The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and provides approximately $260 million annually in grants and impact investments. Based in Chicago, with locations in India and Nigeria, the Foundation works with people around the world to explore new ideas, approaches, and models.
The Foundation has played a significant role in shaping and supporting critical developments in Nigeria over the past 30 years, working across various sectors to address some of the country’s most pressing challenges. Since its involvement began in the early 1990s, the Foundation has focused on areas such as reproductive health, education, human rights, governance, health, and combating corruption.
The Foundation opened its doors to programming in Nigeria in January 1994 in Ibadan, a populous cosmopolitan city in Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria with the launch of its Reproductive Health Programme with Prof. Bolanle Awe in the saddle. Since then, the Foundation has gone on to support other initiatives including The Fund for Leadership Fellows in Nigeria, Higher Education, Human Rights and International Justice, Girls Secondary Education and On Nigeria.
These efforts contributed significantly to the success of Nigeria’s midwifery programme, which significantly lowered maternal mortality in the project areas. This success stemmed from advancements in the Population and Reproductive Health Programme that ensured greater availability of lifesaving medications, improved the training of healthcare providers to deliver high quality care, and increased awareness among families about available services.
Using an effective cohort approach, the Foundation structured its partners into Education, Electricity, Behaviour Change, Criminal Justice, Joinbodi and Media and Journalism cohorts. With more than 800 grants totalling $257 million to 256 organizations and 135 individuals for work based in and focused on Nigeria in the last 30 years, the Foundation is not yet done with Nigeria.
Thirty years later, on Wednesday 9th October 2024 in Abuja, the MacArthur Foundation celebrated a legacy of forging inclusive partnerships in Nigeria to build a just, verdant and peaceful world with its team led by Dr Kole Shettima, partners, grantees and other stakeholders.
A Legacy of Impact
Population and Reproductive Health was the ground zero of the MacArthur Foundation’s work in Nigeria which focused maternal and reproductive health, particularly in addressing the high rates of maternal mortality in Nigeria. Over the years, the Foundation has supported programmes that promote better health services, family planning, and maternal care, especially in underserved areas.
One of the major focus areas in Nigeria has been improving governance and accountability. The Foundation’s interventions have helped strengthen institutions and civil society organizations to tackle corruption. Through its On Nigeria initiative, launched in 2014, MacArthur aimed to reduce corruption by supporting investigative journalism, civic engagement, and legal reforms. By backing independent media, whistleblower initiatives, and anti-corruption agencies, it has encouraged transparency in both public and private sectors, while the growth of investigative journalism and whistleblowing has promoted accountability and transparency, which has led to the prosecution of high-profile corruption cases.
The Foundation has also been committed to improving education quality and access in Nigeria. A significant part of this is the support for higher education institutions, such as funding for universities and promoting educational research and development. The Foundation has worked to address issues like the out-of-school children crisis, with a special focus on the northern regions of the country where insecurity and poverty have left many children out of formal education.
As part of its core area of work, the Foundation has funded numerous initiatives aimed at protecting human rights and promoting social justice. By supporting local NGOs and international partnerships, MacArthur has worked to empower marginalized communities, safeguard civil liberties, and strengthen legal frameworks that promote justice.
Critical support has also gone to civil society organizations (CSOs) across Nigeria. These organizations play a pivotal role in monitoring government activities, engaging in advocacy, and ensuring accountability at various levels. MacArthur’s funding has helped build capacity for CSOs to act as watchdogs and agents of change in Nigeria to support government’s anticorruption efforts.
30 Years of Forging Inclusive Partnerships
In 2014, the MacArthur Foundation launched the On Nigeria Initiative. The initiative’s success can be seen in efforts around exposing and reducing corruption in Nigeria’s education, health, and security sectors, with investigative journalism playing a key role in this. Its programmes on reducing corruption were implemented by supporting Nigerian-led efforts that strengthen accountability, transparency, and participation.
In 2015, the Foundation further made a significant commitment to Nigeria through its On Nigeria Big Bet programme by expanding its support, focusing on enhancing public service delivery through anti-corruption efforts. The Foundation believed that tangible progress was achievable in this area. Since then, their efforts have helped build a stronger and more resilient accountability system, where CSOs, community groups, and government officials, particularly at the state and local levels, collaborate to uphold integrity.
This sixth MacArthur programme in Nigeria focused on supporting Nigerian-led efforts to reduce corruption and enhance accountability. On Nigeria has been a catalyst for hard but honest conversations and the co-creation of strategies between demand and supply-side players to tackle the challenges of corruption and to uphold transparency, accountability, and participation. All the while centering the principles and approach of gender and social inclusion.
As a result, all Nigerian states have enacted the Administration of the Criminal Justice Law (ACJL), with MacArthur’s criminal justice grantees playing a key role in supporting its implementation, further strengthening Nigeria’s accountability framework. Media and journalism grantees have become prominent voices in the Nigerian media landscape, producing substantial corruption-related reporting and investigative journalism. Since 2016, the volume and quality of these reports have notably increased. Many of these investigative reports have led to government action, particularly at the state and local levels, on issues like financial crimes, corruption in public services, and voter registration fraud.
MacArthur’s initiatives have also fostered a cultural shift in Nigeria. Today, more citizens are willing to report corruption and reject bribes. According to the 2023 National Corruption Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, 70% of Nigerians who were asked to pay a bribe that year refused to do so at least once.
The Reward for Hard Work is More Work
Despite the progress made, Nigeria still faces major hurdles, including persistent corruption, a growing population, insecurity, and underdeveloped infrastructure. The MacArthur Foundation’s continued focus on governance, education, and human rights is crucial in helping Nigeria navigate these challenges. Going forward, the Foundation is expected to deepen its work in the areas of civic engagement and empowering youth, considering Nigeria’s growing young population and their potential as agents of change.
The Foundation’s commitment to Nigeria goes beyond grant making to positioning itself as a thought leader in the philanthropic world. It has been instrumental in making the sector more adaptive and an effective partner to civil society, businesses, and governments.
The Foundation has established a successful model that other development organizations could emulate including its commitment to sourcing leadership and staff locally and promoting collaboration through cohort-based initiatives, enabling organizations to learn from each other and enhance collective impact. MacArthur’s dedication to ensuring projects are long term and locally driven is a powerful example to emulate because social change is incremental and takes time.
The MacArthur Foundation’s 30 years of impact in Nigeria reflects its long-term commitment to addressing systemic issues and empowering local communities, helping Nigeria on its path toward better governance, transparency, and social progress.
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