{"id":2723,"date":"2021-08-25T15:51:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T15:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inno-soluciones.org\/?p=2723"},"modified":"2021-08-26T01:45:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T01:45:50","slug":"just-scraping-by-underfunded-human-rights-organizations-struggle-to-hold-the-line-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inno-soluciones.org\/en\/just-scraping-by-underfunded-human-rights-organizations-struggle-to-hold-the-line-in-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Scraping By: Underfunded Human Rights Organizations Struggle to Hold the Line in Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As a former program officer for a foundation that supported human rights groups for over two decades in Mexico, I worked with civil society organizations that constantly struggled financially. Even though I knew firsthand that sources of support for human rights in Latin America were limited, I only began to understand the magnitude of the scarcity when I started researching to write this blog post. I wanted to see whether data on the funding landscape mirrored what I knew from experience: that streams of funding for human rights work in the region shift constantly and are scarce, that they tend to concentrate on thematic areas and thus funding is tied to specific projects and deliverables. Those of us working in philanthropy, especially the community of progressive donors, have an obligation to understand and address the inequities created by de-prioritizing Latin America.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The data confirms what is common knowledge<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Human rights organizations in Latin America are underfunded. They compete with international organizations for funding from aid agencies and foundations and their staffs work under threats to their physical and mental wellbeing. These organizations hold the line in countries where populist and authoritarian-leaning regimes are gaining ground, undermining democratic rules, silencing the press, and hindering fundamental rights.\u00a0 We know from women\u2019s rights organizations that Latin America is a testing ground for the global right, so not only do right-wing groups gain ground in the region, but they also test strategies they plan to deploy elsewhere.<\/p>\n

A few research teams have done a great job of collecting and analyzing data to figure out the state of funding for Latin American organizations, particularly to those groups challenging the status quo<\/em>, be it in human rights, anticorruption, climate, or gender justice. The main sources for this article are the reports produced by these teams, and they all share the finding that local organizations in Latin America face considerable barriers in accessing donors\u2019 funding in both the international and the national donor landscape. <\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Four Funding Barriers<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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1\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 At least 40% of foundation support for human rights work in Latin America goes to organizations outside of Latin America<\/strong><\/p>

It is not breaking news that a large share of foundations\u2019 human rights funding goes to either intermediaries or organizations based in Canada, the United States, or Western Europe. Over 800 foundations made grants in 2018 to support human rights work around the world. Of the total $3.7 billion in grant dollars, only 6% was allotted to human rights work in Latin America, and 60% of that funding went directly to organizations based in that region[1]<\/sup><\/a>. The source for this data is Advancing Human Rights, <\/a>\u00a0a multi-year research initiative led by Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN)<\/a> and Candid<\/a>.<\/p>

I found two things in this data especially worth highlighting:<\/p>