The nonprofit power struggle at the heart of conservation

NAIROBI, Kenya — A power struggle between international and African nonprofits is stalling conversation efforts on the continent. A new report launched on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi has unpacked a list of concerns that are troubling donor-funded community conservation, a trend that researchers say dates back to the continent’s postcolonial era. The biggest concern by local nonprofits is a system that relies on decisions made by INGOs without involving local organizations, according to Resson Kantai Duff, the portfolio funding director at Maliasili, the global conservation nonprofit that authored the report. Other concerns, such as expectations that do not align with what grassroots communities can deliver, engagements that are more transactional than strategic, and funding that requires extensive reporting procedures were also captured by the report. “There is a troubling imbalance of power between local and international organizations. These partnerships need to reform so that power can shift to locally based organizations,” Duff said. This power imbalance has created gaps that have led to the exploitation of local communities in Africa in the name of conservation, often profiting international organizations, according to The Nature Conservancy, or TNC, an international nonprofit. Experts said some projects — including carbon offsetting initiatives — give minimal profits to communities involved and when projects are successful, local organizations are rarely given credit. But sustainable conservation can only be achieved when it is built around solid partnerships with local communities, given that Africa is home to about 25% of global biodiversity, Ademola Ajagbe, the Africa program regional managing director at TNC, said. This is due to a lack of durable financing, which is long term in nature, where the current system supports the continent’s conservation with funding that lasts between three to five years, he said. “When you look at the landscape across Africa, a lot of organizations are profiting off communities instead of having projects that benefit both nature as well as people on the ground,” Ajagbe said. The troubling power play between the north and south cuts across the climate change and conservation space, and is an issue that took center stage at the three-day summit in Nairobi. Kenya’s President William Ruto, who is also the chair of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change, reprimanded the global north for pushing a divisive climate narrative that has often victimized Africa and held it hostage to “environmental stewardship.” “We are not here just to talk about Africa or climate change in the usual way, which often accentuates our divisions — north versus south, developed versus developing, polluters versus the victims. And even within our own governments, economic development, so badly needed for us to achieve stable and dignified livelihoods, is often cast as a trade-off with environmental stewardship as if they are mutually exclusive, when in fact they must be positively reinforcing,” Ruto said. One way this power imbalance can be tackled is through reforming the global governance structures and institutions, which currently reflect the world as it was and not how it is today, according to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. The post-World War II multilateral system has failed to work in a world that is growing increasingly multipolar, and has provided space for injustices against low- and middle-income countries to continue, he said. “When we speak about reforms, we are talking about how to bridge the division that exists between developed and developing countries. I will continue advocating for deep reforms to make these institutions more responsible to the needs of developing countries, and that includes Africa,” Guterres said. Another way is by ensuring local partners are at the center of the climate and conservation dialogue both in terms of delivery and advising on the design of projects, according to Gillian Caldwell, USAID’s chief climate officer. The agency has a localization agenda that aims to increase the number of investments in locally based organizations as opposed to the larger international organizations and consultancies that have previously been beneficiaries, she said. “We have set a goal to quadruple funding to locally based entities by 2025 and ensure that the projects we are supporting have meaningful control, power, and authority vested in local communities,” Caldwell said. She however acknowledged that most local organizations are smaller than INGOs, have fewer resources, and struggle to prepare proposals to handle large contracts that USAID typically invests in. INGOs provide critical resources in terms of funding and technical expertise, but 71% of African organizations that participated in the study were unhappy with the lack of collaborative interaction between north and south. The positive gains of collaboration played out during the COVID-19 crisis when the delivery of humanitarian aid and community services were left in the hands of grassroots organizations due to the global lockdowns. Reflecting on the COVID-19 experience, Maliasili researchers recommended reforms between INGOs and local nonprofits that shift the narrative from transactional to strategic and aligned partnerships. They also want a clear definition of roles, valuing of local knowledge, simple administrative procedures, and giving credit to wins by local organizations, among other asks. “This is about what levers need to be pushed for there to be constructive movement on the road to conservation impact. Local organizations are saying they need INGOs, but there should be a different way of doing things to unlock faster impact,” Duff said.