Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation Off-print of the DAC Journal 2003, Volume 4, No. 3 www.oecd.org Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation Off-Print of the DAC Journal 2003, Volume 4, No. 3 Development Assistance Committee ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came into force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shall promote policies designed: – to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy; – to contribute to sound economic expansion in member as well as non-member countries in the process of economic development; and – to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations. The original member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following countries became members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan (28th April 1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973), Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland (22nd November 1996), Korea (12th December 1996) and the Slovak Republic (14th December 2000). The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECD Convention). In order to achieve its aims the OECD has set up a number of specialised committees. One of these is the Development Assistance Committee, whose members have agreed to secure an expansion of aggregate volume of resources made available to developing countries and to improve their effectiveness. To this end, members periodically review together both the amount and the nature of their contributions to aid programmes, bilateral and multilateral, and consult each other on all other relevant aspects of their development assistance policies. The members of the Development Assistance Committee are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Commission of the European Communities. Publié en français sous le titre : FONDATIONS PHILANTHROPIQUES ET COOPÉRATION POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT © OECD 2003 Permission to reproduce a portion of this work for non-commercial purposes or classroom use should be obtained through the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC), 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France, tel. (33-1) 44 07 47 70, fax (33-1) 46 34 67 19, for every country except the United States. In the United States permission should be obtained through the Copyright Clearance Center, Customer Service, (508)750-8400, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA, or CCC Online: www.copyright.com. All other applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this book should be made to OECD Publications, 2, rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France. Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation Abstract. Philanthropic foundations have made important contributions to development, particularly in agriculture, family planning and infectious diseases control. The most effective interventions have been long-term investments that were based on vision and sound scientific understanding, and were well integrated with local capacities. Foundations’ total expenditure on developmental activities is now about $3 billion annually, mostly from large U.S. foundations. Foundations are increasingly involved in public-private partnerships whose activities range from crop and disease research to improving insfrastructure, especially water supply. They have also evolved innovative approaches to building democratic life in developing countries. Better information exchange with official aid agencies and appropriate fiscal encouragement of their activity can help maximise foundations’ future development contributions. Acknowledgements: This study was prepared by Simon Scott of the Statistics and Monitoring Division, Development Co-operation Directorate, with the assistance of consultants Carol Adelman, Ronen Sebag and Carlos Asenjo Ruiz. The authors wish to thank the persons interviewed for this study, as well as the many foundation staff and government and OECD officials who contributed to its production. Any comments or queries should be addressed to <[email protected]>. © OECD 2003 3 Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation FOREWORD In recent years, several OECD countries have been paying increasing attention to the contribution that private actors can make to development co-operation. To help advance this thinking, the Government of Spain made a special grant to the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) to fund a study of the role of philanthropic foundations in development efforts. It was prepared by Simon Scott, a senior DCD official, with the assistance of consultants from Spain and the United States. Specifically, the study aims to: x Inform bilateral aid agencies about the origin and nature of philanthropic foundations active in development x Outline major current activities of such foundations in the development field, including those being supported through public-private partnerships x Suggest means of enhancing communication between foundations and official aid agencies so as to improve development results. The study consists of a policy-oriented analysis of past and present foundation activities in development and includes four commissioned annexes which give detailed background information and data on current projects. Since there is relatively little current literature dealing with foundations’ development work, we have decided to issue this study both in the DAC Journal series, and as a separate offprint. Beyond its initial audience in aid agencies, I hope the study will be of interest both to scholars and to the general reader interested in development. I thank the Government of Spain for making the study possible. Michael Roeskau Director, Development Co-operation Directorate OECD © OECD 2003 5 Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD................................................................................................................................. 5 OVERVIEW.................................................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 1 THE FOUNDATION WORLD ........................................................................... 11 Why examine private foundations’ development work? ......................................................... 11 The philanthropic impulse .......................................................................................................12 Historical forms of philanthropy.............................................................................................. 14 Types of foundation ................................................................................................................. 16 The life cycle of a foundation ..................................................................................................17 CHAPTER 2 IMPORTANT FOUNDATION CONTRIBUTIONS TO DEVELOPMENT...... 19 The Green Revolution.............................................................................................................. 19 Population activities................................................................................................................. 23 Infectious diseases control ....................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 3 THE SCOPE OF CURRENT FOUNDATION ACTIVITY IN DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION ................................................................. 29 The scale of foundations’ development work.......................................................................... 29 Main sectors of activity............................................................................................................ 30 Why are US foundations pre-eminent?.................................................................................... 30 Foundations in Europe ............................................................................................................. 32 Foundations in Japan................................................................................................................ 35 Foundations in other Asian countries ...................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 4 FOUNDATION INNOVATIONS IN DEVELOPMENT.................................... 37 Funding and organisational innovations .................................................................................. 37 New areas of intervention .......................................................................................................