During the RINGO process of analysing the global civil society ecosystem, the RINGO Social Lab identified several key areas of ‘stuckness’. One shone out loud and clear: the channelling of funds for local and national civil society in the majority world/Global South is currently heavily skewed towards minority world/Global North organisations, which sit closest to OECD donor funds.
Too Southern To Be Funded
‘Untying Aid’ is to end the practice of restricting funds for civil society to certain actors within the system, and specifically to certain nationalities of civil society organisations (CSOs). This was chosen as an area of focus for RINGO innovation, so that we could dig into this imbalance, understand this part of the system and innovate to try out alternative approaches. The campaign Too Southern To Be Funded, spearheaded by the Global Fund for Community Foundations, emerged from this process.
As so many of us try to work out what decolonising means for our organisations, the statistics highlighted in the campaign report make the practice of tied funding a compelling policy to challenge:
“More than 90% of the support to civil society in OECD-DAC member countries goes to CSOs in their own countries and others in the Global North. Meanwhile, less than 10% goes to CSOs in partner countries in the Global South.” (Too Southern To Be Funded)
RINGO Community Gathering
At the RINGO Community Gathering in May 2024, we welcomed over 200 members of our community to join a nuanced and politically aware conversation on the issue of untying aid, and explore what genuine solidarity and funding equity looks like across the movement for shifting power and locally led development. Our conversation took place in the context of a mix of recent policy shifts, and a worrying political context in both OECD countries and those in the majority world/Global South. RINGO’s perspective is that bilateral funders should open up their civil society funding to organisations in the majority world/Global South, and should stop ring fencing funds for INGOs who are proximate to funders in the minority world/Global North. However, such policy changes need to be done responsibly and ethically, and in a way that works to strengthen civil society everywhere.
RINGO’s Jennie Richmond (Impact Works Associates) facilitated the session and we were joined by a fantastic panel who shared a range of experience and perspectives on the question of untying funds to civil society.
Eshban Kwesiga (Knowledge Weaver and Influencing Manager, Global Fund for Community Foundations) has been leading the Too Southern To Be Funded campaign and reflected on how some actors in the system are focussed on debating the terminology of ‘untying aid’ and getting caught up in the semantics. There is a tension between the definition of the policy by the OECD DAC and what actually happens in practice. The Too Southern To Be Funded campaign is calling for ‘an end to discriminatory funding practices against global south CSOs’. Whatever you call it, as Eshban keenly observes, it’s what happens in practice that counts.
“When it looks like tied aid, walks like tied aid and restricts funding flows like tied aid; it is tied aid.” (Eshban Kwesiga, GFCF)
Eshban talked about how across the world, the space for civil society is shrinking and we need to think creatively about funding flows. In the spirit of global solidarity, he calls on those who are interested in funding local organisations, to build on local systems that are already there and invest in local systems and resources that will someday hold civil society when international funding has become impossible or too difficult.
Sarah Rose (Senior Adviser on Localisation, USAID) explored the connections between untying aid and localisation objectives. She discussed the opportunities and constraints of a bilateral funder like USAID, reflecting on how to balance open competition with commitments to domestic civil society. Although Sarah acknowledged that USAID is still far from achieving their goal of sending 25% of their program funds directly to local partners, they are working to embrace and reflect local priorities, local knowledge and looking to strengthen local systems. Their two key goals are: to expand their direct relationships with local partners; and to elevate local leadership across all of their programming.
“The emphasis should always be on those relationships [between all development actors], because the goal is to make sure that we are building on the unique expertise, the resources, the knowledge, the networks of all development actors, but doing so in a way that supports and creates the conditions for local actors to take the lead to address local challenges.” (Sarah Rose, USAID)
Romilly Greenhill (CEO, Bond UK) shared lessons learned from the UK aid experience, what went right and wrong, and how it could be done more ethically. She explained how UK used to have core funding arrangements for NGOs called Programme Partnership Arrangements (PPA) which provided long term core funding. In 2016, this process was opened up to create a more competitive bidding experience. However, some funding mechanisms remained tied, and the new process included stringent transparency and accountability requirements, a costly application process and offered awards for short-term project-based models. An independent review found it actually reduced opportunities for self driven capacity development, longer term strategic thinking, and adaptation to the evolving local context, and didn’t address issues of closing civic space. Moving forward, Romilly shared that she would like to see a model which provides funding for domestic partners to raise awareness, public engagement and education, and for local partners to receive long term, predictable and flexible core funding.
“How do we work together, collaborate and show solidarity across our communities… between civil society in the global south and global north to help create a much better political context which will enable us to have the space for that untied, long term, core flexible funding that we all really need.” (Romilly Greenhill, Bond UK)
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THE FULL SESSION:
Call to Action
Following a highly engaging Q&A with members of our community from all around the world, RINGO’s Charles Kojo Vandyck (WACSI) summarised with a call to action for funders:
- provide direct, good quality and flexible core funding
- synthesise your processes;
- co-create and enable local organisations to make their own decisions from conception and throughout the whole project cycle, not just implementation
And issued a call for genuine solidarity across global civil society:
“There is an opportunity for us all, whether we are in the Global South or the Global North, to engage and influence change so that initiatives to untie aid can be done effectively, ethically and leads to a more fair and equitable civil society.” (Charles Kojo Vandyck, WACSI)
For a full list of recommendations, read Charles’ blog: Transforming Aid Delivery: A Call to Action from the Too Southern to be Funded Report
The call for core funding was a running theme throughout the session, and it was fitting that the final word of the RINGO Community Gathering went to Alex Martins (The Equity Index) who led on the research commissioned by Peace Direct which informed the Too Southern to be Funded report. Alex highlighted the shocking truth that although the campaign cites that less than 10% of funding goes directly to local CSOs, only 1% of that is core funding.
“It’s about solidarity and dignity: how can we say that we are truly interested in development if we are only giving 1% of core funding to organisations who are already based in their contexts and know what to do… Core funding is gold dust… if you are going to untie, let it be everybody that can access that gold dust.” (Alex Martins, The Equity Index)
