Collaborating to Systemically Address Social Justice in South Africa

By Louise Driver, Executive Director, IPASA

Despite philanthropy’s best efforts, our country continues to grapple with the significant socio-economic challenges of poverty, unemployment, inequality, and access to quality education and healthcare. Most of these challenges are social justice issues, which are deeply embedded in South Africa’s historical and social fabric. These issues are complex and multifaceted and not solvable by once-off initiatives or short-term investments. Instead, they require systemic interventions that address both the symptoms and root causes of inequality and require consistent, collaborative and continued long-term investment.

This is where multi-sector funder collaboration can play a powerful role – through joint resources, expertise and effort, funders can tackle these social justice challenges effectively and support initiatives that promote equality and human rights to create the transformative change we need in our society. We see social justice as a cross-cutting issue in philanthropy – whether one’s funding focus is on education, health, climate or employment, it is necessary to consider and take into account how social justice intersects within these investment areas in either causing or exacerbating the problems one is trying to solve.

This is very clear in the education sector. Education remains one of the most powerful tools for advancing social justice, yet many South Africans still lack access to quality education. Collaborative philanthropy can focus on improving education outcomes through addressing underlying inequity and social justice issues in underserved communities by funding teacher training, digital learning platforms, and infrastructure improvements.

Collaboration between key stakeholders in social justice can also address the issues of access to tertiary education and employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for disadvantaged youth to try boost our economy. Within the climate and environment focus area, climate change is an escalating social justice issue with the disadvantaged communities in South Africa being disproportionately affected by the impacts of the climate crisis. Funder collaboration in this area is vital in supporting initiatives that help build the climate resilience of communities while advocating for clean energy access, and conservation of natural resources. Collaboration needs to happen across sectors and between a range of philanthropic organisations to be successful in addressing these deeply interconnected social justice challenges. Multi-sector collaborations enable funders to align their efforts and focus on systemic change. By drawing on expertise from different fields—such as education, health, employment, and policy advocacy—philanthropy can develop more comprehensive solutions that address the underlying causes of poverty and inequality.

A collaborative environment also promotes learning, innovation, and adaptation and through establishing mechanisms for regular monitoring, evaluation and feedback, funders can continuously refine their strategies, improve outcomes, and replicate successful models. By sharing metrics, reporting tools, and evaluation processes, funders can ensure greater transparency and more effective use of resources. This increased accountability helps build trust between collaborators and the communities they serve, which is essential in the social justice field.

In this newsletter, we include articles on social justice and the importance of continued collaborative multi-stakeholder democracy-building; collaboration through a social justice alliance in higher education; coordinated climate action through a new local climate funder pledge; cross-sector collaboration in education with the government and through teacher development to allow for systemic change and better education outcomes; and IPASA’s future involvement with a collaboration of funders in social justice who collectively focus on joint projects and advocacy opportunities in bringing about change.

IPASA is actively promoting and facilitating funder collaboration in social justice to support our belief that addressing these issues are key to philanthropy solving the deeply entrenched problems we face in our country. Ultimately, we are striving to contribute to the creation of a more equal society where all South Africans can realise their full potential to sustain a just and prosperous society.