CAIRO: As some businessmen scramble to keep their businesses on track amid the current economic crisis, others are directing their resources for greater public welfare.
A few weeks ago, businessman Samih Sawiris announced the winners of the Sawiris Foundation Prize for Literature and Film Scripts for the fourth time on behalf of the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development.
On the Cairo Opera House’s stage, he boasted the foundation’s commitment to literature, the Egyptian book and writers, highlighting the vital role it plays in the cultural scene.
Several business moguls throughout the Arab world are following in Sawiris’ footsteps, investing in their communities.
The book, “From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy, examines philanthropic trends in eight key Middle Eastern countries and sheds light on the forms of institutionalized giving that currently exit, suggesting that charitable contributions can be most effective as vehicles of future social change.
Edited by Barbara Lethem Ibrahim, founding director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo (AUC), and Dina H. Sherif, associate director of the center, the book has five other contributors including Mona Attia, Mahi Khallaf, Hadeel Qazzaz, Karim Shalaby and Fadi Sharaiha.
“Trends in Arab Philanthropy studies Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza Strip), Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Ibrahim sets the platform in the introduction explaining how, on the one hand, the region is experiencing unprecedented wealth and economic expansion. On the other hand, there are demographic shifts and political conflicts that are “exacerbating some of the region’s longstanding socioeconomic problems, such as youth unemployment, intractable poverty, substandard public services in health and education, environmental degradation, wars and sectarian strife.
All of these factors are motivating individuals, families and companies to make use of their wealth to improve the quality of life in their countries. “[There are] tremendously dynamic movements in which Arab companies and business leaders are taking a much more active role in seeking solutions for our social problems and modeling good corporate citizenship, explains Ibrahim.
“People want to see a return on money they invest in charity, said Sherif, adding that it also benefits the sustainability of their business and the need to function on the long term in a healthy society.
In order for the philanthropic sector in the region to grow and realize its full potential, the book suggests, there needs to be effective ways to partnering between civil society, the private sector and the public sector. “No one can function in isolation, especially with globalization, everything is interconnected which is needed to have sustainable development, said Sherif.
Ibrahim said that Arab governments can no longer claim to be providing solutions, serving and meeting needs of their populations. “They recognize the essential need for partnerships with the business community and especially with civil society so we see philanthropy as facilitating and helping to link those three sections in effective problem solving, she says.
Arab philanthropists are generally 45- to 60-year-old wealthy business leaders.
Most of the efforts of Arab philanthropy are directed or focused on a handful of problems. “We noticed a clustering of initiatives of philanthropy in areas roughly related to traditional zakat [alms], said Ibrahim.
“These are health, education, poverty, orphans, sick, maybe increasingly women and children so that areas neglected of rights-based organizations, good governance, problems of minorities, ethnic and religious conflict – all of which are underrepresented by Arab philanthropists with very few exceptions, she explained.
However, a current trend in the Arab region is the revitalization of traditional forms of philanthropy, such as reinvigorating the idea of waqf (endowment) and utilizing zakat for major modern problems such as refugees or the trafficking and abuse of women. “There is a modern interpretation of the traditional forms of giving, said Ibrahim.
Another positive trend is a shift from organizations that provide short-term charitable contribution towards more strategic long-term programs to address route causes of problems. For example, working on providing economic opportunities for the underprivileged instead of giving blankets to poor communities.
Research roadblocks
The idea of “From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy sprouted from the John D. Gerhart Center’s mission of capacity building and creating networks among Arab foundations, endowments, etc.
“Therefore a first step for us was to document the state of the field and understand the dynamics and trends across the Arab region, said Ibrahim.
However, this proved a challenging mission due to the fact that the notion of philanthropy is relatively new in the region so there wasn’t any available data, “even highly placed officials didn’t have an existing database of philanthropy to start from, we had to create it, said Ibrahim.
Another main obstalce was the tradition of secrecy and lack of transparency on the part of donors so there was a lack of transparency in terms of how much is invested.
“This is routed in religion, both Islam and Christianity encourage anonymous giving in order to respect the privacy of the person receiving the gift and not to be bragging publicly about one’s giving, explains Ibrahim, “This is gradually changing within Arab foundations that recognize the need for openness and transparency in how they operate and how much they give, she added.
What the future holds
Sherif stressed that the point is not to get rid of charity and replace it with philanthropy. “Charity will always exist.it needs to exists, we don’t recommend the removal of charity because some basic things need to be simply provided; but a certain group with the power to influence need to work on the bid picture, on long term strategic solutions, she explained, adding that the biggest amount of giving in Egypt is done by the middle and lower classes.
A new organization, the Arab Foundations Forum, will bring together the region’s foundations’ executive directors and founders to exchange experience, develop codes of conduct and share best practices.
“This organization will shorten the learning curve for new foundations [as they will] immediately benefit from the sharing of information, in addition this network will be linking Arab foundations sector with global philanthropy movements and sector, this can overcome isolations and shorten the exchange of best practices in philanthropy, said Ibrahim.
She explains that for the field to become more effective, there needs to be more communication between organizations in order to find ways to collaborate and avoid duplications of efforts to become more effective.
The John D. Gerhart Center is working on adding another eight Arab countries, yet to be decided, in addition to conducting three country-level in-depth case studies of philanthropy organizations in Egypt, Jordan and the UAE.
On a final note, Ibrahim said: “We hope the current economic downturn will be seen as an opportunity to increase philanthropy in the region and make it more efficient, to partner more quickly and effectively because of how great the problems are.
“In previous economic downturns in western societies philanthropy did not decline as much as the overall economy because people recognized the needs were greater than ever, we hope this will be the case as well in the Arab region, given its traditions of giving.
“From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy is available at AUC Bookstores. An Arabic version is due out soon.
