The Role of Private Actors in Africa’s Aid Landscape: Country Case Uganda

Project Context

Private donors are playing an increasingly significant role in international development. Foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation or the Rockefeller Foundation are increasingly becoming involved as they continue to give and expand the range of activities in the developing world. The same is true for new types of venture philanthropies. In addition, companies are expanding their corporate social responsibility activities, channeling additional resources into development projects.

The World Bank, in partnership with the Government of Norway and the W.F.Kellogg Foundation, has launched a large-scale study analyzing the role of these private donors in international development, with a specific focus on Sub-Sahara Africa. In terms of its analytical focus, the study seeks to accomplish two objectives: first, to obtain a better understanding of the strategic and charitable philanthropy of these private donors in Sub-Sahara Africa and how these efforts are positioned within the aid landscape; and second, to arrive at a better understanding of operating models and intervention designs that private donors utilize to increase the impact and sustainability of their efforts. More specifically, the study will address how the motivation of private donors influences how they make decisions, how they operate their programs, and how they approach issues of sustainability including the working with in country partners (e.g. exit strategies). The study also seeks to identify opportunities and impediments to more support for Sub-Sahara Africa and/or the use of African based intermediaries in implementation. The study consists of both a “supply” mapping (an attempt to map private donor flows primarily from the EU and the US to Sub-Saharan Africa), as well as a series of country case studies.

Project Objectives

In partnership with GPPi, the World Bank is conducting the country case study on Uganda. The Uganda case study seeks to accomplish several objectives: first, to paint a macro picture in order to gain knowledge on the heterogeneity of this “group” of private donors active in Uganda. Second, to paint an operational picture linked to scale and sustainability in order to identify lessons learned and opportunities to improve the impact and sustainability of this group of actors within the aid landscape. And third, to understand the dynamics with the government and aid community and identifying opportunities or impediments for engagement with government and development partners.