Fundraising Is a Must for MS

Depending on one single donor, the Danish Government, puts MS in a vulnerable position. Fundraising is therefore a must for MS this year, says Bente Topsoe-Jensen, MS International Director.

By Manja Kamwi

Fundraising will become a top priority for MS in 2005, said Bente Topsoe-Jensen during the MS-Zambia Annual Meeting where she represented MS-Denmark.

So far MS has depended largely on the Danish Government for funding and at present 85 percent of the overall budget is financed by MFA.

“However, dependence on one single donor puts MS in a very vulnerable situation,” said Bente with reference to possible political changes with regards to development aid in Denmark.

Changes have already been seen in the past years, where Denmark has changed not only its priorities for development support but also has cut down on the total support of development aid.

More flexibility

On the other hand external fundraising will give MS more flexibility with regards to prioritising its development work, Bente noted.

Fundraising will not only be an issue for MS-Denmark. The local Country Offices, among them MS-Zambia will also have to start looking for other channels of support.

“Fundraising is a corporate responsibility at three levels in MS. Where MS-Denmark will mainly have the responsibility of raising sponsorships and attract private funding from e.g. private companies it is the responsibility of the Country Offices to raise funding for their local partner organisations. When it comes to attracting funding from bilateral and multinational donors MS-Denmark and the Country programmes will work hand in hand”, she said.

Bente also stressed that MS will prioritise the task of capacity building for fundraising among partners
and thus avoid a situation, where MS competes with its partners for funds.

In MS-Denmark the process has already started by hiring a full time employee responsible for fundraising.

MS-Zambia has also started the process of seeking funding from other sources. (More about this in the next issue of NewZ)

The worldwide concern about terror prevention has caused the Danish Government to reallocate funds from development and poverty-oriented activities to anti-terror prevention. It has been heavily discussed within MS if some MS activities should be aimed at anti terror activities in order to attract funding. The argument against this has been that since MS does not agree on this new priority of development aid MS should not reorient activities towards anti terror measures. However, in countries like Kenya, where the terror threat has been evident in terms of bombings and violence it has made sense to put such activities in place.

“The challenge is to put poverty and civil society on the agenda as well, said Bente. And that has been done successfully in Kenya where MS-Kenya has engaged proactively in the discussion and managed to argue for poverty oriented activities under the so-called anti terror vote, through the formulation of a programme aimed at strengthening civil society organisations” said Bente.