Dear Mark,
Congratulations on publishing your first Annual Letter. It provides an important insight into the way you, your new board, and your team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are viewing the world and the challenges we face. As your letter demonstrates, the COVID-19 pandemic has been THE story your first two years as CEO. In your letter, you comment, “Above all, we have focused our resources on making sure support reaches marginalized communities as quickly and effectively as possible.”
As the Movement for Community-led Development, a civil society initiative that comprises 70+ INGOs and 1500+ community-based organizations, we prefer to ask how communities can access the support they need for lives of self-reliance and dignity. This Movement takes very seriously the Talisman left by Mahatma Gandhi – that we should imagine the face of the poorest person we’ve ever seen and ask whether the action we contemplate will restore that person to control over her own life and destiny. We believe that shifting resources and decision-making authority to grassroots communities, restoring control to the people living in hunger and poverty, is the best, and perhaps only, pathway to achieving the SDGs.
This Talisman is the very essence of the “decolonization” and localization agendas that today are at the forefront of global development. It is the heart of a broad #ShiftThePower movement.
We’ve witnessed the importance of that transformation. As “outsiders” were pulled out of impoverished villages during lockdowns, community leaders stepped forward to protect their neighbors.
Community leaders – and most especially women leaders – translated World Health Organization messages into indigenous languages, spreading them with bullhorns and WhatsApp groups. They’ve turned locked down schools into isolation wards, mobilized community philanthropy to feed those whose livelihoods were devastated, and used the trust their neighbors place in them to fight disinformation and promote vaccination. Their leadership has been a critical lifeline for thousands of people worldwide.
BMGF has had a remarkable impact, and we would never for a moment suggest that the Foundation stop funding vital top-level institutions such as GAVI and the Africa CDC, or funding scientific Grand Challenges. In addition to that vital work, we challenge the Foundation to also find ways to support communities to access what they need for lives of self-reliance and dignity.
To start, we have four core questions that The Foundation could invest in, which we believe would yield tremendous dividends for society:
- How can the vast array of community-based organizations in low-income countries – particularly women’s organizations – fund themselves? Currently less than 2% of the OECD aid tagged for “gender” goes to grassroots women’s organizations.
- How can we encourage governments to devolve a fair-share of public resources – at least 20% – to local communities?
- How can we best ensure that women, youth and marginalized groups have a voice in local governance?
- Given that resilience is inherently a community-level attribute and that community leaders are ALWAYS the first responders, how can we ensure a fair share of climate funding supports local communities to strengthen their capacity to adapt to and mitigate climate change?
Finally, given the commitment of The Foundation to measure its work in “opportunities provided for the poorest and most marginalized to achieve their full potential,” we believe that it is crucial that employees at BMGF have the opportunity to hear directly from people living in these communities. As such, we invite the Gates Foundation to join the Movement for Community-led Development! Hundreds of community leaders and practitioners have embraced the Movement for Community-led Development as a platform for accessing accurate information, expressing their collective voice with their own governments and mobilizing collective action. As a member of this Movement, your expert staff could both contribute to and learn from community leaders worldwide.
Sincerely, (as of 7 February 2022)
A-Core Wing Foundation inc., Liberia
African Education Program, Zambia
African Women Service Trust (AWOST), Uganda
Afro Ethiopia Integrated Development (AEID), Ethiopia
Amani Initiative , Uganda
America Solidaria U.S., United States
Andatana Communitive Care and Empowerment Initiative (ACCEI), Nigeria
Another Chance Initiative, Kenya
Ashwasti EICT DRF, India
BetterHag, Uganda
Build Peace and Development, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Center for Caring, Empowerment and Peace Initiatives (CCEPI), Nigeria
Centre for Promotion of Love and Peace in Africa, Nigeria
ChildFund, Ethiopia
DMS Consulting, South Africa
Education Must Continue Initiative & Youth Empowerment (EMCI), Nigeria
Ethiopian Orthodx Tewahedo Church Child and Family Affairs Organization, Ethiopia
Family Harvest Foundation, Uganda
Fana Addis Tiwulid Ethiopia, Ethiopia
Food and Agricultural Rights Movement, Liberia
Grass Root Development Center for Peace and Social Justice, Nigeria
GRDCPSJ, Nigeria
Heifer international, Ethiopia
Hemtog Foundation, Uganda
HOBFU Organization,Rwanda
International Accountability Project (IAP), Brazil
Interweave Solutions, Liberia
Jauro Interfaith Shades Foundation (JISF), Nigeria
Knowledge and Awareness for All, Kenya
Lunga Development Association, Zambia
Mansofinia Agric Farmers’Organization (MAFO), Sierra Leone
MCLD Bénin Chapter
MCLD Liberia Chapter
MCLD Uganda Chapter
Mengo Youth Development Link ( MYDEL), Uganda
Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development, Uganda
Nakowa Legacy Empowerment Foundation(NLEF), Nigeria
Naza Agape foundation, Nigeria
New Beginnings Mission, Uganda
OAJ/EUA (NGO), Benin
OneVillage Partners, Sierra Leone
ONG D’APPUI AUX INITIATIVES LOCALES (ONG AIL), Togo
Our community Focus, Ghana
Outreach International, United States
Peace Direct, United States
Peer to peer, Uganda
Picture Impact, United States
Plateforme des Organisations de Jeunes pour le Développement Durable des Communautés (POJ-DDC), Benin
Polycom Development, Kenya
R. Walker Business Consulting, Philippines
Sahei Gender Development Initiative, Nigeria
Save the Climat, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Siddartha Development, Ethiopia
Smart Youth Network initiative, Uganda
SOS CIVISME, Central African Republic
Strategic Action for Community Development, Nigeria (SACDN), Nigeria
Support Agency for Intellectual Disabilities (SAID), Uganda
Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN), Uganda
TERSHA LLC, United States
The Great Abwao Community (TGAC) CBO, Kenya
The Hunger Project Bangladesh, Bangladesh
The Global Hunger Project, United States
The Hunger Project Sweden, Sweden
Touch the Heart, Uganda
Uganda National Farmers Federation(UNFFE), Uganda
Vulnerable and Abused Intervention Initiative (VAII), Nigeria
WEEMA International, United States
Welfare, Empowerment and Rehabilitation Organization, Afghanistan
White Ribbon Alliance, United States
Wilmat Development Foundation (WDF), Uganda
Women Solidarity and Development, Liberia
World Connect, United States
Young Agro-Green Africa Network (YAGANET), Uganda
Youth Empowerment and Human Development Initiative – NGO, Nigeria
Youth Service Africa (YSA), Benin
Featured photo: The Hunger Project–India