The Poor Philanthropist

The Poor Philanthropist

This monograph documents the results of a qualitative research inquiry into how and
why people who are poor help each other. A key objective of the inquiry was to
understand and describe how, in the context of poverty, philanthropic impulses and
behaviours are expressed and organised. Particular attention was paid to identifying the
actors involved, the nature of the assistance given and received and the motivations and
other factors driving people’s decisions to help each other or not. Supported by the Ford
Foundation, the study was conducted over a three-year period in four southern African
countries: Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Drawing on country reports and original data, the following pages detail comparative
findings across the research countries that are significant for understanding philanthropy
of community (PoC) – that is, relations of ‘help’ among and between the poor.
The importance and implications of PoC for the more conventional philanthropic
orthodoxy of ‘vertical’ resource transfers from rich to poor, exemplified in development
assistance, charity and philanthropy for community (PfC), are also explored.
The first part of the monograph sets up the framework used to guide the inquiry,
details the research approach, explains the methodology, describes key features of
poverty conditions in each country and examines how sample frames were developed
and customised. Part two presents the core research findings, concentrating on the
patterns of ‘help’ found and their interpretation. This analysis is used in two ways.
First, it is employed to contribute to current debates about the concepts and theories
used to explain why people collaborate rather than compete with each other. Second, in
Part three, analysis is directed towards informing opinion leaders and practitioners in
the field of philanthropy and development about the potential implications of PoC for
the paradigms and practices of organised philanthropy and social investment. The
monograph concludes with recommendations to funders and supporters that firmly
place PoC on the development map by looking to future scenarios for promoting
community philanthropy in southern Africa.
Throughout southern Africa, poverty is a major practical, moral and security problem.
Thirty-eight per cent of the population in Mozambique, 35 per cent in Namibia, 11 per
cent in South Africa and 56 per cent in Zimbabwe live below the poverty line of US$1
per day. The lack of understanding about the lived reality of some 20 million poor
people in terms of the assistance they give to and receive from each other is a major gap
in public and development policy and of philanthropic thinking itself. Recognition of
this was one reason for international foundations to invest in a study to illuminate how the ethos and daily, organic systems of ‘horizontal’ assistance actually function. Such
practices of self-help are for the most part overlooked, implying that the poor cannot be
‘philanthropists’. Or, they are overestimated and then exploited as the solution to
inadequate development performance. But typically, indigenous philanthropy falls below
the radar screen of many development approaches and contributions.