The Impact Room

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Mosun Layode, Bheki Moyo, and Degan Ali discuss development funding and philanthropy in Africa.

Just 14 percent of large gifts by international donors get to local NGOs in Africa, and only 9 percent of large gifts by African funders are channelled to proximate organisations, according to Bridgespan research. The rest of the money goes to governments and international NGOs.

Why this happens – and what it means for on-the-ground organisations, programming, and final impact – is at the heart of this episode of The Impact Room, where we take a deep dive into African development funding and the thorny topic of decolonising aid.

Host Maysa Jalbout  explores the barriers to funding grassroots entities in Africa and why the status quo is so hard to shift – but also hear about some new solutions designed to “shift the power” from donor to implementer and create more equitable partnerships.

Mosun Layode, the executive director of the African Philanthropy Forum (APF), which was formed in 2014 to shift the needle on development funding on the continent, kicks off the episode with a detailed landscape analysis of leading funders and innovative initiatives.  Layode, who is also a board member of Candid and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, calls for greater collaboration among donors to amplify impact and tackle systemic issues. 

Professor Bheki Moyo, chair and director of the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI), at Wits University Business School in Johannesburg, South Africa appeals to philanthropists to do more to fund African civil society working on “abstract” causes, such as human rights and policy issues, rather than just supporting “materialistic” initiatives such as building schools or donating computers.

Maysa's third guest, Degan Ali, is the executive director of Adeso, a development and humanitarian NGO working in the Horn of Africa.  She shares her views on why the current funding system for aid and development isn’t working, the opportunities for philanthropy to seed new approaches, and how donors can operate more equitably.

A long-time activist and leading voice in the aid localization debate, Ali has recently spearheaded the launch of the Pledge for Change, calling on iNGOs to commit more equitable partnerships and authentic storytelling to create a stronger aid ecosystem based on the principles of solidarity, humility, self-determination and equality.

The books, articles, and organisations mentioned in this episode include:

• Higherlife Foundation
• The Tony Elumelu Foundation
• Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation
• KujaLink
• Dr. Arikana Chihombori
• Howard Nichols
• The art of gathering: how we meet and why it matters -  by Priya Parker 
• Shifting sands, shifting power - Social Investor Magazine

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

Ninety percent of children's brains are developed by the age of five - yet around the world, millions of young people are missing out on adequate nutrition, care, and stimulating play, causing them to fall behind, even more they have started school.

In this episode of The Impact Room, host Maysa Jalbout discusses the global crisis in early years care and asks what philanthropy and governments can - and should be - doing to fix it.

Maysa is joined by Theirworld chair Sarah Brown and preside Justin van Fleet, Hilton Foundation CEO Peter Laugharn, and Sabrina Habib, the founder of nonprofit social enterprise Kidogo. 

Sarah Brown and Justin van Fleet talk about their charity's new global campaign, Act For Early Years, which is calling for more investment into early years and a UN decade for action on early childhood care, education, and development.

Other campaign asks from Theirworld include: investment in a fully-trained, qualified and funded early years workforce; publishing of annual data on government spending on early childhood development; more family-friendly polices such as income support programmes, parental leave and affordable childcare for working parents; and the creation of a more integrated approach to early years interventions across sectors and government.

Act for Early Years is being part-funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, whose CEO, Peter Laugharn, outlines to Maysa why the early years matter so much and explains what his foundation is doing in this space.

Also appearing on this episode is Sabrina Habib, the co-founder of Kidogo, a nonprofit social enterprise giving give low-income families in Kenya access to affordable and quality childcare while also giving employment to - and empowering - local women. Explaining how she stumbled into the sector after being shown an informal “baby care” centre in Nairobi, Habib makes a passionate appeal to governments to realign their priorities.

For more about the #ActforEarlyYears campaign follow @theirworld on social media. 

The books mentioned on this episode include:

• "Your Story Matters" by Nikesh Shukla
• "Wavewalker - Breaking Free" by Suzanne Heywood
• "The Go-Between" by Osman Yousefzada
• "Active Hope" by Joanna Macy
• "Loonshots" by Safi Bahcall

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

Elizabeth Tanya Masiyiwa and Neera Nundy join host Maysa Jalbout in The Impact Room to discuss gender equality and what philanthropy can do to advance its progress.

The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to eliminate extreme poverty and support sustainable and resilient development. But eight years and a global pandemic later, many of the SDGs are hanging in the balance, none more so than goal number 5, with its target of gender equality.  On this, progress hasn’t just stalled, it has reversed, and according to the UN, it could take another 300 years to achieve gender equality.

In this episode of The Impact Room, Maysa examines what role philanthropy is - and / or should be - playing to accelerate progress towards SDG5. 

According a  Lilly Family School of Philanthropy study, just 1.9% of US charitable donations go to women and girls, this is despite the emergence of a new movement of so-called gender-lens philanthropy spearheaded by donors such as MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates, through initiatives like Pivotal Ventures and Co-Impact.

What does applying a gender lens mean for philanthropy? How are funders changing how they give and what do organisations need to do differently?

A philanthropist and social entrepreneur, Elizabeth Tanya Masiyiwa is the executive director of her family's Higherlife Foundation, the CEO of Delta Philanthropies in the UK, and the founder of ed-tech startup, Akello.

Seasoned nonprofit leader, Neera Nundy quit her Wall Street job to co-found Dasra, which has grown to become India’s leading philanthropy platform.

They discuss with Maysa why gendered philanthropy matters, explain the importance of funding systems change, and share examples of initiatives and funders who are starting to make a real difference on the ground.  

You can read full text of the remarks by Antonio Guturres' at the 2023 Commission on the Status of Women here and for more of Melinda French Gates's interview with The Economist, click here.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

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Globally celebrated conservationist Dr Jane Goodall steps into The Impact Room to discuss her long career and explains why, despite being nearly 90, she still spends a large part of her time travelling the world meeting young people.

Speaking to host Maysa Jalbout during a recent visit to the UAE, Dr Goodall reflects on some of the challenges she has faced during her life, why good news matters, and what gives her hope.

Dr Goodall also discusses the UAE's hosting of COP28, gives her views on extreme environmental activism, and shares a message for philanthropists about how they can support conservation efforts.

The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) works to protect great apes by encouraging better land management through community awareness initiatives, and campaigns against wildlife trafficking. Dr Goodall's Roots & Shoots initiative, is a youth-led action and learning programme operating in schools and communities across more than 60 countries.

Dr Goodall's book recommendation was Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen, and Myrna Atalla, executive director of Alfanar, the Middle East's first venture philanthropy organisation, join host Maysa Jalbout in The Impact Room to discuss what businesses, philanthropists, and impact investors can do to support social enterprises.

A new generation of entrepreneurs are setting up mission-driven businesses to solve social problems in a sustainable way. These so-called social enterprises come in all shapes and sizes and span a variety of sectors and markets. Some focus on the provision of goods, like handicrafts or food, while others offer services such as online translation, access to off-grid energy or microfinance. But for all the success stories, many social businesses are still struggling to either scale effectively and compete in a for-profit marketplace, or wean themselves off a dependency on grant funding. 

In this episode of The Impact Room, we look at how the social enterprise ecosystem has grown over the past two decades, examine the ingredients for success, and hear how impact investment is changing the game.

Novogratz, whose nonprofit Acumen has pioneered the investment of patient capital into social business, shares her thoughts about how innovative partnerships can help scale and sustain impact-driven start-ups.

The author of New York Times best seller The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor, Novogratz, speaks passionately about some of Acumen's investees, talks about her hopes for achieving moonshot goals, such as universal electricity access, and gives advice to philanthropists about how they get involved.

Atalla, meanwhile, explains how philanthropy can support mission-driven businesses and reflects on the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs focussed on impact and climate-related issues. She also shares details of Alfanar’s two new initiatives, a US$50m regional impact investment fund, and a $5m pooled fund to provide operating grants and zero interest loans to  organisations driving women's economic empowerment in the MENA region.

Organisations referenced in this episode include:

• Future Eve
• FabricAid 
• Easy Solar 
• Promethean Power Systems 
• Uncommon Cacao 
• d.light 
• Kheyti 

The books recommended by our guests were: 

• “The Awakened Brain” by Lisa Miller 
• “Home in the world” by Amartya Sen
• “Poetry unbound: 50 poems to open your world” by Pádraig Ó Tuama 
• Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship by Teresa Chahine

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

Season three is on its way. Stand by to hear Maysa Jalbout back in conversation with philanthropists, development leaders, industry experts, and frontline organisations from around the world.
Forthcoming episodes will tackle a range of topics including: social entrepreneurship and impact investing; giving with a gender lens; funding for early years education; African philanthropy; and the decolonisation of aid.
Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss any new episodes.

The Impact Room is produced by Philanthropy Age. For more information or to get in touch, find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

In this final episode of the current series of The Impact Room, Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, joins Maysa Jalbout to discuss community-led solution systems, microfinance, and climate accountability.

BRAC began in 1972 as a relief organisation to support displaced people in the newly-independent Bangladesh, but in the five decades since, it has grown to become the largest – and arguably – most enterprising NGO in the world.

Its programmes span poverty reduction, gender equality, community empowerment, health care, and pro-poor urban development. A pioneer in microfinance and the graduation approach, BRAC also runs 10 social enterprises and has its own insurance company. 

The first so-called Global South organisation to launch international operations, BRAC is a major provider of humanitarian support for the millions of Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar.

Despite BRAC being the world’s largest NGO, Asif is passionate about the need for more action on global commitments to listen to and build the capacity of smaller and local organisations. 

“There’s a lot of talk around that we need to do this, but the how part of how we are going to do this is completely missing,” he tells host, Maysa Jalbout. “What you hear is when you talk to the donors is that it's too risky to support some of the local organisations because they didn't have enough capacity and systems in place. 

“But then how are these local organisations going to build their capacity if they are squeezed for every single penny? It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation,” he adds.

As we recorded this episode of The Impact Room, Bangladesh was grappling with some of its worst flooding on record. Asif urges the world to “wake up” to the realities of climate change which he says is threatening to reverse decades of development gains.

Asif began his career in the private sector, holding senior positions with global corporates such as Goldman Sachs, Glaxo Wellcome, and IBM. He joined BRAC in 2011, first as director of communication and social innovation, then rising through the ranks to become executive director in 2019.

Listen to this wide-ranging interview with Asif to also hear his thoughts on the Rohingya refugee response, why BRAC’s approach to microfinance is different, and why he left his corporate career behind to join the development sector.

About the host

Maysa Jalbout is a leader in international development and philanthropy. Her previous roles include founding CEO of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, a $1bn philanthropic initiative based in Dubai, and founding CEO of the Queen Rania Foundation. Maysa is a visiting scholar at MIT and ASU, and a non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Find her on Twitter @MaysaJalbout.

The Impact Room is produced by Philanthropy Age. Follow us on social media @PhilanthropyAge. This episode was edited by Louise Redvers.

This is the last in the current series of The Impact Room. We'll be back with more episodes very soon. 

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, joins Maysa Jalbout in The Impact Room to discuss new pathways to respond to the global displacement crisis as he number of forcibly displaced people around the world surpasses 100 million.

Ukraine alone has generated more than six million refugee movements since the Russian invasion in February, and the knock-on effect that this has had on grain exports has triggered global food shortages, which in turn threaten to lead to widespread unrest, and likely more displacement.

The humanitarian system is at breaking point and with global displacement forecast to hit one billion by 2050, there is an urgent need for new and innovative solutions.

Have we reached a tipping point? Do we as a world need to rethink our collective conscience regarding freedom of movement and what it means to be a refugee? Is the current system fit-for-purpose or does it need an overhaul?

In a special edition of The Impact Room recorded in the run-up to World Refugee Day, host Maysa Jalbout puts these questions and more to the UNHCR chief. 

Also interviewed in this episode of The Impact Room is Sasha Chanoff, the founder and CEO of Refuge Point, a non-profit running refugee resettlement programmes and advocating for policy changes for the rights of refugees globally with a focus on long-term solutions.

One organisation that is trying to help find long-term answers to displacement is Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), a nonprofit that helps to match skilled refugees to job opportunities in new countries to support labour mobility and plug global talent gaps.

CEO Steph Cousins, explains to Maysa how TBB has found durable work solutions for hundreds of refugees in private and public sector companies in Australia, Canada, and the UK, and that it has plans to expand into Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, the US, and New Zealand.

Also appearing on this episode to give their views on a global system that is supposed to help - but which often makes lives harder - are two young refugees: Amna Abo Zuhair, a Palestinian  living in Jordan, and Jean Marie Ishimwe, a Rwandan in Kenya. 

Amna, 29, is a monitoring and evaluation project manager at Sitti, a social enterprise employing Palestinian refugee women from Jerash camp in Jordan. She is also the in-country director of Hopes for Women in Education, a language exchange, education, and women’s empowerment organisation, as well as a steering committee member of the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative (RSRI), a global multi-stakeholder collaboration promoting opportunities for refugees to become self-reliant and achieve a better quality of life.

Jean Marie Ishimwe, meanwhile, is the chairperson and lead of a refugee led organisation known as Youth Voices Community (YVC), which focuses on giving a voice to refugee and vulnerable local youths in Nairobi, Kenya. The 25-year-old is also the founder of a refugee-led Social Enterprise called Nawezaa, which uses media, mentorship, and technology to create impact in refugee communities.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. This episode was produced and edited by Louise Redvers.

 Maysa Jalbout is a leader in international development and philanthropy. She is a visiting scholar at MIT and ASU, and a non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Find her on Twitter @MaysaJalbout.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

Sesame Street has been entertaining children around the world for generations. First launched in 1969, the show was an experiment to see if television – then just an emerging technology – could be used to educate young children. 

Today, this unique style of education and social messaging continues to be delivered by a diverse cast of muppets – and humans – to children and caregivers across seven continents in more than a dozen different languages.

In this episode of The Impact Room, we take a detailed look at Ahlan Simsim, a new Arabic language version of the show, which has been designed specifically to target Middle Eastern children affected by war and displacement, and its sister programme supporting Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. 

Ahlan Simim uses music and humour to tackle emotional issues and provide youngsters (and their caregivers) tools for dealing with feelings of fear and anxiety. It mixes media outputs, training sessions, and school materials to also deliver basic literacy and numeracy learning for children who may be locked out of formal education.

Sesame Workshop received more than $100m of grant funding from the MacArthur Foundation for the project it is doing in partnership with International Rescue Committee (IRC). A year later, The Lego Foundation gave Sesame Workshop another $100m to support its work with BRAC and their programming for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. 

Together, these two grants are the largest ever philanthropic intervention into early years education in a humanitarian setting.

To discuss Ahlan Simsim, our host Maysa Jalbout, is joined by Shari Rosenfeld, senior vice president of International Social Impact at Sesame Workshop, and Marianne Stone, Ahlan Simim regional project director for IRC.

She also speaks to Professor Hiro Yoshikawa, a community and development psychologist specialising in early childhood and the co-founder of Global TIES, a research centre at New York University, which is carrying out an Impact evaluation of Ahlan Simsim.

“The vision here is to really to develop a new set of models in this somewhat brand-new field of early childhood development in the humanitarian sector, which has been largely overlooked for a very long time," he explains.

Many of the topics explored as well as materials used in Ahlan Simsim are applicable to other conflict and displacement settings. Indeed, some of the content is already being adapted for other countries.

In Iraq, for example, the US government’s overseas development agency, USAID, has provided additional funding to create some Iraq-specific Ahlan Simsim materials. 

And, just as we were putting this podcast episode together, Sesame workshop confirmed that work was also underway to create a new suite of resources in Dari, Pashto, Spanish, Ukrainian, and English - with additional languages to follow - to support young children and caregivers affected by crisis.

For more about Ahlan Simsim and the work of Sesame Workshop in the Middle East visit their website or the IRC website.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. This episode was produced and edited by Louise Redvers.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

We'd love your feedback. Let us know what you thought about this episode.

Every year, tens of thousands of migrants risk their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean. Fleeing failed or fragile states and packed into overfilled boats, they seek a better life in Europe.

Many don’t make it, either drowning en-route or being turned back by coast guards under strict orders not to assist them. In 2021 alone, more than 3,000 people  drowned or were lost at sea, compared to 1,776 the previous year, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Malta-based entrepreneurs Christopher and Regina Catrambone were so moved by the scale of the tragedy at sea - and the lack of help provided by the authorities - that they mounted their own response, investing $8 million to buy a ship, the Phoenix, outfit it and transport across the Atlantic to Europe.

The Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) launched in 2013, becoming the first non-governmental search and rescue operation in the central Mediterranean.

It completed its first mission in 2014, rescuing more than three thousand migrants over a period of just 90 days. Over the next three years, MOAS would rescue over 35,000 more, working in partnership with a number of other aid organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MOAS suspended its search and rescue operations in 2017 and shifted its operational focus to Bangladesh to support the influx of Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar, while also delivering aid to people caught up in the crises in Yemen and Syria.

In early 2022, the charity launched a new initiative delivering medical relief and first response services to civilians affected by the escalating violence in Ukraine.

As well as these aid mission, in parallel, MOAS has become an active voice in global advocacy for migrants through its Safe and Legal Routes campaign, and in partnership with UNHCR, it has helped to evacuate vulnerable migrants stranded in Libya.

In this episode of The Impact Room, Christopher and Regina take us back to the beginning of MOAS, what triggered them to take such bold action, and what they’ve learned along the way about the both the migrant crisis and the global humanitarian system.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media at @PhilanthropyAge.

About the host

Maysa Jalbout is a leader in international development and philanthropy. Her previous roles include founding CEO of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, a $1bn philanthropic initiative based in Dubai, and founding CEO of the Queen Rania Foundation. Maysa is a visiting scholar at MIT and ASU, and a non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Find her on Twitter @MaysaJalbout.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge