Category: Philanthropy

Financial Inclusion and the Future of Social Protection Policy

Christopher WebbLeave a comment

The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in major setbacks in addressing global poverty levels. The significant delays in reaching a number of the Sustainable Development Goals and the a two-decade reduction in eliminating extreme poverty. In this context, almost every country in the world has expanded, adapted, or developed new social protection measures. Some 1.3 billion people were assisted through this expansion of social protection over the course of the pandemic, from stimulus cheques to caregiver benefits to supports for informal workers (Gentilini et al., 2020). By far the most popular form of support were direct cash transfers (CT), with many governments expanding coverage or eliminating conditionalities entirely.

Like many observers, I was that these expansions would provide opportunities to address the significant gaps in our social protection systems, particularly as the most vulnerable (women, informal workers and migrants) are often excluded. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. Pandemic specific transfer programs lasted, on average, only 3.3 months, with only 7% extended beyond this (Gentilini 2021). Prior to the pandemic, some lacked social protection coverage. The limited duration of these measures, coupled with the long-run effects of disrupted employment, means we are effectively back to where we started鈥攅ven as the pandemic shows no signs of abating in much of the world.

What has emerged instead are significantly different approaches to adapting the welfare state in a context of continuous and ongoing livelihood crises.     

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The power of private philanthropy in international development

Arun KumarLeave a comment

By Arun Kumar and

In 1959, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations pledged seven million US$ to establish the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Los Ba帽os in the Philippines. They planted technologies originating in the US into the Philippines landscape, along with new institutions, infrastructures, and attitudes. Yet this intervention was far from unique, nor was it spectacular relative to other philanthropic 鈥榤issions鈥� from the 20th century.

How did philanthropic foundations come to wield such influence over how we think about and do development, despite being so far removed from the poor and their poverty in the Global South?

In a recent paper published in the journal , we suggest that metaphors – bridge, leapfrog, platform, satellite, interdigitate – are useful for thinking about the machinations of philanthropic foundations. In the Philippines, for example, the Ford and Rockefeller foundations were trying to bridge what they saw as a developmental lag. In endowing new scientific institutions such as IRRI that juxtaposed spaces of modernity and underdevelopment, they saw themselves bringing so-called third world countries into present鈥揹ay modernity from elsewhere by leapfrogging historical time. In so doing, they purposively bypassed actors that might otherwise have been central: such as post鈥揷olonial governments, trade unions, and peasantry, along with their respective interests and demands, while providing platforms for other – preferred – ideas, institutions, and interests to dominate.

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Philanthrocapitalism: How to Legitimize the Hegemony of the Rich with a “Good Vibes” Discourse

jorgegarciaarias1 Comment

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Melinda Gates speaking at DFID. Photo: .

Is philanthrocapitalism a vehicle for so-called 鈥渄evelopment鈥�? In an article recently released in Globalizations (), Juanjo Mediavilla (University of Valladolid, Spain) and I analysed the phenomenon of philanthrocapitalism as a financing for development (FfD) instrument from the perspective of Critical Development Studies and Discourse Theory. We argue that we are witnessing the deepening of a neoliberal development agenda, where philanthrocapitalism and the elites play a key role. Read More »

From Addis to Davos: International Development Finance gets Conspicuous

Rose WordenLeave a comment

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The theme of the 2018 World Economic Forum was, 鈥淐reating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.鈥� Its six richest attendees each boasted an estimated net worth of, or the same amount as the total burden of Somalia鈥檚 outstanding debt, which, amid the splendor of the event, Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre to discuss . In this era of extreme global inequality, it is estimated that the United Nations agenda of seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) known as, will require of investment per year to be realized, or more than twice the amount expected to be available from traditional official development assistance (ODA) alone. Due to the increasing concentration of private wealth in the global economy, discussions around development finance have focused on private sector engagement, rather than more traditional, ODA from predominantly Western donor governments and multilateral institutions.Read More »

Philanthropy in Development: Undermining Democracy?

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven6 Comments

The word philanthropy dates back to the Greek word 蠁喂位伪谓胃蚁蝇蟺委伪, . Today the private philanthropy as non-official development assistance (ODA) to developing countries. Such assistance can be through large philanthropic foundations such as the Rockefeller or Clinton Foundation, or through 鈥榙irect giving鈥� platforms such as or . But does what we call philanthropy today deserve its name? Rather than focusing on the actions of specific philanthropic organizations, this piece聽will assess the impact the rise of philanthropy has on global governance and democracy.

Figure 1: Grants by private agencies and NGOsScreen Shot 2016-10-16 at 17.03.14.png
Source: OECD data

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