Financing Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities of Local Giving
In this article, I refer to ‘local giving’ as ‘people helping each other by sharing resources for the common good.’ This is based on the premise that communities have their own assets (money, skills, knowledge, networks, values, labour, and security) and when these are pooled together, they build community power and voice. By contributing their own resources, people start to feel like they are in charge of their own development.
When they feel they own the process, they care more about the outcomes. Evidence shows that they become more interested in acting in ways that advance and protect their collective interests. When local resources are mobilised, new and more horizontal forms of accountability emerge, based on trust and transparency (Hodgson & Pond, 2018).
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