Devex Newswire: Is Zimbabwe walking into a major foreign aid misstep?

Civil society groups in Zimbabwe are worried that government actions — specifically a proposal to place new restrictions on NGOs’ political activities — will turn off donors and potentially cause international aid to the country to dry up.

A consequential choice

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa could soon approve amendments to the Private Voluntary Organizations Act that would bar NGOs from engaging in political activity and open them up to penalties if they don’t comply. Further, the bill would give a newly established office the authority to collect registration fees from NGOs, writes Devex contributing reporter Daisy Jeremani.

“While one of the stated aims of the bill is to counter terrorism and money laundering in Zimbabwe, the restrictions contained therein will have a chilling effect on civil society organizations – particularly dissenting voices,” United Nations experts warned in a statement.

The enactment of the bill could also make life much harder for many Zimbabweans. Research has shown that NGOs in Zimbabwe have been critical to bridging huge financing gaps in sectors such as social protection, education, health, water, and sanitation. NGOs are also the third biggest earners of foreign currency in the country.

“The domino effect across the economy is going to be huge,” says Effie Ncube, an independent political analyst.

The proposed restrictions, which many view as an attempt to prevent NGOs from holding the government accountable, would have the additional effect of confirming Zimbabwe as a “pariah state that is responsible for unspeakable human rights violations and a denier of democratic freedoms,” Ncube says.

When Russia’s war in Ukraine caused global food prices to skyrocket last year, the United States pulled $282 million from an obscure trust funded by the farm bill to handle “unanticipated food crises abroad.” The trust receives about $20 million in annual funding — and is now depleted. It’s up to the U.S. Congress to decide how to replenish it as part of negotiations for the farm bill, which covers U.S. foreign food aid and is up for reauthorization this year.

NGOs lobbying Congress to support food assistance programs authorized by the bill are floating several proposals for refilling the coffers and making changes to the trust, which is known as the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, or BEHT.

Humanitarian organization Mercy Corps said it would like to see BEHT’s annual replenishment increased to closer to $40 million and have the trust granted the authority to release funds in smaller increments of $50 million or $100 million once a looming crisis becomes obvious, rather than being drawn down hundreds of millions of dollars at times of widespread emergency, my colleague Teresa Welsh writes.

“The current way that BEHT is being used is … like showing up to a house on fire with a garden hose. BEHT is being used as your last-ditch effort to combat global food insecurity. But the house is already on fire,” says Barrett Alexander, Mercy Corps’ director of policy and advocacy.

If the shoe doesn’t fit …

It’s time to drop the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach that will help all of Africa reduce emissions from livestock production systems, livestock expert Appolinaire Djikeng writes in an op-ed for Devex.

Homogenous approaches to reducing animal agricultural emissions in Africa are a poor fit for the continent given the diversity of its livestock sector, argues Djikeng, who serves as director general of the International Livestock Research Institute and a senior official at CGIAR. Instead, there must be more long-term investment in research and innovation that will allow Africa to meet climate goals while also accounting for regional and production differences. Still, he admits it could take more than a decade for Africa to transition to climate-smart solutions.

Opinion: Tailor climate-smart livestock solutions to African context

+ Be on the lookout for more news about how global leaders and researchers are seeking to increase investments in climate-focused food and agriculture innovations from Teresa, who is attending the AIM for Climate Summit in Washington, D.C., this week.

Career opportunities

This won’t solve the climate finance shortage, but it’s a start. The Catalytic Climate Finance Facility — backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, and Australia — launched Tuesday and is seeking to throw money at solutions-oriented projects focused on climate adaptation for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Right now, there’s just $12 million in available funding, but the hope is to get that figure up to $100 million.

According to Convergence, a group focused on blended finance, the goal is “to create [an] investible deal pipeline for mainstream investors by supporting concepts at the acceleration stage.” The deadline for applications is June 9.

As we reported last year, blended finance for climate projects has declined by 60%, as public sector capital has not really managed to galvanize private sector investment. And just this week, Charles Kenny of the Center for Global Development wrote about the massive, insurmountable hurdles for African nations to attract private capital for solar projects.

More foundations are seeking to get rid of traditional grant data reporting requirements that nonprofits have complained are onerous and time-consuming. Some foundations are turning to younger donors and grantees to help them do it.

The ways foundations have traditionally required grantees to collect data often feel like “someone looking over your shoulder,” according to Don Chen, president of the Surdna Foundation.

The Surdna Foundation — a funder of social justice and other groups in the U.S. — is moving away from “what we conventionally call monitoring, evaluation, reporting,” which typically required grantees to submit lengthy reports, Chen said Tuesday during a Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors webinar on giving in ways that center communities. Now the foundation is “co-designing” data collection work with community organizers and others also interested in examining the impact of grant funding, so that “we’re all exploring the same types of questions together,” he said.

Younger people entering the grantmaking space are also part of the push for less burdensome reporting processes, said Angelique Power, who heads Detroit’s Skillman Foundation, where a youth council of Gen Zers helps make grantmaking decisions. In terms of reporting, the council has suggested that grantees post on social media.

Looking for more information about these topics? Be sure to check out my recent reporting on power sharing between donors and grantees and how the next generation of givers might revolutionize philanthropy.

+ Access all our exclusive reporting and analysis by starting your 15-day free trial of Devex Pro today.

Environmentalists raised concerns as organizers of this year’s U.N. climate summit hired lobbyist David Canzini, who previously opposed a windfall tax on oil and gas companies. [Financial Times]

The U.N. reported that some of their female employees in Afghanistan have been harassed and detained by the Taliban since the recent ban was put in place. [PBS]

Canada is committing to resettle at least 40,000 Afghans by the end of 2023, making its Afghan resettlement program one of the largest in the world. [VOA]

Shabtai Gold contributed to this edition of the Newswire.