Global Best Practices for CSO, NGO, and Other Nonprofit Boards

CHAPTER 2Africa

Mike Muchilwa

Mike Muchilwa offers an overview of the context for governance in Africa.

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT FOR GOVERNANCE

History

The roots of CSOs in Africa can be traced to the colonial era. Given colonial governments' reluctance to provide services such as education and health to Africans, Western missionaries stepped in. The assistance paradigm was one of charity, in line with the religious convictions of the missions. The continent still has many schools and hospitals that have their origin in the work of missionaries. Following independence in many African countries, the focus of many of these early faith-based CSOs moved to development, which was also the agenda of various governments and secular donors of the 1960s and 1970s. These donors funded the development projects of Western CSOs such as Save the Children, Plan International, Christian Aid, and Oxfam, and also set up programs of their own. Some of these projects and programs later become institutionalized and morphed into present-day CSOs. The availability of donor funding to support development activities targeting poverty also created a conducive environment for the establishment of new CSOs. Thousands of CSOs were established on the continent in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Culture

CSOs have been influenced by governance practices in the diverse cultures across the African continent. In many African cultures—for example, in the Buganda Kingdom in Uganda and the Swazi Kingdom ...