ABSTRACT
Scholarly discourse explores African philanthropy as a paradigm for financing development, investigating how philosophical ideals and values underlying gifting in African societies could be harnessed to finance the development of African nations. This chapter contributes to the discussion by drawing attention to the inherent assumption in this discourse that African giving practices can be transferred from informal, socio-cultural support systems to more formal, professionalized settings, such as development projects and programmes introduced by donors and non-governmental organizations. The exploratory study presented here examined this assumption through a case where self-help associations in a district in the Western Region of Ghana were brought together to form a civic union, with the expectation that the vibrant giving practices within their associations would be replicated in the civic union. Lessons from the case suggest that trust is central to the values driving giving in local communities’ socio-cultural support systems. When local communities do not trust the organizations seeking to support their socio-economic development, they may adopt a posture of apathy and dependency that contrasts with the vibrant giving in their socio-cultural support systems. This study suggests that trust-building mechanisms are key in harnessing the values underlying African philanthropy for the financing of development.
