The Get Ahead Foundation’s Don MacRobert bemoans the fact that most overseas development funding is going to the government rather than NGOs
FINDING the money to fund the government’s essential Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was a relatively easy task. Finding ways to ensure that people at grassroots level benefit directly from the programme is, however, proving to be a far more difficult task.
So, while we hear about the millions of rands set aside for various projects, millions of people are still waiting to see reconstruction taking place in front of their own eyes. In fact, political freedom hasn’t been translated into economic freedom.
Yet certain organisations those which have many years of experience in grassroots development have long since perfected efficient delivery methods.
The Get Ahead Foundation, for instance, prides itself on having carried out the aims and objectives of the RDP long before the policy was formalised and the abbreviation became entrenched in South African politics.
Since its establishment in 1987, Get Ahead has serviced tens of thousands of informal sector clients, providing them with the start-up loans and expansion capital to ensure the success of their ventures.
As South Africa’s unemployment crisis deepened, more and more people looked towards the informal sector as a means to earn a decent living and provide the essentials for their families. It is for this reason that the work of the foundation, through means of micro-loans based on the stokvel system, has become more and more crucial.
In answer to an increasing need, the scope of Get Ahead’s activities has increased year by year. Last year saw R10,7-million provided to almost 15 000 small entrepreneurs in micro-loans. Market research showed that this lending programme currently affects more than 24 000 South Africans.
Many years of hard work, trial and error have combined to enable the foundation to boast one of the most effective grassroots lending systems in the country a claim strengthened by the programme’s 95% repayment rate.
Get Ahead is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) an institution which has no political affiliations and which receives no government funding. During the apartheid years, these organisations were the ideal conduits for international funding and welfare bodies wishing to help disadvantaged South Africans. For this reason, many NGOs flourished and achieved sterling results.
The transition to a new, democratic government has given these foreign agencies another route by which to assist people, a route which they assume will be the most effective one.
As a result, most overseas funding has been channelled directly to the government and the RDP, at the expense of those organisations best equipped to put it to good use.
This is how the vicious circle of non-reconstruction has developed. NGOs have the expertise, but cannot put it to proper use without funding. Government has funding, but apparently lacks what it takes to turn it into practical assistance for those who need it most. In effect, everyone loses and it will not be long before ever more vigilant donor agencies start reacting negatively to the black hole into which their funds are falling.
Surely the answer is to create partnerships between organisations like the Get Ahead Foundation and the RDP? If progress cannot be made by government structures, those who are already capable of delivering should be empowered to do so.
If results continue to fail to materialise, the donor agencies and indeed the people themselves should demand that alternatives be sought. In many instances, these alternatives are to be found only a stone’s throw away in the offices of the Get Ahead Foundation and other NGOs.
Don MacRobert is the managing director of the Get Ahead Foundation