Promoting Social Justice Through Collaboration

By Lorenzo M. Wakefield, Programe Officer, Mott Foundation

“Using our individual and collective power is a small contribution to ensuring that the social justice sector does not constantly have to remain resilient but, ideally and over the long term, be sustainable and thriving.” – Lorenzo Wakefield

The struggle for equality and realisation of fundamental rights

South Africa remains one of the world’s most unequal countries. While being home to several dollar billionaires, most people in South Africa live in poverty, having to struggle to not only get their daily needs provided for but also fight to get their fundamental rights realised. Workers have to organise in different ways to advocate for their dignity and humane working conditions. Basic civil and political rights have to be fought for constantly, while socioeconomic rights remain threatened and largely unrealised. Despite various prevention attempts, corruption in both the public and private sectors is common and institutionalised, due to weak accountability mechanisms. Gender-based and sexual violence, especially against womxn, girls, and the LGBTQ community, is out of hand.

Organisations using a social justice approach in their work are at the forefront of pushing for lasting change, primarily based on an order envisioned in our Constitution. Chapter 2 of the Constitution remains one of the most progressive Bills of Rights contained in any Constitution in the world. It not only protects civil and political rights but also contains justiciable socioeconomic rights, especially for the most marginalised people in South Africa. Working towards this reality, however, is not always easy, and organisations doing this work are often overworked, understaffed, and insufficiently funded.

Social justice funder collaboration    

A few funders support social justice work in South Africa. The institutions that fund this work in South Africa are primarily headquartered in North America or Europe, with local staff to inform and implement their strategies. A few local foundations, such as the RAITH Foundation, the Millennium Trust, and the DG Murray Trust, among others, intentionally support social justice work in South Africa.

Taking various challenges in the social justice sector into account, the Social Justice Donor Collective (SJDC) initially started as a loose formation of donors who support the same organisations or type of work that uses a social justice lens. The purpose of the collective is multifaceted:

• Responding to the dwindling and lack of resources for organisations doing this vital work and to ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector.
• Creating a platform where donors can informally exchange ideas and synergise better.
• Exchanging information on what social justice organisations are doing and how other donors are approaching their social justice grantmaking strategies.

The informal nature of gatherings between these donors has allowed for an easy flow of communication on the challenges and successes of social justice organisations. Most meetings are online, while the group tries to meet in person, or hold hybrid meetings once or twice a year. The RAITH Foundation kindly takes the lead in organising these meetings, with support from the Ford and Mott Foundations.

Social justice funding landscape

The funding landscape for social justice work remains precarious. The Constitutionalism Fund is ending its mandate in December 2024, and while it is exiting responsibly, the effects of its departure will be felt in the near future. The global restructuring of the Open Society Foundations, which led to the closure of its South African and Southern African foundations, is causing uncertainty about the future strategic and geographic focus of its work. While the reasons for these developments are understood, it underlines the need for the work of the SJDC.

In January 2024, the SJDC identified the need to coordinate better and increase the pool of funders to support social justice work in South Africa. It was decided that a secretariat would be needed to do this. IPASA was approached to fulfil this role, as many of the members of this informal collaborative are also IPASA members, and IPASA has experience in coordinating donor collaboratives.

Over the next few years, the role of the secretariat would be to coordinate the SJDC and collaborate with individual donors in the group to guide potential new donors to support this critical sector in our maturing democracy. Unlocking more local and international funding to support the social justice sector will be a key success indicator for this role and the SJDC. The secretariat will also be required to help and advise donors on how they can build their strategies to fund organisations that do social justice work. Using our individual and collective power is a small contribution to ensuring that the social justice sector does not constantly have to remain resilient but, ideally and over the long term, be sustainable and thriving.

Examples of collaboration to promote social justice

Research on access to justice

In 2023, the Mott and RAITH Foundations collaborated to support research on how people access justice with the purpose of informing its future funding approach, and potentially government policies, in providing justice services.

Collaboration during the pandemic

During the COVID-19 lockdowns in South Africa, members of the SJDC met regularly to coordinate additional support for organisations working to deal with the consequences of the hard lockdowns. These included organisations addressing hunger, assisting people in accessing the social relief of distress grant, helping workers access Unemployment Insurance Fund benefits, and spreading factual information and communication about COVID-19, among others. In addition to this, the SJDC also worked with The Solidarity Fund to provide food to hard-to-reach rural communities and grants to assist with testing and vaccine rollout while advocating that the Solidarity Fund be transparent about its work.