As an important contributor of skills and research to the non-profit, higher education and philanthropy sectors, Inyathelo shares trends towards ensuring NPO sustainability in 2021.
Capacity building: Against the backdrop of the pandemic, building capacity at non-profit organisations (NPOs) has become more important than ever as they strive to meet escalating demands for their services and facilities, while struggling with limited human and financial resources.
Based on our clinic sessions, we know there is a great need for trustworthy advice and education across a wide range of topics. We receive queries spanning bookkeeping and invoicing, resource mobilisation and governing bodies, and much more. The advisory sessions conducted by Inyathelo practitioners are mostly about funding practices and how to attract funding. Our bespoke governance work with non-profit board members has seen a significant uptake. Raising awareness of the need for proper training, and fulfilling it, will be a priority.
Accreditation: Linked to the need for education, we anticipate growing emphasis on professionalisation and accreditation in the non-profit sector. We have been engaging with various university bodies, such as the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment at Wits Business School, to ensure that, with time, NPO practitioners will be able to progress from basic introductory studies to a doctoral degree.
Effective boards: The roles and responsibilities of board members have come to the fore during the pandemic. The crisis has highlighted their important role in oversight of strategy, fulfilment of organisational mission, risk management and financial management and sustainability. We anticipate increasing emphasis on governance education. Inyathelo offers a bespoke series with non-profit’s board members taking a practical approach to facilitate governance effectiveness. This will go a long way towards ensuring practices are up to date, with trustees better informed about their fiduciary duties and responsibilities and with robust financial checks and balances in place.
Addressing diversity and inclusion: Cases of gender-based violence, sexual harassment and racism in NPOs have shown that boards lack sufficient experience in the oversight role of managing equality, diversity and inclusion. The consequences are toxic work environments, poor retention of good staff, and reputational damage.
Inyathelo has already worked extensively on governance and leadership training and workshops to assist NPOs and boards: We have been the custodian of the Independent Code of Governance in South Africa, developed by civil society organisations to promote good governance, high standards and best practice among NPOs. We have also produced a set of educational books called The Board Walk Good Governance Guide series.
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Initiatives that are in place to ensure female economic empowerment
According to the Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, several actions have been taken towards building women’s economic empowerment following the widespread issue of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) in South Africa.
“As a country, we have made a commitment to earmark 40% preferential procurement to women-owned businesses nationally. A central coordinating mechanism has been curated with a national procurement task team coordinated by the Presidency to ensure that key actions are taken to achieve this target,” said Nkoana-Mashabane.
She added that initiatives aimed at fast-tracking the empowerment of women-owned businesses to take up these opportunities have been developed and implementation started in December.
At the launch of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign in November, the minister called on the nation to play their part in ending GBVF. She said this can be done by establishing a society where men and women enjoy equal rights and eliminating the system that exploits women.
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