The Role of Philanthropy in Influencing Public Policy: The Case of Zimbabwe ()
1. Introduction
Philanthropy is growing globally and there are calls for it to be organised and form collaborations that make a difference in influencing public policy. This paper covers the background of philanthropy, highlighting current global networks while paying attention to Africa and Zimbabwe case studies. Philanthropic organisations in Zimbabwe are registered as trusts or private voluntary organisations (PVO) although registering as PVO is associated with red tape which lengthens the registration process. There is a pending PVO bill that has passed both the house of assembly and senate that was not accepted by the President in 2023. The PVO bill was sent back to parliament in early 2024 for further deliberations and is yet to be passed to become an Act. In addition, the paper provides information on how philanthropy is influencing public policy and the response of the government. Challenges facing philanthropy from influencing public policies are also provided. The recommendations for both philanthropy and government to work together in the public policy arena are also covered.
2. Background of Philanthropy
Philanthropy involves all forms of giving that can either be individual or institutional where private wealth is given as a public good (Duncan, 2004). Philanthropy has replaced the charity or welfarist approach which is often associated with free handouts. Most philanthropy organisations are registered as foundations, associations or trusts and are often described as nongovernmental, not-for-profit and apolitical. Back in 1961, Dicknson noted that there was little attention that was given to philanthropy by economic or social theorists. His reason was that economics focuses on reciprocal transfer or exchange while philanthropy is viewed as unilateral transfer. Boulding (1962) also emphasised on rational philanthropic behaviour that entails the standards that can be used to judge whether a man, or a foundation, or even a government is giving away its money wisely. Philanthropic donations are not random or arbitrary, they are capable of criticism, this is where ordinary theory of utility comes in where income at the disposal should be used rationally over competing issues.
Boulding (1962) brought another important aspect of genuine philanthropy that involves empathy rather than giving for self-aggrandizement or being fashionable and being known. Genuine philanthropy strives to have positive impact on the community they serve and influence public policies to ensure there is equality and freedom for all socioeconomic groups in a society or in a country. Decades ago, Africa was dominated by western philanthropy or foundations. This has slowly changed with the emergency of family foundations that have risen that include Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, Mo Ibrahim, community foundations such as the Kenya Community Development Foundation, the African Women’s Development Fund, the Africa Philanthropy Network and African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (Lawrence et al., 2019). In Zimbabwe, there are bigger foundations such as Higher life, Angel of hope and several community-based ones.
While philanthropy is growing globally there are some organisations that are proffering negative agendas such as money laundering and extremism. The emergence of such philanthropic organisations has led governments together with genuine philanthropy to develop policies that reduces or trying to eliminate illicit finance, money laundering, extremism, and terrorism. Boris & Steuerle (2006) pointed out that philanthropy is facing some challenges of ensuring freedom for voluntary action consistent with public accountability.
2.1. Philanthropy in Africa
The research found that there are so many foundations in the world that are organised to ensure availability of proper regulations that guides their operations, transparency use of resources and accountability to citizens, states, and its members. These include the coalition of non-profit organisations in all the countries, donors and foundations at continental level, European foundation centre, European fundraising centre, global foundations, Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group to name but a few. There are major foundations that are helping globally and in Africa that include Melinda and Bill Gates, Rockefeller, Girls Challenge Fund, Ford, and Open Society. These foundations and networks are playing a critical role in influencing public policies globally.
The research found that the foundations are influencing policies as they play a critical role at the development of 16 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The philanthropy influences policies that support the achievement of sustainable development goals globally by reducing racial discriminations, side effects of climate change, maternal death, disease outbreaks and poverty. They are also promoting education mainly for girls, gender equality, open societies and democracy and sustainable development. Government transfers such as social packages that the Ministry of Social welfare gives to poor people, elderly people and orphans can be viewed as unilateral transfers that can be under polity although they are state initiated.
2.2. Zimbabwe Philanthropic Environment
The philanthropic environment in Zimbabwe is captured in Table 1. Indiana University produced the 2022 global philanthropy environment index that ranks different components of philanthropy operating context. The index is rated out of 5 as the highest or best score.
Table 1. 2022 Zimbabwe score on global philanthropy environment index.
Philanthropic Environment Scores |
Year |
Ease of Operating a PO |
Tax Incentives |
Cross-Border Philanthropic Flows |
Political Environment |
Economic Environment |
Socio-Cultural Environment |
Overall Score |
2022 GPEI |
3.67 |
2.00 |
2.95 |
3.60 |
3.10 |
3.00 |
3.05 |
2018 GPEI |
2.00 |
3.00 |
3.25 |
1.50 |
N.A. |
3.00 |
2.55 |
Source: Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, 2022 global philanthropy environment index.
The table shows better scores in 2022 on ease of operation for philanthropic organisations and political environment while a decrease is noted on tax incentives and cross boarder philanthropic flows. The survey highlighted that the major factors that affected the philanthropic environment back then were disputed elections in 2018 resulting in political polarisation, economic meltdown, and corruption (Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, 2022).
In addition, the study that was conducted by Africa Grant makers Affinity group in 2019 shows the order of areas that were supported by Philanthropy. The study also found that Zimbabwe is among the top ten countries that is receiving philanthropy funding.
Source: Lawrence et al. (2019).
This paper noted that there is a growth of community philanthropy in Zimbabwe that encompasses individual citizens and local institutions contributions in the form of finances, time, expertise, and assets to promote better living in their communities. Community foundations are either implementers or pure grant makers or both (SIVIO Institute, 2020). This approach is usually sustainable because it is owned by communities, some examples include community conservation association, community ownership trusts that are dotted across the country, Community Foundation of the Western Region of Zimbabwe, and Uluntu Community Foundation. An interesting example mentioned by a key informant is the Tichadya participatory action development trust in Chiredzi that has a scholarship revolving fund that is paying school fees to students who passed grade seven from secondary up to university level to curb illegal border jumping to South Africa. This trust is over twenty years now, it is community led and have more than fifteen graduates from this scholarship. The initiative has been passed on to more than ten schools in Chiredzi South and is primarily funded by community members who are devoting their time and taking care of livestock that they are passing on to sustain the revolving scholarship. There are discussions with policy makers to replicate this to other areas.
3. Background of Philanthropy and Public Policy
Philanthropy and government both have welfare objectives which result in their operations overlapping. Good public policies that promote prosperity, high tax rates and liberal tax deduction allowances may increase the number of philanthropic organisations as well governmental welfare expenditures (Orensten, 2020). “Public policies are a combination of rational planning, incrementalism, competition among groups, elite preferences, public choice, political processes, and institutional influences” (Dye, 2022). It worthy to note that public policy can be implemented by governments, philanthropy and private sector. It is not only the government that has the prerogative of formulating and implementing public policies that is why this paper covers how philanthropic organizations have influenced public policy. Public policy involves actions conducted by all players and covers three policy components that are choices, outputs and impacts. The main concern of public policy is on the effect or impact of government choices on people’s lives not the intention of policy makers. Public policy cycle consists of five stages that are agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, policy implementation, and policy evaluation and are well captured in Figure 1.
Moreso, policy spectrum ranges from technical to political issues. Technical issues are those that have clear and agreed solutions by both philanthropy and government institutions, this can be development of policy documents, strategies or offering specialised training. While political issues involve values, preferences, and power. Political issues are the ones that are a bit controversial because of power and control of citizens.
It is noted that most US foundations put small percentage of their overall funding to policy, advocacy, and democracy due to some foundation boards that are
Figure 1. Public policy stages.
not comfortable to operate in these areas (Orensten, 2020). There are also debates that philanthropy must examine whether their core values are strengthening public institutions or weakening them by having a parallel structure. There are some pro state philanthropists that are hindering people’s rights thereby influencing regressive public policies. Furthermore, philanthropy can distort the policy agenda by influencing policy processes that can undermine national or global outcomes. Examples include favouring certain groups, ideologies, or interests over others and weakening the democratic institutions and mechanisms that ensure legitimacy and responsiveness. Some financial restrictions are used by some states to hinder the free flow of funds to CSOs identified as critical to national governments or labelled as developing “terrorism financing” or even “terrorism activities” (Skocpol, 2016). This has obstructed public policy work of philanthropy in several countries that are authoritarian or pseudo democracies.
Most philanthropy are involved at policy formulation and decision-making stages. Dür & Mateo (2014) noted that many pressure groups and philanthropy views are incorporated in policy formulation. It is also vital to understand that it is not always the case that philanthropy or interest group’ views are considered by policy makers (Dür et al., 2015). Most of the time the decision makers listen to public’s preferences that are aligned to their chances to be re-elected if they are politicians (Woll, 2013). Philanthropy can use litigation to delay the implementation of some policies that are not favourable to them or to force implementation of some laws that policy makers may be hesitant to implement (Bouwen & Mccown, 2007).
Objectives
1) Examine the role of philanthropy in influencing public policy.
2) Assess the government and policy makers’ responses to philanthropy.
3) Proffer recommendations on how philanthropy and government can influence public policy with the view of advancing human rights and wellbeing of vulnerable people.
Research Questions
1) What is the role of philanthropy in influencing public policy in relation to inclusion?
2) How is the government and policy makers responding to philanthropy’ views or demands?
3) What are the recommendations that both philanthropy and government can do to influence public policy that advance human rights and wellbeing of vulnerable people?
Methodology
The paper used qualitative methodology to gather data. The researcher conducted desk research online on the topic. In addition, key informant interviews were conducted to philanthropic organisations’ heads in Zimbabwe, some individual philanthropists and policy makers.
3.1. Desk Research
The researcher used secondary data through conducting online desk research using key words search. The researcher further streamlined the information and selected relevant information that answered the research questions. Twenty papers were relevant to the topic and were reviewed. Research synthesis was used to produce new knowledge by making explicit connections and tensions between the 20 papers that were chosen.
3.2. Key Informant Interviews
The researcher used purposive sampling to choose key informant interviews who were 15 leaders of philanthropic organisations, 3 individual philanthropists and 3 policy makers. The questions were open ended and structured to guide the key informants to give information related to the subject area.
3.3. Data Analysis
Data analysis is a process of gathering, structuring, and interpreting qualitative data to understand what it represents. The paper used content analysis to identify the patterns that were emerging from the literature. The information was grouped based on concepts, topics, and themes. The constant information that came up during desk review and key informant interviews formed the themes.
4. Findings and Discussion
There are six themes that came up on how philanthropy is influencing public policy. These are shown in Figure 2. Some of the themes overlap each other as they are interlinked. The explanations of these themes are captured on how they were used in each of the five sector that are captured in Figure 3.
Figure 2. Ways philanthropy is influencing public policy.
Figure 3. Sectors supported by philanthropy in Zimbabwe.
There are five sectors where public policy is influenced by philanthropy in Zimbabwe. The main sectors that came up during the data gathering process are shown in Figure 3.
4.1. Social Services
Philanthropy is commonly known for filling the gaps where government resources are inadequate and where there is no political will to prioritise social sectors such as health, education, and social welfare by governments. Philanthropy in Zimbabwe have invested heavily in these sectors with the aim of reducing inequality and improved public services to the poor. The investment is sustaining universal health coverage in the country thereby reducing maternal and neonatal mortality.
The major philanthropic organisations have shaped public policy in health that led to the amendment of Public Health Act of 2018. The civil society organisations and major donors in the health sector participated in health technical working groups where they shared lessons learning from other jurisdictions like Ethiopia where village health workers are certificated by the government and developed wording that was adopted by the Ministry of Health and Childcare (MoHCC). These philanthropy contributions led the MoHCC to recognise the village health workers as health cadre that should be accredited. The government of Zimbabwe accepted the inputs of nonprofit organisations and developed a standardised training for village health workers, recognise them in the amendment act and providing them with monthly allowance. This has led to the improvement in the health seeking behaviours at local level and prevention of some diseases since the village health workers educate communities on good hygiene and conduct growth monitoring for under 5 years old children.
Furthermore, the philanthropy influenced the MoHCC to incorporate the health centre committees (HCCs) in the Public Health Act Amendment. This was a big step where community committees were recognised in the public health sector. The HCCs act as the bridge between communities and health workers. They oversee the operations of the local health centres and encourages deliberative dialogues between communities and health centres. The philanthropy also shared examples from African countries such Zambia, Rwanda, Lesotho and Kenya where this approach was adopted and worked well. This has led to construction of mother waiting shelters by communities through community philanthropy. The HCCs also encourages the health workers to protect human rights of patients.
Through agreements of philanthropy and government of Zimbabwe results-based financing (RBF) was adopted by the ministry of health where the treasury is allocating finances for sustainability of the model. The model provides an incentive to qualified nurses to attend to patients timeously. A key informant highlighted that there were many maternal deaths in rural clinics, the RBF was designed to incentivise midwifes to attend to pregnant mothers. The clinic staff were rewarded monetary wise based on the number of patients they attend to which is called RBF income. The health staff use 25% of the RBF income for their allowances and 75% is used for managing the clinic and the HCCs members sign off on the usage of this income. This is empowering communities to have a say on the usage of their income and developing operational plans for their local clinics.
Moreso, the philanthropic organisations guide the government of Zimbabwe on how to domesticate some health international guidelines. This was prevalent during the COVID19 era where some rules were supposed to be adhered to. The organisations helped in drafting the policies and implementation of some policies through availing of financial and human resources. The major areas that philanthropy have given technical expertise to government and transformed policies include compulsory vaccination of children under five from the killer diseases, compulsory testing of HIV/AIDS for couples expecting a child, adherence rules for HIV/AIDS drugs, guidelines on water borne related diseases such as cholera and provision of family planning and reproductive health. The philanthropy is fully engaged in shaping and monitoring policies in the health sector.
In addition, the philanthropy has influenced the start of low-cost boarding schools for girls who walk more than ten kilometres to school. This was started by a girl’s education focused organisation that noticed that many girls were failing to attend school every day because of long walking distance. The organisation started by providing bicycles for girls to cycle to school but these were not enough, and they started the low-cost boarding schools for girls to stay close or at schools. This initiative was successful where the organisation was operating at and have now been adopted as a policy by the Ministry of primary and secondary education (MoPSE). This has been seen as a good policy although there are safeguarding issues that still needs attention.
Furthermore, the philanthropy engaged MoPSE to remove corporal punishment and to raise the age of sex consent. This led to the amendment of Education Act in 2022 to incorporate these policies. The philanthropy utilised the parliamentary portfolio committee on education to air their views, inviting the parliament committee members to public hearings and providing alternative policies that were used by the ministry to amend the laws. The philanthropy also advocated for rape cases to be sentenced with stiffer penalty since there were too many reports of child marriages and teen pregnancies. The amendment Act also incorporated free education provision that was being promoted by coalition of education organisations. All these policies are there to protect the rights of children and ensure equity between the rich and the poor.
4.2. Open Societies and Democracy
The European union philanthropy network influences European Union countries to have legislative or administrative measures that respect tax laws, transparency, electoral, and democracy. This enabled them to operate freely while advancing democracy. As was noted in the background that there is a smaller percentage of funding that is going towards open societies and human rights in Africa. Philanthropy working in open societies and democracy in Zimbabwe reported shrinking civic space during the interviews as the main hindrance for them to operate and to influence public policy.
This paper noted that philanthropy and politics share the same aspiration of creating public value. Because of competing values, they often contest and compete with each other’s ideas and agendas. One of the key informants indicated that the “policy makers shun our views they are suspicious of us because we empower citizens to demand accountability from duty bearers and service providers”. The government view philanthropist in this area as threats who are there to cause commotion by empowering communities with human rights education.
Despite the challenges the philanthropy engaged the public (citizens) and policy makers to develop the 2013 Zimbabwean constitution that had pro-democracy agenda. The philanthropy mobilised masses to attend public hearings during the constitution making process throughout the country. The constitution has the bill of rights section, devolution provisions and other sections that are pro democracy. One key informant noted that while the nonstate actors did a very good job of influencing a progressive constitution, there were several provisions that were amended in 2021-2022 that have recentralised power to the executive. This reversed some gains that were attained during constitution making period. This slowly created mistrust between citizens and the state.
Furthermore, the philanthropy influences public policy through lobbying parliamentarians to adhere to the rule of law and if this fails, they take the litigation route. There are several policies that were fully implemented after being challenged at courts. Such policies include the reduction of data fares, publication of COVID-19 funding and making judgements faster for detained people. The philanthropy is viewed as resource centres or technical partners by policy makers that can help the state to draft some pro-democracy laws. Some philanthropic organizations interviewed acknowledged that they were called in by line ministries to provide technical expertise on the development of some laws that include the electoral, public enterprise, cyber security, marriage, and private property. Philanthropy have presented some model laws and some of the sections have been adopted by government while some have been rejected.
On the other hand, the key informants pointed that most of the pro-democracy laws that were adopted by government are not being implemented because of inadequate budgets and lack of political will. A good example given is that most independent commissions were established as a response to citizens and philanthropy request, but these commissions are given inadequate budgets for them to operate. Some commissions are run by politically affiliated members who are appointed by the executive. In addition, there are many drawbacks for philanthropy to influence public policy meaningfully in Zimbabwe because of several reasons that include lack of trust between non state actors and the government, little resources committed by philanthropy in the sector, lack of access to official data by non-state actors that makes it difficult for them to offer informed policy advice to the government and lack of responsiveness by government to implement or adopt some policies from philanthropy.
4.3. Economic Growth
There has been looming recession since the COVID-19 era that is anticipated by many nations that had led to reduced philanthropy money. There are few philanthropies that are focusing on economic growth in Zimbabwe because of challenging economic meltdown, hyperinflation and constant policy changes. The economy of Zimbabwe is interlinked to politics. There is also a big debate on land rights and private property that makes many philanthropies to shun economic growth initiatives linked to contested land.
In addition, most technical expertise from philanthropy was rendered to the state to improve public financial management and macro-economic issues. There are philanthropic organisations that are providing technical expertise to the government to transform the public financial management systems, strengthen the state enterprises to become stable and profitable, stabilisation of exchange rate, track macro-economic trends and debt management. The philanthropy helped the government of Zimbabwe to build capacity of weaker state institutions for them to manage public resources in an effective way, manage the public debt and create policies that advocate for transparency and accountability in public institutions. Some examples of policies that were passed due to philanthropy and government engagements include amendment of public financial management act, development of public financial management strategy, development of national development strategy of 2020-2025, amendment of debt management policy, amendment to procurement policies and state enterprise reforms.
Some genuine philanthropies have influenced policies that opened the export market for special economic zones that are benefitting the country to get foreign currency. The philanthropy developed alternative legislation that was adopted by government to govern public enterprises that were poorly managed and acting as milking cows for politicians. There has been an improvement in the running of these public institutions although there is room for improvement. Furthermore, some philanthropies are involved in development of innovations in the manufacturing and agriculture industry that are bringing new technology, legislations that guides cryptocurrencies, online buying, providing finances that is helping private sector growth and initiating public private enterprises that are developing infrastructure in the country that include roads, airports and clinics. Most of these initiatives are still developing.
Although most of the efforts are moving slowly because of constant change of monetary and fiscal policies and political influence in this sector. The key informants indicated that there are local philanthropic organisations that are aligned to elites that are benefitting from the economic crisis, that are manipulating and weakening government system for them to get better deals. The genuine philanthropy is left hanging since they are working with weaker institutions and if they call out the wrong doings or shoddy deals that elite aligned philanthropy is doing, they are threatened by political utterances or passive resistance that affect their operations.
4.4. Transparency Use of Funds
Most genuine philanthropy advocate for transparency use of money for both government and philanthropy. European Council has been calling all countries to fight terrorism, cross-border crime, improving cooperation and information-sharing and further developing common instruments. This has been the case also for African Union and Southern Africa Development Community. In the bid to protect money laundering and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regulations some countries are stifling the work of philanthropy as indicated under background.
The good news is that governments and philanthropy are on the same page that they need transparency use of funds. This influenced the government of Zimbabwe to start a new system called Devpromise that captures all the resources that are getting in the country from all sources including philanthropy. The system was launched between 2022-2023 which is a right move on transparency and is updated quarterly by philanthropic organisations. This enables non state actors to advocate for open budget policies and public expenditure tracking without fear since the government is supporting transparency of resources. Transparency of resources include putting all government tenders on the procurement regulatory authority website for everyone to know the amount and companies that are getting government tenders.
Philanthropy is also advocating for the government to publish public debt that the country has. There has been responsiveness from the public debt office, the public debts reports are now being published quarterly. There has been some improvement on public expenditure tracking and financial reporting by government institutions because of development and adoption of public finance act and strategy that was co-created by philanthropy and government. The strategy is yet to be fully implemented but the policy implementation has started to yield positive results. The same policy has contributed to open budgeting in the country and Zimbabwe has improved its score on open budgeting from 2019 to 2021. In 2021 Zimbabwe scored third in African and 57/100 according to International Budget Partnership (2022). A transparency score of 61 or above showed that a country is open for informed public debate on the budget and the components included were pre budget statements, executive budget proposal, enacted budget, citizens budgets, in year reports midyear reviews, end of year report and audit report. Social accountability tools such as social audits and public expenditure tracking systems can be used by CSOs to ensure transparency and accountability is tracked at both local and national level. The government can strengthen the responsibilities of the Auditor General, Accountant General and Parliament Public Accounts Committee to enforce the usage of both horizontal and vertical accountability systems. This can facilitate the line ministries to adopt and implement the recommendations given by the auditor general every year.
4.5. Climate Change and Conservation
The philanthropy in climate change is growing due to side effects of climate change on ordinary people. The regions in Zimbabwe are getting drier because of climate change. The government of Zimbabwe has adopted the climate change policy that has been on hold for almost a decade. This is a positive signal that shows that the government is taking climate change issues seriously. The Philanthropy is working with the government to advocate for removal of import duties on some technology and assets that promote climate change initiatives such as climate smart agriculture, solar equipment for smart fuel. The philanthropy is also providing funding for innovation, research in the area and travelling of stakeholders to global summits like COP 28 and 29. The philanthropy is also facilitating government of Zimbabwe to improve on accountability of mineral resources by joining some platforms such as Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI).
However, there are barriers that are faced by philanthropy to influence climate change policies. The main one being the historical reliance on coal as one of the main sources of power that is cheaper. It is proving difficult for the government to move away from coal while most people and the government cannot afford the clean energy alternatives. Therefore, advocating for zero use of coal, deforestation and use of fuel is still lagging. Philanthropy in this area is focusing more on awareness campaigns for communities and policy makers to understand climate change issues while little is being done to change policies and implement the initiatives at a larger scale.
Conservation is another area of concern for philanthropy where small-scale miners are degrading the land and large corporates mainly from China are given land to mine without going through environmental socio impact assessments. Some corporates started mining in national parks and displacing people without giving them decent compensation. There have been several litigation cases on displacements that have been filed and had mixed judgements. The environment makes it hard for philanthropy to make meaningful contribution in this sector although there are some engagements at international level on how the situation can be improved. Zimbabwe is known for not following some international policies such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) where the country continues to sell the elephant horns using parallel routes. There are several reports that have been produced that shows how Zimbabwe is using illegal routes to sell its minerals which shows nonadherence to international practices and local policies. Moreso, there have been growing allegations that politically favoured people are the ones getting tenders for solar farms and there are not delivering services while they were paid inflated figures.
5. Recommendations for Philanthropy and Government on Public Policy
There is need for philanthropy and government to work in harmony to have public policies that are inclusive, equitable and for public good. Both players focus on promoting sustainable development for people be it at local, national, and global level. Public policy plays a critical role of creating an inclusive environment for marginalised groups that are people with disabilities, poor, elderly and children. This paper, therefore, proffer some recommendations for philanthropy and government to co-exist in the public policy realm.
The government should create an enabling environment for philanthropy to operate freely especially for their staff members that might need legal permits to operate across the borders. Many local organisations are failing to convince their international foundations to be responsive to contextual issues that affect public policy because the international foundations staff are failing to get legal permits to stay longer periods in countries, they are donating funds to. If they are given legal stay, they can influence public policy with an informed contextual background. This might even benefit policy makers since the technical and financial resources from philanthropy can be correctly targeted.
In addition, the government should remove some tax barriers to cross-border philanthropy that enable public policy implementation such as Africa Free Continental Trade and special exemption for donated goods that are for public good. An example that was given by a key informant is of drugs, books or assets donated to local civil society organisations or to government that are meant to be duty free take forever at the borders undergoing tedious clearance process. Some key informants highlighted that there were some donated drugs that expired at the Zimbabwe revenue authority boarder warehouses because of tax barriers issues. There is need for these issues to be resolved amicably for improved public policy implementation.
Philanthropy and governments should collaborate to create opportunities for greater learning and impact. Both philanthropy and government have experiences to share, and the learning process can have good impact on public policies. Therefore, frank collaborations are encouraged this can be availing of government data that is critical for decision making. In many African countries especially Zimbabwe there is scarcity of official data that makes it hard for philanthropy to offer relevant advice to governments.
Also, philanthropy should collaborate on their own for them not to give mixed messages on public policy to the government. This makes it harder for government to respond to some contradictory demands.
Furthermore, the government and philanthropy should have platforms where they discuss their priorities, disclose their resource envelopes, and highlight the barriers that each party is facing for these to be resolved faster. These platforms are very important as they build trust between the two parties and create conducive environment for public policy. The Philanthropy and government should both invest on demand side where citizens are empowered with right information for them to demand services or accountability from duty bearers. At the same time both parties should build capacity for state or duty bearers to respond to citizens’ needs. When the demand and supply sides are well equipped public policy discourse becomes easier because all the parties will be involved at all stages of the policy cycle. This will create room for monitoring of the implementation of policies by both parties leading to sustainable development.
Lastly, philanthropy and government should not end their engagements on producing and adopting policies. Public policy discourse is an evolving process that includes implementation, monitoring of the implementation and refining the policy. It is advisable for both parties to go beyond having blueprints or white papers in shelves while there is no implementation of these policies. It is critical for both parties to complement each other’s efforts by investing in implementation of progressive laws for them to benefit ordinary people or improve people’s lives.
6. Further Research
The area for further research can be on assessing the relationship between shrinking space and public policy since shrinking of space has been mentioned at various fora by academics and practitioners in many African countries such as Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.
7. Conclusion
The paper concludes that philanthropy has played a crucial role in influencing public policies globally and in Zimbabwe. The paper concluded that to a greater extent, genuine philanthropy has improved public policy in social sectors, open societies and democracy, economic growth, transparency use of funds and climate change and conservation. There are many positive policies that have been developed and adopted in Zimbabwe in the above-mentioned sectors. The paper also noted that there is emergence of philanthropic organisations that are encouraging bad initiatives such as money laundering and extremism. These bad organisations should be curbed by both philanthropy and governments. Governments are urged not to restrict all philanthropic organisations because of the bad ones that have emerged or to paint all philanthropy with the same brush. There are areas of improvement that both philanthropy and governments must consider to be effective players in public policy arena. The goal for both is to provide public good to citizens, therefore stronger collaboration is crucial.