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KCDF: Governance Compounding Complexity

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By June 2019, Janet Mawiyoo, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF), and her executive team had reached the conclusion that it was no longer viable for the Foundation, which carried out the organisation’s development activities, to be so integrally involved in the operations of the investment activities of the KCDF Trust, the latter having been established in the mid-2000s to manage and grow the assets of the Foundation. She wanted to find a way of ensuring that she could have more time to focus on her core work at the Foundation, so that the Trust’s activities were managed effectively and that it could act in a decisive and timely manner to grow the Foundation’s assets.

Stanley Mliwa: A Legacy Demanding a Conscious Response

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For his entire life, Margaret Mliwa’s late father, Stanley, had given his time and money to serve people in need. Margaret, who was the eighth of his 10 children, had chosen to follow in his footsteps. But it had not been an easy choice, and now, in her mid-50s and on the eve of her birthday in April 2019, she wondered about how to keep her philanthropic activity in balance with the rest of her life.

WACSI: Striving for Sustainability

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By late March 2018, with the economy improving in West Africa in general, and in Ghana in particular, civil society organisations (CSOs) in the region were feeling the pinch of decreased funding from international donors, who now preferred to provide funding where they perceived the need to be greater. Nevertheless, Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, executive director of the West African Civil Society Institute (WACSI), an organization dedicated to empowering and strengthening the capacity of CSOs in the region, believed that their work remained as important as before. Since 2013, as a means of ensuring that its work could continue, WACSI had taken steps to diversify its donor base, generate its own income and strengthen internal sustainability. Ahead of a board meeting to discuss the organisation’s 2018-2022 strategy, Afadzinu wondered whether WACSI’s strategies to ensure its future sustainability would succeed.

Implication of Regulated Cannabis Legalisation on Wellbeing and Economic Growth

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This is a thesis on the cost benefit analysis of cannabis legalisation, public (mis)perception about cannabis usage and cannabis users, the medical application of cannabinoids and their commercial and industrial potential in the new global political economy. The study shows that, although there are misconceptions about cannabis, there is still much to unpack about its effects on human well-being. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative cross-country dataset from Ghana and South Africa, the study employed a logit model to address the following questions: (a) What does society know about cannabis and its industrial and medical applications? (b) What is the evidence-based scientific claims of cannabis regarding human well-being? (c) What are the existing gaps between perception and knowledge? Among the contributions, this study clarifies the often-misunderstood position of cannabis in society and illuminates the blind side of the role of cannabis as an economic enabler in the post pandemic world. More importantly, while some schools of thought project cannabis as a gateway drug to the infernal
realm, this study provides evidenced based on real-time practical experience from well- informed and educated users. The study provides a model for regulated cannabis legalisation, a proper guide on value-added supply chain mechanism, and guiding principles to ensure the model functions properly, based on lessons and best practices from countries that have legalized cannabis, such as the Netherlands, Canada, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. This study further establishes empirical and theoretical foundations for the key thematic subjects of cannabis use, as well as a policy direction pertaining to its regulated legalisation, prohibition, or decriminalization in Ghana and South Africa. Given the disconnect between knowledge and perception about cannabis, the study recommended knowledge enhancement and adequate advocacy on the pros and cons of cannabis for society to enhance understanding of the benefits and its side effects to provide evidence-based guidance on the medical application and industrial potentials

Towards a framework for asset pricing in developing equity markets

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The need to accurately determine risk-return trade-offs in financial markets is an important question that has occupied minds of various players in capital markets for over five decades now. In this study, we addressed this question by attempting to determine the drivers of returns in developing equity markets. Further, we test the ability of the identified factors to command significant and reasonable risk premiums in the returns of developing equity markets. The results of this analysis were compared with those of a select group of emerging and developed equity markets. This study employed monthly stock price data from 20 developing equity markets, starting January 1, 1996, and ending February 1, 2020, resulting in 290 months of observation. Countries are included in the study as their data became available. Monthly stock price data were used to calculate individual stock returns for the first phase of the study, which involved determining the covariance matrix of returns. This was done through a dimensionality reduction technique of Asymptotic Principal Components Analysis and standard PCA whenever data permitted. The underlying drivers of returns variations determined through these procedures resulted in a few significant principal components (PCs) driving overall stock variations. The next step related the identified PCs to the candidate risk factors ensuring that empirical testing of asset pricing factors only included factors with important influence on stock variations. The study has found important empirical results on asset pricing in developing equity markets. First, the study has established that only a few fundamental drivers influence returns in the sampled 20 developing equity markets. At country level, factor identification strategy employed discovered that only a few principal components were significantly related to the covariance matrix of returns. Canonical correlations analysis largely confirmed the results as factors such as excess market returns, book-to-equity and aggregate volatility significantly influenced returns variations in most of the individual markets in the sample. The empirical evaluation of the identified factors further established that excess market returns (MKT), book-to-market (value) factor (HML), profitability factor (RMW), momentum factor (UMD), unanticipated inflation factor (UI), aggregate volatility (VOL), and trade weighted US dollar index (TW$) were significantly priced in the returns of developing equity markets. Although FM regression did not price UI and TW$, the associated 𝑡 −statistic of their coefficients were closer to the threshold value of 2. For instance, UI and TW$ respectively produced 𝑡 −stat 1.952 and 1.929, which are significant at the 10% level. The GMM analysis, used for robustness checks, confirmed that MKT, HML, UMD and VOL were significantly priced, but further found that both UI and TW$ were not only significant drivers of risk variations, but also priced in the returns of developing equity markets. Further, DS-LASSO was used to check the robustness of the entire system starting from the factor identification to testing the identified factors. The results largely corroborate the conclusions of GMM, that MKT, HML, UMD and TW$ significantly explain returns variations of frontier equity style portfolios and are priced. The results also indicated that UI is marginally priced with a 𝑡 −stat of 1.958. This study puts forward some recommendations. First, we recommend a favourable policy environment to accelerate capital market development and investment in developing countries. Since accounting information has been established to proxy for common pervasive risk drivers in stock markets, financial reporting standard is, therefore, crucial to the quality accounting information disseminated. Developing equity markets need to institute prudent and harmonised accounting practices and strong corporate governance systems to ensure quality reporting. Debt variables such as corporate bonds and government bonds form a significant component of capital market investment and are important drivers of returns in these stock markets. Unfortunately, developing equity markets do not have well-functioning debt markets rendering the variables irrelevant in their risk-return equation. Thus, these countries should institute deliberate policy measures to ensure growth of debt markets

Studies on philanthropy and impact investment in Ghana

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Anecdotal evidence of practices and institutions has accumulated over the years through oral traditions and all over the psyche of the African. While giving to good causes is not new in the Ghanaian traditional system and culture, there is a general paucity of literature regarding recent developments on the topic. Studies regarding investments that simultaneously generate financial, as well as social and /or environmental returns, are equally lacking. Using Ghana as a case study, this thesis contributes to the literature on three thematic areas in accordance with identified gaps in the philanthropy and impact investment literature. Specifically, the thesis relies on quantitative (instrumental variable probit model) and qualitative (content analysis, multiple-case study) research techniques to examine the relationships, and determinants of formal and informal charitable giving; uncover the motives, priorities, strategies, opportunities, and challenges of corporate foundation giving; and explore the approach to impact investing. These are critical issues whose understanding is theoretical and western-oriented, lacking empirical attention in the emerging literature of African philanthropy and impact investment. Given this, the thesis produced three independent essays to address these salient gaps in the philanthropy and impact investment literature. Empirical findings evolving from these essays are instructive and generally present crucial insights on African philanthropy and impact investment which is relevant for policy and practice. The first essay examines the extrinsic (socio-demographic) and intrinsic (personality) determinants of both formal and informal charitable giving. In addition, it explores whether the relationship between different types of charitable giving –cash and in-kind donations as well as time donations (volunteering) – is substitutable or complementary. Our findings, based on survey data from 1,533 households and instrumental variable probit model revealed that while marital status, education, v household size, religiosity, ethnicity, and empathic concern are important predictors of formal cash and in-kind giving, informal giving of cash and in-kind is driven by income, religiosity and empathic concern. On the other hand, it was evident that formal volunteering is mainly determined by income, household size, religiosity, and empathic concern, whereas gender and religiosity influence informal volunteering. We established that, in both spheres of formal and informal giving, the relationship between cash and in-kind giving and volunteering is complementary. Premised on these findings, we recommend non-profits and policymakers to recognise the complementary role and distinctive determinants of the spheres of giving in designing tools and policies to raise the levels and effectiveness of fundraising and volunteering campaigns.
In the second essay, the practice of corporate philanthropy was explored through the lens of corporate foundations. Specifically, we investigate the motives, priority areas, strategies, opportunities, and challenges of corporate foundation giving. Based on qualitative content analysis, our findings revealed that corporate foundations are influenced by both altruistic and instrumental motives of giving, and that, their approach to giving prioritises multiple areas of national interest such as education, health, economic empowerment, environment/social amenities, and sports. We also found that corporate foundations rely on a combination of strategies (request, media-lead, adoption, and contest) to identify potential beneficiaries and implement their giving programmes. Further evidence indicates that giving of corporate foundations presents opportunities to both foundations (serve society, get partnership offers from other companies, and obtain goodwill from the public) and their parent companies (indirect business and advertising opportunities). However, corporate foundation giving is constrained by insufficient funding, lack of support from stakeholders, managing expectations of individuals, poor maintenance culture, and cultural rites. The findings have implications for practitioners as it presents insights which could vi serve as a model to guide new entrants into the corporate foundation landscape of developing economies. In addition, the findings could assist the development of government interventions necessary to foster greater corporate giving.
The third essay applies a change in perspective to explore the approach to impact investing from a supply-side standpoint. This contrasts existing studies which are mostly theoretical and provide an understanding that is western-oriented and from a demand-side viewpoint. Using multiple-case study design and qualitative data from two Ghanaian organisations, we provide evidence of an impact investment approach characterised by concurrent motive of financial and social/environmental returns, longer time horizon, and engagement or provision of non-financial support. We conclude that this approach leverages the tools of venture capital to realise social or ecological purposes. The findings can potentially assist investors and entrepreneurs to make informed decisions and navigate the complexity surrounding the emerging impact investment environment in Ghana and economies of similar nature. Additionally, it can help in developing explicit policies to regulate the sector, increase its awareness, widens its appeal, and use to serve the intended purpose of a

The sustainability reporting practice of the South African mining industry: community perspectives

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Several studies have been conducted to understand the contribution of the private sector to the global mission of Sustainable Development through the examination of the Sustainability Reporting practice of these actors. However, the accuracy and effectiveness of this now prevalent business practice as a reflection of true company sustainability activities and performance on the ground is still in question globally.
Previous work has investigated this contribution and reporting practice through examining the secondary data of company sustainability reports as a basis, and has failed to look at it from the point of view of the external stakeholders on the ground, at whom the sustainability contribution as well as the reporting practice is normally targeted. Studies and literature in this area has also focused on the developed world, and less so on the developing world, mostly polarised, and most in need of sustainable development.
To close this gap, this study focused on the lived experiences of key community stakeholders in order to bring to light and investigate the primary evidence of sustainability on the ground. Anchoring the research enquiry in the socio-political Stakeholder and Legitimacy theories as the dominant theoretical underpinnings of the sustainability reporting (SR) practice, a qualitative inductive case study of two South African mining communities where two different mining company operations are located was carried out. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews as the basis of the analysis process, where the analytical strategy of grounded theory was employed. After which, relevant secondary data was collected from respective company sustainability reports to enable a counter analysis.
The findings of the study confirmed a lack of accuracy and consistency between the sustainability reporting of these mining companies and the sustainability reality experience of community stakeholders on the ground. The most basic impacts of mining still remained in the two study settings, disparities were found in how these were reported by the mining companies, and misalignment in the understanding of what constitutes mining impacts and therefore what informs the sustainability priorities of the settings.
The engagement of community stakeholders by the mine was found to be poor, with engagement dynamics described as lacking and ineffective. Stark power asymmetries were found in the relationships amongst various stakeholders with the mining companies. Furthermore, the construction and management of mining legitimacy in the two settings was not inclusive of community stakeholders. As a result, only some legal legitimacy existed, social legitimacy of mining was found to be glaringly absent.
The overall conclusion of the study was that the SR practice of these companies was found to be lacking. The applicability of the two dominant theories that generally underpin the practice of SR was found to be insufficient in describing the practice of these cases in a developing country setting. Unique structural conditions resulting from South Africa’s apartheid and colonial past, its neo-liberal political economy contributes to this and undermines genuine commitment to sustainability. Evidence suggests an important applicability of institutional theory in this setting. There is also a need to look into indigenous theories for a more culturally-relevant and human-centred approach required in such a developing country setting.

Motivations for Individual Giving among Ghanaians

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The primary objective of this thesis was to investigate the motivations for individual giving of money, gifts and time to other individuals and organisations among Ghanaians. Previous studies in Europe, America, Asia and South Africa show that individuals are the main source of immediate and long-term support to other individuals and organisations. However, research into the factors that motivate different giving types to individuals and organisations among Ghanaians is almost non-existent. Therefore, this study investigated extrinsic and intrinsic motivations influencing giving decisions by Ghanaians. Specifically, the thesis considered the demographic and psychographic factors influencing individual giving. The demographic factors include personal and socio-economic characteristics, and the psychographics includes behavioural and attitudinal factors that influence giving. The study identified gender, age and household size as the significant demographic factors, while financial constraints, egoism, giving back, social norms, religion, social justice, trust, and emotions are the significant behavioural and attitudinal factors influencingGhanaian giving.

The research obtained primary data by surveying a diverse sample population of 720 respondents and conducting semi-structured interviews with 21 Ghanaians. The binary logistic regression model applied to measure the predictive ability of the demographic and psychographic factors on the three related behaviours of giving money, giving gift items, and volunteering suggests that the significant demographics influencing giving, among Ghanaians are gender, age, household size, number of children, education, ethnicity, religion and marital status. While the significant psychographics influencing giving behaviours are financial constraints, egoism, giving back, social norms, social justice, trust, and emotions.This study adopted the motivational domains of the Self Determination Theory and suggested that the motivation to give is a transition and overlaps from not being able or willing to give, through socially reward-seeking and punishment-avoiding actions to genuine concern for others’ welfare. The main contribution of this study to theory and knowledge is the adaptation and application of the Self Determination Theory in the Ghanaian context and identifying the different variables that influence the giving decision among Ghanaians. In addition, the identified factors are useful to organisations and groups that seek to motivate individual giving and involvement in community, group or national philanthropic and charity activities

An exploratory study of creating opportunities out of solving societal challenges in the South African banking sector: A Creating Shared Value perspective

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The purpose of this study is to explore the Creating Shared Value (CSV) practices that the South African banking sector undertakes to create business opportunities out of solving societal challenges. Anchored on stakeholder theory, the study seeks to establish this potential link between the opportunity concept and societal challenges by deploying the qualitative multiple case study analysis of four major banks and the banking association of South Africa (BASA). The study proposes a CSV-opportunity conceptual framework. The research relied on a multi- method approach, including preliminary interviews, semi-structured in-depth interviews,
document analysis, and field notes to collect qualitative data. Thematic content analysis and coding were deployed.

The empirical findings suggest that CSV is mostly motivated and driven from a responsive business case (regulatory compliance, risk management, societal contract and legitimacy), a compelling societal case (desire for societal change), corporate societal initiatives (CSR, corporate philanthropy, corporate sponsorships) and a compelling business case (business opportunity). However, the compelling business case comes as a by-product or an after-thought of these other motivating factors. These motivating factors are leveraged as transitional vehicle and enabler of CSV business opportunities. This means that within social constructivism view,
business opportunities are created regardless of the motivating driving factors. Findings further indicate that CSV is seen and understood as an extension of other related concepts. Most importantly, CSV is understood as an extension of the transformation of the banking sector and society to ensure that it is inclusive of many previously marginalised as a result of the country’s history of apartheid and its skewed economic activity. The empirical evidence shows that the stakeholder co-creation nature of CSV is both internal and external. Unlike CSV pioneers who presupposed CSV as a Utopian concept, free of trade- offs and challenges, the empirical results indicate a CSV that is fraught with both internal and external challenges. Internal challenges include measurement and trade-off challenges between business and society. The external challenges include external stakeholder co-creation and other external issues such as the deep-seated structural challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality facing South Africa, all of which appear to hinder CSV interventions. Through the newly proposed CSV-opportunity framework, this study contributes to theory and practice. The study further demonstrates that CSV is indeed a social constructionist phenomenon where opportunity is subjectively constructed through actions and interactions with the social world

Exploring the social impact of corporate social investment in South Africa

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Our research examined the social impact of corporate social investment (CSI)/corporate social responsibility (CSR) in South Africa. It evaluated CSI/CSR activities and their immediate outcomes in three South African provinces, namely Mpumalanga, Western Cape, and Gauteng. CSI initiatives within the financial sector in the three provinces were chosen because the financial sector is one of the top three locations where most CSI/CSR activities occur. The critical systems heuristics theory underpinned this study. To systematically address the key research questions, the explorative sequential mixed-methods research approach was employed, which involved a two-phase research methodology that began with phase one being qualitative and phase two being the quantitative aspect of the proposed research. Semi-structured interviews with 32 key informants from a business mentorship programme and an early childhood development practitioner training programme provided qualitative data. In addition, a self- completion survey questionnaire completed by 427 respondents with experience in conducting CSI/CSR initiatives provided quantitative data. To analyse qualitative data, ATLAS.ti 9.1.3.0 Multilingual qualitative research software was employed. Furthermore, the IBM Statistical
Package for Social Sciences software 25 (SPSS 25) was used for descriptive and inferential statistics analysis of quantitative data. Significant findings revealed that CSI is a charitable activity of business conducted to achieve community relations and development for social good. It turned out that CSI initiatives can potentially reinforce the inequalities and disparities that corporate CSR/CSI should eradicate by maintaining the status quo in South Africa. The study concludes that the would-be beneficiaries cannot voice their interests in the CSI initiatives now in a way that can positively affect their lives. Therefore, engaging in the initiative in a more
inclusive way that allows would-be beneficiaries to represent themselves would be more iii empowering and emancipative. The study, therefore, recommends that when the decision-makers are designing the CSI initiatives, one of the purposes for its establishment should be to ensure ownership of the purported beneficiaries’ businesses in addition to the upskilling of all stakeholders.

The Contribution of Non-Governmental Organisations to the Fight against Poverty in Chegutu District, Zimbabwe

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The study explored the contribution of NGOs to the fight against poverty from an assetaccumulation perspective. The research was motivated by the paucity of studies in Zimbabwe examining NGOs and poverty reduction from an asset accumulation perspective. The reality in Chegutu District reflects asset challenges emanating from income struggles, vulnerability to economic shocks and infrastructural shortages. Some of the problems are caused by politics and broader poor governance practices in the district and country at large. The study deployed a qualitative approach; given the goal of capturing NGOs’ beneficiaries, staff, and government officials’ perspectives, lived realities and experiences. Data to answer the research questions were collected using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and documentary analysis. It emerged that NGOs in Chegutu District rely more on supply side asset accumulation interventions to fight poverty. They include household economic strengthening (HES), vocational training, community apprenticeship, nutritional gardens as well as service provision, with only referral strategy and lobbying resembling demand side interventions. Several asset accumulation strategies mentioned above generate income (financial assets) in poor households; enabling them to buy food, pay for children’s school fees, afford medical care, and meet other daily needs. As households build financial assets, their investments in children’s health and education improve, a view supported by many scholars. Guided by a theoretical framing – the Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF), which argues that poverty is a function emanating from lack of access to five forms of assets–financial, social, physical, natural, and human (Arun, Annim, and Arun, 2010) – findings suggest the need to widen the framework. NGOs also facilitate the building of informational and psychological assets which are key factors in the process of poverty reduction. This research also established that asset accumulation interventions by NGOs hinge on both institutional and non-institution enablers such as government ministries, partner NGOs, community volunteers and community leaders. The study argues that for NGO beneficiaries to
reap benefits from NGO interventions, agency taken to be a component of the SLF human assets in the form of patience, resilience, innovation and thinking outside the box plays a critical role. Asset building interventions by NGOs are not operating without challenges and drawbacks. Asset accumulation at household level supported by NGOs is being slowed by bad governance induced macro-economic challenges such as inflation as well the advent of COVID-19 which disrupted
v asset accumulation interventions like household economic strengthening, nutritional gardens, and educational support. While the supply side interventions are key in fighting poverty, this study recommends that NGOs need to intermix their interventions with more demand side interventions that include watchdog and advocacy to deal with structural causes of poverty. This may call for NGOs to re-examine their orientation.