Policy Briefs

This is the last paper in a series on the question of philanthropy and development in Uganda and beyond. This paper focuses on the shadow side of philanthropy. The paper analyses some of the areas practitioners in the philanthropy sector should apply their minds to and avoid in the journey of building a progressive philanthropy ecosystem that works to serve the aspirations of those who give with good-will and those who receive the goodwill gestures.

This paper focuses on exploring the issues around the mindsets (and orthodoxies) that inform philanthropy and giving. A mindset has been defined by scholars as a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself.

The statement above was part of a ‘path-breaking’ communique of the Global Partnership for Development Cooperation (GPEDC). For the first time in decades of discussing aid and development, the word philanthropy was being used in an official international aid policy document.

This paper is exploratory in nature but with a firm solution-focused bias. This is to ensure that development practitioners in civil society and the philanthropic community can find value and efficacy in the policy proposals that emerge from such a paper.

This is a ‘Sense-making’ Paper on the meaning and practice of philanthropy in Uganda. It is the first paper in a series of five Policy Positions Papers that will be produced as part of the policy knowledge products for the Giving for Change Alliance Programme (in Uganda Philanthropy for Development). Giving for Change Alliance Programme is a Multi-Annual Program for the period 2021-2025.