Kaya 959 Reporter
There have been calls in many sectors for the continent of Africa to reduce its reliance on foreign aid.
The inflow of donor financing from international humanitarian organizations has decreased since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.
It was discovered during the recently completed Trialogue Business in Society conference in Johannesburg earlier this month that 90 per cent of civil society organizations rely on international grant money.
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As we celebrate Africa Day, Kayabiz with Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to Sello Hatang, the CEO of The Nelson Mandela Foundation and asked whether or not we are prioritising international aid and foreign donors over mobilising domestic capital in order to address our social ills.
LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION HERE:
Hatang says if we don’t domestically fund initiatives that are building the country we will end up following the agenda of those that are funding us.
“I think it is important that as we think about the issue of development we shouldn’t create too much dependence, we should also not be shy to say that, that also belongs to us.”
“COVID 19 has been such a good teacher on how we can reach a balance, one of the things we learned at the Nelson Mandela Foundation was how before COVID 19, over 80% of our funding came from the US, The UK and other parts of Europe.
“The COVID 19 hit and Donald Trump becomes part of the fold and movement of abusing the rights of people in the US, and the US donors realise that their own democracy is in danger.”
“They then look inwards and ask themselves how do we make sure that the values that our forebears held are not eroded by their President, which led to the African continent being taken to the back burner.”
“We should free ourselves from donor dependency, and we can. The 2020 pandemic proved that we can. We had to look at home for funding and our corporate partners came on board, mostly with no strings attached,” he said.
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