Barry Smith, Senior Institutional Strategy Advisor, 16 November 2018

This week marks the launch of the STAR Ghana Foundation. Building on the work of the donor-funded STAR-Ghana Programme, the Foundation is a Ghanaian-owned and led national centre for active citizenship, civil society and philanthropy.

As we celebrate the launch of the STAR Ghana Foundation, we should pause to reflect on its remarkable journey towards independence. The STAR-Ghana Programme is already well regarded in Ghanaian development circles as a high-performing donor grant-making facility. Established in 2011, the Programme works to advance transformative, inclusive social change by strengthening civil society, accountability and active citizenship. Its core donors are the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the European Union and Danida (Danish Development Cooperation).

The STAR-Ghana Programme has been managed by a Ghanaian-led Steering Committee and Programme Management Team in partnership with an international consortium led by Christian Aid with Social Development Direct, Humentum, the Overseas Development Institute, and Nkum Associates. STAR-Ghana builds on successful predecessor programmes, including the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme (G-RAP), 2005-2011; Kasa, 2008-2010; the Rights and Voice Initiative (RAVI), 2004-2010; and the Civil Society Governance Fund (CSGF), 2004-2010.

The STAR-Ghana Programme has established an impressive record of achievement and delivery.  In its first phase (2011-2015), it delivered a strategic grant-making programme that worked with a wide range of civil society organisations and with Ghana’s Parliament. An end-of-programme assessment by funders gave STAR-Ghana a score of ‘A+’. In the current phase of the Programme (2015-2020), STAR-Ghana was again rated ‘A+’ in the 2017 donor review.

Much of this success derives from the Programme’s low-profile approach as an ‘honest broker’ of dialogue, relationships and resources that has put the spotlight on civil society partners. However, the time is now right to shine a light on the bold efforts to create a sustainable national foundation to advance the STAR-Ghana mission.

In recent years, there has been considerable growth among indigenous African civil society institutions working on issues of transparency, accountability and social justice. At the same time, there has been a slow but steady expansion among indigenous African grant-makers, foundations and philanthropy support organisations. This development of civil society and philanthropy infrastructure reflects the widespread aspiration to develop home-grown solutions to African development and governance issues. At the same time, many of Africa’s civil society development institutions remain dependent on international donors. In West Africa, the civil society sector is extensive, but indigenous social change grant-makers, foundations and philanthropic organisations are thin on the ground.

In this context, the launch of the STAR Ghana Foundation is a landmark event. At the end of Phase 1 of the Programme, its locally-led Steering Committee and Funders Committee (representing its core donors) engaged in a reflection, lesson-learning and design process to shape the next phase of the Programme. The process involved consultations with partners and stakeholders, as well as learning journeys to organisations in the Global South that have transitioned, with donor support, into a nationally-owned trust or foundation (including the Foundation for Civil Society in Tanzania and the Manusher Jonno Foundation in Bangladesh).  This reflection process found strong evidence of leadership gaps, opportunities and challenges that the STAR Ghana Foundation is well-placed to address, particularly:

• The necessity to look ‘beyond aid’ and move away from over-dependence on waning official development assistance by establishing locally-owned institutional platforms that can mobilise new domestic and international resources to sustain citizen-based social change initiatives;
• The opportunity to nurture a robust, more resilient civil society and citizen sector, providing strategic and pro-active support that includes but goes beyond grant-making;
• The need to put gender equality and social inclusion firmly on Ghana’s policy agenda, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the ‘Leave No One Behind’ agenda;
• The opportunity presented by Ghana’s economic and democratic gains to grow local resource mobilisation and private philanthropic support for active citizenship work;
• The challenge to build a stronger enabling environment (legislative, tax and policy) for civil society, active citizenship and philanthropy;
• The need to shift civil society mind sets and catalyse collective action around partnerships, resource mobilisation and sustainability;
• The opportunity to forge new forms of multi-stakeholder collaboration around salient social change issues that can capture the energy and imagination of citizens.

Inspired by these findings, the design framework for Phase 2 of the STAR-Ghana Programme proposed the incubation of a new, independent national entity. The design document was successful in mobilising a substantial further five-year funding commitment from core donors. Central to the vision for this phase of the STAR-Ghana Programme are two innovative refinements of its mission:

• • The 3C’s and Learning approach (3C&L) – the Convenor, Catalyst, Coordinator and Learning mantra encapsulating the dynamic, value-added role beyond grant-making that defines the new STAR Ghana Foundation;
  • A commitment to put Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) at the heart of everything the Foundation does.
  Since the commencement of the STAR-Ghana Programme (Phase 2) in October 2015, there has been a systematic investment of time and effort to lay the groundwork for the launch of an independent STAR Ghana Foundation, in tandem with a vibrant civil society grants and partnerships initiative (focused the critical themes like inclusive elections, gender and inclusion, media for development, anti-corruption and local governance). Consistent with its commitment to transparency and ‘co-creation,’ the Steering Committee undertook a comprehensive series of national stakeholder consultations. The aim was to solicit the views of diverse stakeholders on the nature and design of an independent national STAR-Ghana entity, ensuring buy-in and broad national ownership of that entity. About 700 leaders and activists were directly consulted (with an additional 1,500 indirectly canvassed) about various institutional models that had already been painstakingly developed by the Steering Committee, in collaboration with the local Programme Management Team, the international STAR-Ghana Consortium and funders. Significantly, the consultation was not confined to historic partners (‘the usual suspects’). It reached out to a wider range of actors from civil society, government, business, academia and the world of social entrepreneurship.A strong consensus emerged from these consultations endorsing the establishment of an independent STAR Ghana Foundation as a national centre for active citizenship, civil society and philanthropy. A wide majority of civil society stakeholders consulted recognise that the STAR-Ghana Programme had already become much more than just a strategic grant-making facility. There is a broad consensus about the relevance of the 3C&L mission. Stakeholders have confirmed that the Foundation’s vision, mission and programme will fill critical gaps in Ghana’s civil society space, adding value to the work of civil society organisations (CSOs). Civil society stakeholders welcome the Foundation’s mission-driven commitment to grow the resource base for CSOs and to strengthen social change philanthropy in Ghana. As a result, the Foundation is perceived by CSO leaders more as an ally than as a competitor.Concurrently, the STAR-Ghana Programme has pioneered an ‘embedded’ political economy analysis (PEA) approach that generates a continuous analysis of the fast-changing Ghanaian context. It has also nurtured and convened ‘communities of practice and learning’ with partners and stakeholders to harvest learning from the programme and apply them in the spirit of ‘adaptive programming.’ Intensive efforts have been devoted to the development of the policies, strategies, systems, human resources and governance structures required to deliver an effective national Foundation. In October 2018, a new Governing Council for the Foundation was appointed through a rigorous and open process.What are some of the most striking lessons from the STAR Ghana Foundation’s journey thus far?
  • To play an enhanced role as an honest broker, a trusted convenor and a ‘driver of change,’ the STAR-Ghana Programme needs an independent institutional platform that can provide high quality local leadership, capacity and support beyond the life of current donor funding;
  • The considerable investment of time in institutional modelling and stakeholder dialogue has paid dividends in trust-building, legitimation and a more resilient design for the new Foundation (the aspiration of ‘co-creation’ has proved to be possible);
  • The time is right for a larger vision of citizen-driven development and change, that transcends the ‘NGOism’ of the past;
  • On-going contextual analysis and consultations have confirmed that that the STAR Ghana Foundation is uniquely well positioned to deliver on its 3C&L mission – and Ghanaians are ready to welcome this new national institution with its innovative approach;
  • Complex North-South partnerships (like the collaboration between the STAR-Ghana Steering Committee, the Programme Management Committee, Consortium and core donors) can work very effectively to effect institutional transformation – and a shift of power to the South – if based on shared values, common purpose, ‘smart’ deployment of complementary skills and resources, and systematic trust-building;
  • The pursuit of sustainable income streams for the Foundation and civil society more widely, that tap into the considerable resources of Ghana’s growing economy, remains the biggest challenge for the future;
  • Stakeholder dialogue confirms that the Foundation’s chances for success in its sustainability goals are directly linked to its collaborative leadership role in strengthening the enabling environment for active citizenship and philanthropy in Ghana.
  Without doubt, the emergence of the STAR Ghana Foundation is a major change in the landscape for active citizenship, civil society and philanthropy in Ghana and Africa as a whole. It has become an urgent priority to share and celebrate that story widely, moving the Foundation’s profile up several notches and making common cause with peer institutions and networks that are transforming the space for citizen-driven change across the continent.