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OECD and foundations

Over the last decade, foundations have become increasingly important in the development landscape. Quantitatively and qualitatively they are becoming crucial players in the development arena and their influence in shaping innovative and more inclusive public policies is growing while their impact on the ground becomes more visible.

Foundations are increasingly concerned with investing in social, economic or technological progress and helping to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are shared more broadly across societies. This has been accompanied by a shift in the traditional image of the philanthropy sector. High net-worth individuals and transnational companies are increasingly creating foundations, often with different motivations but similar or complementary objectives. They tend to hire highly skilled professionals coming from a broader labour pool, which spans corporations, research centres, NGOs, public sector and think tanks, and bringing new skills to the sector.

Recognising the growing role of foundations in the development arena and following a year of extensive consultations with about 80 foundations from 20 countries spanning 5 continents, the OECD Development Centre launched a Global Network of Foundations Working for Development (netFWD) in October 2012. The Network came as a response to an explicit demand from a number of foundations to find a dedicated platform to contribute lessons on development which would also enhance the effectiveness and impact of their efforts while engaging in policy dialogue with governments, the private sector and key experts.

Objective

The Network’s objective is to provide an innovative platform to enhance members’ collective and individual impact, to promote knowledge sharing and dialogue, to draw lessons from good practices and failures, as well as to influence policy by contributing and testing new thinking for development.

Core values

netFWD is premised on five core values which are shared amongst its members and which guide their own engagement in supporting development:

• Risk-taking behaviour

• Ability to leverage resources to generate more synergies and effective action

• Focus on innovation

• Acting as brokers to enable effective collaboration

• Supporting integrity and competence, as key elements of trust building

netFWD’s value added

• INNOVATIVE THINKING ON PHILANTHROPY FOR DEVELOPMENT:
  The ability to explore themes related to important development challenges (the “What’’) and issues related to foundations’ responsiveness to those challenges (the “How’’).

• SPECIFIC OECD netFWD PRODUCTS:
  Unique netFWD “tools’’ and outputs will be developed (e.g “key challenges from a philanthropic perspective’’ or “Position Papers’’) to capture the gist of discussion and allow members to use them internally and in dialogue with their own partners on the ground.

• ONE STOP SHOP FOR EXPERTISE ON DEVELOPMENT:
  Access to OECD experts and to other networks of actors dedicated to development (e.g. DAC Network on Governance, OECD Task Force on Tax and Development).

• OECD AS A NEUTRAL BROKER:
  The OECD’s neutrality and its brokering role between policy makers and non-state actors.

• POLICY DIALOGUE:
  OECD’s long-standing tradition of supporting and influencing policy dialogue and knowledge sharing while shaping cutting-edge practices.