Accra, – Dr Kofi Osei-Kusi, Executive Director, Osei-Kusi Foundation, has called for a policy to regulate philanthropy in the country.
He said foreign-donor support for philanthropy had dwindled due to trust, COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to see change from budgeted projects.
Dr Osei-Kusi said a comprehensive policy on the activities of philanthropists would streamline the system to ensure value for money and lead to efficient and effective project outcomes.
Dr Osei-Kusi made the call in Accra at the launch of the Giving for Change (GFC) Project, on the theme, “Promoting Social Justice Philanthropy for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Ghana: Examining Prospects, Challenges and Lessons”.
The project is implemented by STAR Ghana Foundation and the West Africa Civil Society Institute with funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The consortium partners are Global Fund for Community Foundations, African Philanthropy Network, Kenyan Community Development Foundation and Wilde Ganzen, a Dutch NGO.
The partnerships involve eight countries across Africa, Latin American and Asia-Ghana, Kenyan, Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Palestine and Brazil.
The GFC Project seeks to promote domestic resource mobilization and philanthropy as a strategy for increasing local ownership and influencing civic action for inclusive development.
Dr Osei-Kusi, who is also an Entrepreneur, said philanthropy offered benefits of contributing to addressing the basic needs of society for national development.
“We need to empower ourselves to be self-reliant and take the destiny of the country into our hands. We are blessed with natural resources and have to tap into these potentials to maximize the needed benefits for national growth,” he said.
He called for proper data on philanthropy works for easy targeting and planning and support system and as well break the dependency cycle.
The Entrepreneur called for an enabling environment for local philanthropy to thrive and grow a culture of entrepreneurship and volunteerism among the citizenry.
Mrs Eunice Agbenyadzi, Programmes Manager, Star Ghana Foundation, said the GFC project had three domains, with the first to build a sense of community among civil society actors to strengthen the demand side of the development system.
Mrs Agbenyadzi said it was expected that communities through the Civil Society Actors would be empowered to engage with actors, including government, to claim their rights to participation and access to services.
The second domain is to bring collective learning from the central domain to bear on working with key government, philanthropic and development stakeholders to press for an enabling environment for community philanthropy.
The result for this domain was to increase awareness of government and other actors on the importance of social philanthropy as well as lobby for enabling laws and regulations.
The final domain, she said, was to build on learning at the international level, and grow a global movement of actors committed to supporting community philanthropy as a strategy for people-led-development.
The result is to increase awareness and appreciation of strategies to raise resources and sources of potential resources with in rural and disadvantaged communities in Ghana.
Mr Ronald Strikker, Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, expressed satisfaction about Ghana’s progress on the programme and was confident that Ghana would meet objectives.
The Ambassador urged civil society organizations to work with determination to bring about total development in targeted areas.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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