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Inclusive advocacy and influence strategies in building transformative philanthropy

By Jonathas Azevedo

Between the 28th and 30th of March, I had the opportunity to represent Rede Comuá at the National Advocacy and Influencing Workshop, in Johannesburg (South Africa), promoted by the African Philanthropy Network and facilitated by Tara Consulting. The meeting was part of the Donate to Transform Program, which is divided into three areas of activity:

Domain 1. Support for the power of local communities from civil society actors, understanding community philanthropy as a way to express their opinions, claim rights and express solidarity and dissent;

Domain 2. Influence on national actors, whether governments, philanthropists, civil society organizations or individual donors, in order to strengthen the community philanthropy agenda aimed at promoting human rights;

Domain 3. Impact on international actors, influencing international cooperation for development, and guiding the appreciation of community philanthropy and local appropriation of development processes.

Bringing together around 30 representatives from the consortium's leading organizations (Kenya Community Development Foundation, Global Fund for Community Foundations, Wilden Ganzen and African Philanthropy Network) and from the eight countries involved in the Program (Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Palestine and Uganda), the meeting focused on domain 2, of incidence at national level, with a special emphasis on gender and inclusion agendas. The main objectives of the workshop were: i) to exchange experiences on advocacy practices and strategies in different countries; ii) jointly identify ways to address the main challenges present in each context; iii) build a joint action plan to jointly strengthen advocacy strategies. In addition to the experiences of the organizations present, another important basis for this meeting were the studies on legal environments for civil society actors carried out within the scope of the Program. The Brazilian case study can be found in the Network library.

Participants of the National Advocacy and Influencing Workshop – image: APN
 

Design of advocacy strategies and intersectionalities

“My hope is that one day we will all have equal rights. For me, this fight is a seamless tunic. Opposing apartheid was a matter of justice. Opposing discrimination against women is a matter of justice. Opposing discrimination based on sexual orientation is a matter of justice.” – Desmond Tutu

The quote above was on the murals of the Truth to Power exhibition, at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, to celebrate the life and activism of Desmond Tutu, archbishop of the Anglican Church who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 by his fight against Apartheid alongside figures like Nelson Mandela and many other men and women who fought for the end of this regime that still leaves its marks on the country. His speech remains, unfortunately, relevant in the current context, in which we see an increase in cases of feminicides, transphobia and many other forms of discrimination, both in Brazil and in other parts of the world.

Within the scope of the Donate to Transform Program, this struggle mentioned by Desmond Tutu translates not only into the community practices promoted by partner organizations, in their different contexts, but also assumes a central role in terms of incidence both nationally and internationally. Considering its main objective of re-discussing the logics of power that underlie philanthropy and international aid, the program argues that the advocacy strategies promoted by its members, individually and collectively, must be designed in a way that ensures that the defense of access to rights , especially from marginalized populations, is central. In this way, addressing issues such as gender, racism and inclusion are key.

Advocacy disconnected from this debate tends, then, to reproduce the same power dynamics based on white supremacy, colonialism and violence that is expressed through racism, machismo, LGBTQIA+phobia, ableism and other forms of discrimination, often masked under the veil of good intentions and “doing good”. Working in the fields of philanthropy and international aid does not exempt us from the responsibility of revisiting our privileges and recognizing that, yes, it is still necessary to have uncomfortable debates in the sector. In other words, we cannot talk about truly transformative philanthropy if tackling discrimination and violence that still plagues, in particular, black and indigenous women and trans people, in their diverse ways of being and existing, is not placed at the top of the agenda.

At Rede Comuá, we reaffirm this commitment to the fight for access to rights in the design and implementation of our Advocacy Program. We constantly question and challenge ourselves in order to ensure that the voices, knowledge, experiences and practices of representatives of minority groups are represented in our narratives and productions, thus guiding our impact towards the philanthropic ecosystem and actors in the non-state public sphere, also highlighting the facilitating role of community philanthropy and socio-environmental justice, expressed in the practice of our 16 member organizations, in the struggles of social movements, collectives and organizations, mostly led by representatives of minority populations.

In short, it is important to ask ourselves: how do our organizations' advocacy strategies promote the agenda of access to rights and socio-environmental justice, whether in the field of philanthropy or in our specific fields of activity? What steps can be taken in this direction? Finally, we also leave the call to join the fight for a philanthropy that, in fact, supports transformation processes.

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