NGO funding crisis
Rob Gaylard
Posted on August 3, 2012 / No Comments / Show post tags
South African NGOs, which contribute about 30% of the civil services in South Africa and which are critical to meeting developmental goals, are facing an ever-worsening funding crisis.
The crisis is due to international and national donors scaling back funding due to the economic climate. Additionally, South Africa is viewed as a middle-income country by foreign funders, many of whom are now choosing to channel funding into African countries that are considered more impoverished. In 2010, NGO’s had R3 billion less to spend due to the global recession and the funding cuts have continued through 2011 and 2012.
The Southern African NGO Networks’ executive director, David Barnard, warned of the looming funding crisis as far back as 2009: “”Funders are not able to assist the organisations anymore because they themselves aren’t coping. It is going to have a major impact on welfare organisations — either they will close down or their staff will be forced to leave the NGO sector.”
“Funders are not able to assist the organisations anymore because they themselves aren’t coping.”
His predictions have proved to be spot on. Several long-standing, reputable NGOs such as Child Welfare and the Treatment Action Campaign, have had to scale down services or retrench staff, while others have been on the brink of closure. Just recently, Rape Crisis had to retrench all staff, keeping only one director who is now expected to single-handedly run the NGO with only volunteer staff [see issue #200 of The Big Issue, on sale now, for the full story].