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IDENTIFYING RESOURCE MOBILISATION STRATEGIES THAT WORK IN AFRICA PASCHAL MBECHE 1st Deputy Governor, Kenya Red Cross SINO – Africa Conference August 2014 KEY THEMES THAT WE WILL COVER TODAY Breaking down the term “resource mobilisation” Trends & challenges facing resource mobilisation in Africa Use of 3 effective resource mobilisation strategies in Africa The Kenya Red cross Resource Mobilisation Model - A Lesson for Africa WHAT IS RESOURE MOBILISATION? •Enlisting all necessary resources, be they human, material or services, ready for action to achieve specific goals •Resource mobilisation means expansion of relations with the resource providers, and the skills, knowledge and capacity for proper use of resources •Not only money •Denotes the process that achieves the mission of the organisation through the mobilisation of knowledge for human use of skills, equipment, services etc. •Also includes seeking new sources of resource mobilisation as well as the correct and maximum use of available resources CURRENT TRENDS IN RESOURCE MOBILISATION IN AFRICA Donors Earmark their Support Donors Favour Africa •The African Region continues to receive significant donor attention •This is good news but does not mean that the resource mobilisation process gets any easier •There is need to look also at alternative sources of funding while continuing to strengthen the traditional sources Donors demand Accountability •Many donors choose to earmark their contributions to align with their national priorities for development aid and/or facilitate accountability •Donors are decentralizing their support. Analyses of donor funding trends clearly indicate that there is a distinct shift towards decentralization, bypassing global and in most cases also regional structures •The increased level of interaction at country level has also engendered a demand for increased accountability and more rigorous requirements on reporting on outcomes Donors demand Results •Donor agencies are increasingly under scrutiny from their own constituencies and have to justify international development strategies with taxpayers, internal pressure groups and civil society organizations •As a result there has been a significant increase in hands-on involvement and an emphasis on results and impact CHALLENGES OF RESOURCE MOBILISATION IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS IN AFRICA • 1 Lack of Information • 2 • Lack of Processes & SOPs • Not enough strategic and relevant information related to resource mobilisation flows within and beyond the local offices of African NGOs. Information relating to definitions, donor profiles, processes, application of PSC, funding opportunities, predictability of funding etc. needs to be readily available or easy to access. African NGOs need to standardize processes and operation procedures with respect to the mobilisation of resources. They require solid basic processes that will facilitate rather than hamper initiative and enhance efforts. 3 Lack of Incentives & Empowerment • Staff members require incentives to identify opportunities, design projects and articulate activities to donor audiences. They need to do so in a conducive environment that encourages both individual and team efforts. Insufficient Skills or Capacity • • Individuals need relevant skills and capacity to capture and optimize opportunities as they are presented to them. Training is not in itself an objective. It needs to be accompanied by support for applying newly acquired skills and capacity at the country level. 4 5 • Legal and Little Emphasis on shareholder existing or Interpersonal • influences Relations The value of existing relations and networks cannot be overemphasized. Studies have shown that a major motivation in the decision to commit funding is the relationship between the donor and the recipient. Efforts should be undertaken not only to build new relationships, but to nurture existing ones. 6 Donors are placing increasing importance on implementation, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of programmes, as well as documentation of impact. NGOs in its proposals, reports and through inter-personal communication highlight the mechanisms and systems it has in place to ensure accountability, transparency and cost-effectiveness. Legal andon Emphasis shareholder producing Results influences and M&E • • 5 NGOS CAN EFFECTIVELY USE 3 RESOURCE MOBILISATION STRATEGIES TO RUN THEIR PROGRAMS GRANTS & DONATIONS COST RECOVERY • Traditional philanthropy is here to stay but meeting donor conditions is becoming ever more stringent as western governments , foundations and international NGOs reduce their funding to African NGOs • By selling rather than giving away their services, NGOs can recover part or all of their costs, better allocate their services to those who truly value them, and enhance the self-esteem and commitment of participants • More and more NGOs are thus designing intervention strategies that incorporate cost recovery components through fees-for-services or various loan and credit arrangements • Staff must start thinking in business terms & have to learn specific business skills & concepts • Individual giving is largely untapped in Africa which now has its own fair share of millionaires. Leveraging your networks to approach these people is crucial • Use of technology for donations has also become increasingly popular in Africa particularly the use of phones COMMERCIAL VENTURES •The best NGOs are clearly as entrepreneurial as the best private companies, being able to make things happen and create something out of nothing •Like commercial marketers, these NGOs find underserved segments of the population and design products & services to meet the needs of those markets • KRCS has been particularly successful at diversifying their sources of funding & expanding into business ventures KRCS Corporate Partnerships Through Innovation In 2011 KRCS KRCS saw the potential of a campaign and partnered with mobile network provider Safaricom, mobile money transfer system M-Pesa, and the Kenyan bank KCB, to launch the Kenyans for Kenya drought initiative The campaign around was launched with a view to collect local resources to address the drought in the immediate term but a long term solution to the perennial drought being faced by them. The initiative raised a total of Ksh.1 Billion that is 700 million in cash and 300 million in kind (equivalent to USD11.2M or RMB 67.4M) Kenyans for Kenya flag off at Uhuru Park K4K food security projects executed in East Pokot, Walda (Moyale) and Turkana North Began in 2011 & still reproducing in 2014 Cleared land Irrigation Ready for planting Harvest Planting ongoing Ready for selling THE KENYA RED CROSS RESOURCE MOBILISATION MODEL : A LESSON FOR AFRICA 1/4 “We are aiming for sustainability but our immediate goal is to cover our core costs, which donors are reluctant to pay. That is why we are investing heavily in business ventures so that we generate enough profit to pay our operational costs at the end of every year.” Abbas Gullet, Secretary General Kenya Red Cross Society is the leading humanitarian organization in Kenya and is conscious of the fact that it must provide excellent services to the beneficiaries of our humanitarian response. For this to be realized, we need to be adequately prepared in terms of resources, the turn around time and ability to sustain our response effectively. Kenya Red Cross Society has successfully applied the Commercial Ventures model mentioned in the previous slides. Rather than continuing to rely on traditional philanthropy, we went against all known norms by investing in commercial ventures whose proceeds could be easily ploughed back in the humanitarian work of KRCS. THE KENYA RED CROSS RESOURCE MOBILISATION MODEL : A LESSON FOR AFRICA 2/4 Kenya Red Cross opened the Red Court Hotel, a three-star property in Nairobi offering accommodation and conference facilities, with profits going to fund KRCS humanitarian work. The hotel was a success, becoming popular with professionals involved in the humanitarian relief sector, and with business and leisure travellers of all kinds, thereby providing KRCS with a source of extra revenue. THE KENYA RED CROSS RESOURCE MOBILISATION MODEL : A LESSON FOR AFRICA 3/4 At The Boma Hotels in Nairobi, Nyeri and Eldoret, you become part of a circle of humanitarian values and social responsibility. All profits fund the Kenya Red Cross Society's Humanitarian activities. The Boma calls this inspiring concept “hospitality with a conscience.” THE KENYA RED CROSS RESOURCE MOBILISATION MODEL : A LESSON FOR AFRICA 4/4 Emergency Plus Medical Services is a company fully owned by the Kenya Red Cross Society, whose core business is the provision of advanced Pre-hospital emergency medical services. In its 3 years of existence, E-Plus has been providing pre-hospital medical care and transportation to patients with illnesses and injuries on a Commercial basis as well as under Corporate Social Responsibility. THE KRCS RESOURCE MOBILISATION MODEL: YOU CAN DO IT TOO! Learn more about business in general and about the specific businesses your NGO could undertake Read business journals, visit trade shows, surf the internet, collect brochures and advertisements from potential competitors, site out locations, take management courses ETC. Develop your contacts, especially in the business and academic world • Let them know of your plans to eventually get into business and encourage them to think of ways they might support you. • Remember that you must find opportunities because they rarely find you. Analyze your own consumer behaviour Talk up your plans with your donors. • Why does your NGO patronize certain suppliers and not others? • Learn to think about yourself and your NGO as members of market segments. •Lobby them to establish programs to promote commercial ventures for NGOs through grant funds for management training, hiring business consultants, and providing investment capital for NGOs to start their own businesses. PARTING NOTE: A CRITICAL ELEMENT “ A company’s trustworthiness, embodied in brand and reputation, is increasingly all that customers, employees and investors have to rely on. Alan Greenspan once said that “a company's value today may amount to its capitalised reputation”….All around us, we hear the question, Who can you trust? The more important question is, Who trusts you?” THANK YOU