Introduction
Since 2017, different sessions and meetings have been held discussing the need to establish a specific fund to focus on grass-root organizations funding directly. And we are glad that out of the many engagements, we have moved somewhere! From creating a name, this International Fund for Grass-root Organizations (IFGO), to registering the fund in Africa, and defining what the fund will focus on broadly.
Why the Fund?
The fund acts as a DIRECT link between GRASS-ROOT organizations and PHILANTHROPISTS and DONORS in Africa, USA and globally in order to ensure every dollar reaches the intended frontline grass-root communities. IFGO is already a registered entity in East Africa but will be focus on whole of Africa, with plan to expand internationally.
The fund is built on the background that there has been ample evidence that the best solutions to challenges in the developing world are better designed or are being designed by grass-root locally based innovators and entrepreneurs that live within those communities. However, the majority of funding is still being directed to only a select few of the major international non-governmental organizations that often don’t even reach the grass-roots. Decisions around funding are still, for the most part, being made behind closed doors with an alarming lack of transparency and diversity in who prioritizes what the funding will do and how this funding will be managed.
Finally, when even funding does reach the grassroots level, it is most often directed towards internationally-designed but locally-implemented projects that often leave a lot desired given the unrealistic nature of interventions implemented that often end with the funding because they lack a foundation that is locally based. We believe it is time to change the humanitarian ecosystem and drive grassroots to be part of the decision making, but also to make sure that grassroots doing amazing work access the necessary funding they need to implement their mandates for humanity.
