21st Century Missionaries – trans-national NGOs in Africa
The African continent is awash with so-called non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which have their origins and bases in the former colonial powers as well as in the USA and Canada. In Kenya alone in 2016, there were some 12,000 foreign expatriates working for such NGOs. These trans-national NGOs, which number in their thousands across the continent, are active in all aspects of Africa’s social, economic and political life and represent a force aimed at undermining African independence and reinforcing Africa’s neo-colonial relationship with various big powers.
Some of the world's major trans-national NGOs which operate in Africa
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a 2013 publication noted that 8 trans-national NGOs, World Vision International, Oxfam International, Save the Children International, Plan International, Médecins Sans Frontières, CARE International, CARITAS International and ActionAid International, had a combined income of more than US$11.7 billion in 2011. This sum is greater than the World Bank estimates for the 2010 GDP of a large number of African countries, including Mozambique, Mali, Madagascar, Chad, Benin and Zimbabwe to name but a few. These 8 NGOs are all active in African countries, for example Oxfam operates in 32 countries on the continent, while there are others which are not on this list like Population Services International which operates in 28 countries in Africa. These organisations claim that, among other things, they are combating poverty, overcoming injustice, supporting family planning, empowering women and girls and carrying out a range of other activities that are, in reality, the responsibilities of the governments and peoples of the African countries themselves. In a 2002 article for the journal ‘International Affairs’, Firoze Manji and Carl O’Coill pointed out that in fact, the activities of the trans-national NGOs in Africa have expanded into more areas of African peoples’ lives, precisely as African governments were pressured to abandon their social responsibilities to their citizens under IMF Structural Adjustment Programmes and the neo-liberal economic dogma that the state should abandon its responsibilities for ensuring the well-being of its citizens. In this way, echoing the role of the missionaries in colonial Africa, these modern trans-national NGOs are part and parcel of the overall foreign intervention in Africa. Manji and O’Coill note that their activity is underpinned by the same racist narratives from the colonial era which presented Africans as ‘child-like sub-humans’ who needed the hand of the European colonialists to civilise them. The accuracy of this point is borne out by the fund raising propaganda of NGOs, such as Save The Children, which presents Africans in precisely this way. The authors of the article conclude that their activities “contribute marginally to the relief of poverty, but significantly to undermining the struggle of African people to emancipate themselves from economic, social and political oppression”.
"Another important aspect of these trans-national NGOs' activities is the way in which they have become more overtly integrated into the mechanisms which the big powers use to interfere in Africa".
Another important aspect of these trans-national NGOs activities is the way in which they have become more overtly integrated into the mechanisms which the big powers use to interfere in Africa. For example, many of them now receive a considerable proportion of their funding directly from the imperialist states. Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) states openly that these NGOs are central to its ‘aid delivery strategy’ and reported that in 2012, some 16% of its bilateral aid budget was actually delivered through them. Through mechanisms such as the Program Partnership Arrangements, the British government hands over significant sums of money to these organisations. For example, under its 2011-2016 Program Partnership Arrangement, the government handed over £361 million to these NGOs. Among major recipients of British government funding in 2015 were Population Services International £48 million, Plan International £30 million, Oxfam £25 million, Christian Aid £21 million, Care International £19 million and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which is a subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation, £19 million. Not surprisingly, many of these trans-national NGOs are highly dependent on funding from the various big powers and have in effect become extensions of these states and institutions. For example, according to the UNDP report, Care International relies on imperial governments and institutions, including the EU, the World Bank, Britain’s (DfID) and the USA’s Agency for International Development (USAID) for some 60% of its budget, while Oxfam received 44% of its 2015-16 budget from such sources.
In addition to the institutional trans-national NGOs, there has also been the emergence of the so-called ‘charitable foundations’. These are trans-national NGOs which are set up by western millionaires and billionaires and include examples such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. The former which was set up by the founder of Microsoft and his wife had an income in 2010 of US$53 billion, while the latter had a 2010 income of US$143 million. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation claim that their activities are aimed to “to help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty and to save lives in developing countries”, while the Clinton Foundation claim that their activities are intended to “to transform lives and communities by improving global health, increasing opportunity for girls and women, reducing childhood obesity and preventable diseases, creating economic opportunity and growth, and helping communities address the effects of climate change”. With regard to Africa, the Gates Foundation states that it works closely with 10 African countries, including Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa, while supporting NGOs in other African countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. They claim that their activity in Africa aims to “advance healthcare, improve agricultural production, strengthen financial services for the poor, and improve maternal and child health”, in other words to carry out the work of governments in Africa. The Clinton Foundation, for its part, states that it works in a number of African countries including Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania with the aim of “strengthening health systems and expanding access to lifesaving treatments; providing farmers with tools they need to increase their incomes and strengthen their communities; and addressing climate change by making forests and cities more sustainable”.
In addition to the institutional trans-national NGOs, there has also been the emergence of the so-called ‘charitable foundations’. These are trans-national NGOs which are set up by western millionaires and billionaires and include examples such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. The former which was set up by the founder of Microsoft and his wife had an income in 2010 of US$53 billion, while the latter had a 2010 income of US$143 million. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation claim that their activities are aimed to “to help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty and to save lives in developing countries”, while the Clinton Foundation claim that their activities are intended to “to transform lives and communities by improving global health, increasing opportunity for girls and women, reducing childhood obesity and preventable diseases, creating economic opportunity and growth, and helping communities address the effects of climate change”. With regard to Africa, the Gates Foundation states that it works closely with 10 African countries, including Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa, while supporting NGOs in other African countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. They claim that their activity in Africa aims to “advance healthcare, improve agricultural production, strengthen financial services for the poor, and improve maternal and child health”, in other words to carry out the work of governments in Africa. The Clinton Foundation, for its part, states that it works in a number of African countries including Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania with the aim of “strengthening health systems and expanding access to lifesaving treatments; providing farmers with tools they need to increase their incomes and strengthen their communities; and addressing climate change by making forests and cities more sustainable”.
The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) uses its networks in Africa to pressure African governments to remain subjected to the racism of the ICC
Having taken up the role of day to day governance in Africa on behalf of the imperial states, it is hardly surprising that these NGOs take an active part in the political life of various African countries. Using their considerable financial resources and their intimate connections to the ruling elites of the big powers, these trans-national NGOs operate in Africa as a law unto themselves and blatantly interfere in the internal affairs of the countries where they operate. Some use their wealth to set up and fund what they term ‘local African NGOs’ through which they then agitate in pursuit of their own goals. One such NGO is the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC). This organisation which was established in 1995 in New York with the aim of campaigning for the establishment of an International Criminal Court, now has a network of organisations in Zambia, South Africa, Sudan, Cote D'Ivoire, Mali, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda. The CICC is aggressively using these organisations to try to deter African governments from following through on their threat to leave the International Criminal Court because of its established racist bias. This financial dependence of many African NGOs on foreign funders is exemplified by the case of the Southern Africa Trust, a South African NGO. This organisation states that its aim is to end poverty in the southern Africa region and make regional integration work for the poor. According to its financial accounts for the year ending 31 March 2016, it received 82% of its revenue for that year from Britain’s DfID and a further 12% from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa which is a subsidiary of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, Oxfam and Trust Africa. Therefore, this organisation is totally dependent on these foreign funders and is incapable of acting outside of their interests in Africa. It is interesting to note that Trust Africa which is listed as one of the funders of Southern African Trust is itself a Senegal based NGO which is equally dependent on the same sources of foreign funding. It lists among its funders Humanity United, a US based NGO with links to the founder of eBay and to the McCain Institute for International Leadership which is named after the infamous US warmonger John McCain, the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations. Therefore, through deploying their huge financial resources, the big powers are able to develop throughout the African continent massive networks of ‘civil society’ which can be activated in pursuit of their political and economic aims in Africa.
The neo-colonial nature of these trans-national NGOs activities in Africa has, not surprisingly, prompted various African governments to address this problem. Some countries, like Eritrea, have banned them outright from operating in their country, while others such as Kenya and Ethiopia have imposed requirements on such organisations to register in order to operate. In addition, Ethiopia has limited the proportion of their income that local NGOs can receive from foreign sources. In a circular issued in 2016, Kenya’s NGOs Co-ordination Board noted that trans-national NGOs in that country were openly violating Kenyan law by ignoring the need for non-Kenyan citizens to hold work permits; paying foreign staff 4 times more for the same job than what they paid Kenyan nationals with comparable skills and qualifications, as well as providing these foreign staff with additional benefits which they did not give to Kenyan staff; recruiting foreign ‘volunteers’ who received benefits in excess of the salaries paid to Kenyan staff and that some people were making a lifelong career out of being NGO expatriates in Kenya. This activity of the trans-national NGOs in Kenya reflects the essentially racist and colonialist nature of these organisations’ activities in Africa. It is long overdue to put a stop to this element of foreign intervention in Africa.
The neo-colonial nature of these trans-national NGOs activities in Africa has, not surprisingly, prompted various African governments to address this problem. Some countries, like Eritrea, have banned them outright from operating in their country, while others such as Kenya and Ethiopia have imposed requirements on such organisations to register in order to operate. In addition, Ethiopia has limited the proportion of their income that local NGOs can receive from foreign sources. In a circular issued in 2016, Kenya’s NGOs Co-ordination Board noted that trans-national NGOs in that country were openly violating Kenyan law by ignoring the need for non-Kenyan citizens to hold work permits; paying foreign staff 4 times more for the same job than what they paid Kenyan nationals with comparable skills and qualifications, as well as providing these foreign staff with additional benefits which they did not give to Kenyan staff; recruiting foreign ‘volunteers’ who received benefits in excess of the salaries paid to Kenyan staff and that some people were making a lifelong career out of being NGO expatriates in Kenya. This activity of the trans-national NGOs in Kenya reflects the essentially racist and colonialist nature of these organisations’ activities in Africa. It is long overdue to put a stop to this element of foreign intervention in Africa.
