register and launch at least six vaccines, medicines or diagnostic products designed to combat some of the most debilitating livestock diseases by 2015. In addition to the obvious economic benefits of reducing disease among livestock, the vaccines will help eliminate widespread diseases such as Rift Valley fever, East Coast fever and porcine cysticerosis, which can all be passed from animals to humans. Click here to read ...

Revolutions in Development Inquiry

This book reviews some of the changes in the methods of development inquiry that have occurred in the past 40 years, and reflects on their transformative potential. Starting with the ‘dinosaurs’ of large-scale multi-subject questionnaire surveys, and the biased visits and perceptions of rural development tourism and urban-based professionals, there follows a look at the rapid proliferation of methodologies and methods of recent years, like rapid rural appraisal (RRA), participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and dramatic developments in the still largely unrecognized fields of participatory numbers and statistics, and of participatory mapping and GIS. Chambers shows how these can empower local people and provide rigorous and valid substitutes for more traditional methods of inquiry. Click here to read ...

Concentrate on water and sanitation, UN study advises donors

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Aid in the 21st century: who’s in the driver’s seat?

Official development assistance (ODA) has altered dramatically over the last ten years – more money, better directed and administered, with greater stress on reducing poverty and greater ownership of the recipients over the whole of the aid process – so the official communiques would have us believe. But has it really? Despite appearances to the contrary, donors have been hesitant to relinquish control over aid spending, slow to abandon realpolitik in favour of compassion towards distant strangers, and cautious about digging deeper into their pockets. Click here to read ...

Palestinians pilot community-based resource distribution

Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory are the world’s largest per capita recipients of international aid, yet they have very limited influence over how that aid is used. Civil society’s dependence on international aid contributes to a host of problems, including donor-driven agendas, wasted human and financial resources, and fraudulent practices. Also, donor-dependent CSOs become accountable to their donors rather than to their local communities. Communities themselves often see very little of the aid money once the aid agency takes its administrative costs and the international NGO intermediary takes its cut. This leaves Palestinians without mechanisms for real participation, much less leadership, in their own social change and development. Click here to read ...

Grantmakers without Borders - The cost of the war on terror to the US non-profit sector

Grantmakers Without Borders and OMB Watch recently released a white paper that comprehensively documents the impact that the ‘war on terror’ is having on US charities and foundations. Collateral Damage: How the war on terror hurts charities, foundations, and the people they serve makes clear that shortsighted, undemocratic policies are constraining the critical activities of the charitable and philanthropic sectors, stifling free speech, and ultimately impeding the fight against terrorism. Click here to read ...

Interview - Luis Ubiñas

There’s an old saying that new brooms are inclined to sweep clean. Luis Ubiñas came from outside the philanthropy sector (he was previously at McKinsey) to become President of the Ford Foundation in January this year. As he explained to Caroline Hartnell, however, this ‘new broom’ is concerned to maintain and build on the strengths of the Foundation as a global institution and to ensure that fairness continues to be its core value. Click here to read ...

Southern voices from Foundations for Peace

In this article, three funders from the Global South, all part of a network of foundations working for peace in their societies, describe how they set their own agenda, work closely with their grantees, and act as a bridge between southern activists and northern donors. As foundations working in divided societies, the issue of ‘who sets the agenda?’ is something of a luxury. The agenda is set by structural inequalities, unjust practices, and the ever-present threat of violence. Click here to read ...

US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership to become independent

This summer, the Synergos Institute will formally hand over management of the US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP) to its bi-national governing board. It will be constituted as an independent, 501(c)(3) organization in the US and an Asociación Civil in Mexico. Since its inception in 2002, it was anticipated that the Partnership would eventually grow out from under Synergos’s management to become an independent, locally directed entity.

Funders often struggle with exit strategies for projects they have supported over a number of years. In the case of BPP, funders and the grantee, Synergos, have been working together over the past two years to establish a well thought out plan to turn the Partnership into an autonomous entity. Click here to read ...