Heather Grady

The Palestinian intifada has brought about a new desire for economic independence among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Microenterprises dominate the economy and a number of NGOs are offering small-scale loans to this sector. This article describes an evaluation of Save the Children's revolving loan fund, which has been operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1986. Businesses have been disrupted by military disturbances and by the Gulf War in particular, and although the repayment rate for this programme has been the highest in the area, the programme is still some way from covering its costs and becoming self-sufficient. The article closes with recommendations for lowering the transaction costs per loan and for reaching a larger number of poorer business people.

The world is at a pivotal moment for global development cooperation. While many stakeholders are brought increasingly into international development processes, philanthropy stands apart, despite the scale, ambition and potential of philanthropy's contributions to international development.A range of issues and recommendations are raised in this report, commissioned by the United Nations Development Program. Philanthropy's contributions to international development should be better measured, and there is a need for a stronger emphasis on better data overall in terms of both measuring progress, and enabling a better understanding of the range of potential grantees working on development themes.This report was commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme as a background paper for the conference International Development Cooperation: Trends and Emerging Opportunities -- Perspectives of the New Actors in Istanbul, June 2014.Disclaimer: The views presented here are the...

This report marks the findings and recommendations RPA have so far in the process of encouraging funders to work in more collaborative ways to place longer-term, adaptive, and responsive resources with grantees and investees to accelerate scalable solutions that target systemic changes addressing pressing global problems. The input of dozens of funders, in addition to the perspectives of the organizations who receive grants and impact investments, was crucial in formulating the recommendations contained here

Realizing that the world's pressing challenges are becoming more complex, many philanthropic funders are reflecting on how to create more transformational impact.To help answer that question, the Scaling Solutions toward Shifting Systems initiative was launched in 2016 as an inquiry: Can we encourage collaborative, longer-term, adaptive resources to fund and accelerate scalable solutions targeting systemic changes around pressing global issues? Since then, the initiative's steering group and team, with representation from the Skoll, Ford and Draper Richards Kaplan Foundations, Porticus, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, has examined when, how, and why certain solutions were able to grow and achieve the system-level shifts that were anticipated

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) engaged Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) to develop a method to assess and report contributions toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for each of FCG's operational and grantmaking programs and areas of intervention. This document focuses on the output that resulted of the "Provided reporting framework to units" phase of the project

Philanthropy’s contributions to large development frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been growing worldwide. Philanthropy is interested in leveraging resources to achieve greater impact, influencing long-term development, as well as creating scalable solutions. However, despite good intent, philanthropy’s impact remains limited because of siloed approaches, lack of understanding of broader development eco-systems in countries, and lack of appreciation for collaboration. This research paper presents winning strategies for foundations which achieve scale through systems design and thinking, supporting local innovations, and collaboration. The paper builds on inputs from a global partnership initiative, SDG Philanthropy Platform, which aims to align philanthropic investments with the SDGs. The paper discusses practical approaches practiced by global foundations such as the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Ford Foundation, as well as national philanthrop...

BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 and now works in nine other countries with very impoverished populations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Philippines, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia. From its years of experience designing and implementing microfinance and other programs, BRAC gained the insight that a unique set of interventions is required to bring out of extreme poverty those who they, and now others, call the "ultra-poor": people living on half or less of a US $1.25-a-day poverty threshold. BRAC pioneered the approach in 2002 by combining social safety nets with support for income-generating, and named it the Graduation approach, or Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) program. Graduation programs complement small cash stipends and in-kind asset transfers with several other sequenced interventions including savings, training, social integration and health care services. Over the last decade the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the ...

A recognition of the fundamental links between the denial of rights and the persistence of poverty has propelled rights-based approaches into the policy and practice of many development NGOs, UN bodies and donors. In this volume, development practitioners with experience of applying a rights-based approach seek to identify its contribution to delivery and effectiveness. Addressing the range of development areas influenced by this approach, the volume spans development, humanitarian relief and conflict resolution. It also examines contemporary challenges to its implementation, including the politicization of aid and the 'war on terror', neo-liberal economic policies, and the clash between universal human rights standards and specific cultural norms. Reinventing Development? is a valuable pulling together of current field experience and contains reflections on the many issues raised by the new rights-based approach to development.

This report encourages philanthropic funders to work more collaboratively and provide longer-term, more adaptive resources with grantees and investees to help them scale their solutions and impact and achieve systems change. It summarizes a year of research with over two dozen non-profits and social enterprises, and identifies five recommendations for philanthropic funders to support them more effectively.

This report summarizes a year of research on how funders can work more collaboratively to place longer-term, more adaptive resources with organizations to help them scale their impact. It includes findings from case studies of 25 funder collaboratives aimed at systems change.

Philanthropy resists easy definition and categorization. That has made it difficult to track its contribution to specific development goals. But it need not impede philanthropy’s ascent into deep engagement with others in international development cooperation. Philanthropy, no matter where it originates, is driven by the imperative to meet human needs, alleviate suffering, and tackle the systemic challenges that prevent human development and progress. On one end of the spectrum it can be pathbreaking, supporting innovation, field building, first movers and fast movers - and at the other, it provides patient capital for long-term challenges that require painstaking efforts that go beyond political winds and shorter-term business interests. Philanthropy needs to leverage the larger resources and expertise of official development cooperation actors. And governments and the UN system need to leverage the insights, innovations and more nimble approaches of philanthropy and those organizations who the sector supports. Philanthropy reaches across borders and silos to create a better and safer world for all. The power of joining the forces of official development cooperation and philanthropy in the service of the new international, universal development goals will make a substantial difference. But this will require new mindsets, partnerships and forms of collaboration amongst the UN system, governments and the philanthropic sector alike. The challenge is worth surmounting for the leverage and greater impact it will bring.