The $120 Million Funds For African Women & Youth

Where are the funds to adequately resource overlooked issues like the estimated 12m young new entrants into Africa's labour force each year? If Donors, Foundations and DFIs were to back more 8-9 figure partnerships with catalytic grants to resource locally-led network organizations and social impact leaders, the result would be superior ecosystem service provision building the capacity of market-creating job creators across SDGs, critical sectors and thematic areas. We require a shift away from ineffective projects towards deeply strategic partnerships.

I'd love to be reading more headlines like this fictional one which was crafted after a recent conversation with a researcher friend of mine in the US during which I shared how Africa has an estimated 12m young people entering the official workforce each year and the vast majority will be unemployed or unemployed and that only 0.1% of global grant-making organisations exist in Africa. After his initial shock at these sobering statistics, we shared our mutual frustration at the number of International Development projects, branding, reports, conferences and programmes dedicated to talking about 'tackling youth employment' in piecemeal ways.

He then went on to say how, even if we were to get serious about allocating funds to locally-led implementing organisations and arbitrarily allocated '$10 to each young African each year' for programmatic interventions, we'd be looking at an 8 figure (skeletal and unrealistically low) budget - so how are we seeing so few bold, brave budget allocations to these major challenges we keep talking and writing about?

We end the year again with a lack of urgency and responsiveness to the developing economies and societies that need it most to boost sustainability, social justice, productivity and livelihood outcomes for millions of people. Funders and intermediaries need to recalibrate their RFPs away from the 'small-small' (as we say in Ghana) approach to solving the African youth development conundrum and realizing its potential dividend. No number of training or workshops can address this issue and turn it around into a dividend for Africa and the aging global population.

For funders of Development and Philanthropy projects, the time - for truly transformative, localized capacity-building action and new catalytic funding mechanisms where ecosystem actors can adequately support those social enterprises solving very difficult challenges within extremely complex and ambiguous operational environments - is now. As the saying goes: 'What got us here, won't get us there.' Catalytic grant funding and ecosystem activities are core and the need to move away from project-based thinking could not be more clear. We need to back partnerships.

3 Simple Ways Social Investors Can Unlock Impact

As we close out the year, there are simply 3 things that donors, funders, pension advisors, wealth advisors, trustees, trust practitioners, major gift planners and other allocators of potentially catalytic capital can do to make the most difference to meeting impact, social, environmental and governance outcomes.

1. Act Boldy On "Localization" Localization which sounds fantastic in theory - came out of growing calls to #shiftpower and #decolonize wealth and the dominant international funding system. To make localization a reality, resources will need to be mobilized in ways that enable local network organizations to tackle the issues - livelihoods, productivity, digital and 4IR skills, youth unemployment, financial inclusion, food security, universal health coverage, gender inequality and climate change. Locally-led network organizations in the Global South are the overlooked secret sauce, hiding in plain sight - these are the ones thinking outside the box, convening and consulting with ecosystem leaders at a regional level, creating new funding mechanisms through which social finance investments can catalyze private capital and make the most difference to the most people in the best, most sustainable ways. 8-10 figure funding mechanisms and support for innovative new vehicles like pooled funds, social impact bonds, catalytic grant funds and technical assistance support for ecosystem and value chain strengthening are urgently needed.
2. Talk Less: Act More Take a leaf out of Mackenzie Scott's book and follow her example keenly - make flexible, major grants to a broader range of local changemakers and collectives, enabling them to pursue their respective missions. That's how funders can change the world - through allyship and partnership. By funding action-oriented relationships and focusing on strategic social change agents, significant impact outcomes can emerge. There are far to many social impact leaders who have the grit, passion and expertise to achieve significant outcomes for social financiers and broader stakeholder groups in overlooked communities and economies.
3. Support The Creation Of New Markets: Mass Impact. Mass Returns. Market-creating innovations should be the blueprint of development programmes that are serious about achieving real impact outcomes at scale. Let's leave behind the old-world obsession with training huge numbers of micro and small enterprises and focus on selecting the few that will most likely have the capacity to create the billions of jobs Africa needs, through innovation and serving unmet needs effectively at scale. Everyone in Development and Philanthropy should read "The Prosperity Paradox" - engage Efosa Ojomo and his amazing team of experts on how best to pursue social justice and Development outcomes at scale.

Sincerely, after a year of experiencing burnout, setting up as a non-profit in Ghana and the US, I want to shout out all the amazing colleagues, partners, allies, friends, active networks and family. I'm grateful for the little acts of kindness and moral support in particular. This work is a series of difficult, and often very long, conversations and negotiations but we're here to make a difference so here's to the small wins and looking forward to bigger ones. Let's mobilize our resources in ways that open the floodgates of ambitious, innovative funding at the level required to get to the ugly underbelly of our shared challenges.

Drop me DM if you want to get together to mobilize catalytic capital and improve the level of local grant funding required to scale effective partnerships. We've heard of think tanks. Let's fuel the action tanks. Medase!

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