A surge in Arab philanthropy by a new generation is challenging views on wealth and approaches to impact.

Arab philanthropy is not a unified ecosystem of coordinated parts; it is a diverse and complex combination of sources of funding, intermediaries and beneficiaries, which varies greatly depending on which part of the Arab world we are talking about – the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), North Africa (Maghreb) or the eastern Mediterranean (Levant or Mashreq). However, in all the countries of the region there is a longstanding tradition of social giving in a variety of forms and inclusive of all faiths, the best known being waqf

Waqf – a form of endowment – is the oldest and most common form of religiously motivated social giving. In the 1800s, more than a quarter of Egypt’s agricultural land was waqf land, with revenue from such land spent on social services for the poor. The history of waqf is rich with achievements in social services including education and healthcare and in many cases dealing with inequities in society. For different reasons waqf have declined over time, both as a concept and in practice. Governments have always considered waqf as public property and tried to control them. The first successful effort was the Ottomans’ waqf law of 1863 and creation of a ministry to manage it. The mechanism it introduced is essentially the one that is in place now, where custodians in most cases are replaced by a ministry to manage what remains of waqf. As a result, there are now many fewer new waqf being established and large areas of waqf have been expropriated.

A healthy tension now exists between global practices and evolving patterns of philanthropy on the one hand and the Arab world’s own heritage of giving on the other. While other regions of the world, notably the US, use tax exemptions to create incentives for the giving of private wealth for social good, in the Arab region this is not common due to the underdeveloped nature of taxation systems and unfavourable fiscal laws.

In contrast, the Arab region demonstrates at least three main motivations for the giving of private wealth for social good. One is traditionally established and that is giving as a religious duty. Another is giving to solve social problems – a problem-solving attitude characterizes entrepreneurs who often gain a lot of satisfaction from creating solutions to problems using the same skills and mindset that helped them make money in the first place. A third motivation, much less prevalent in Arab philanthropy and philanthropy in general, is wanting to effect social transformation, defined as the change of norms and values, rules, policies or socioeconomic and cultural dynamics. In the case of religiously driven giving, no sustained change is achieved in the lives of people, while in the case of problem-solving and social transformation, the objectives are more complex and less directly achieved. In these cases, private wealth has to take more risk, be more strategic, and build partnerships, none of which is without challenges.

Written by Atallah Kuttab, Natasha Matic and Noha El-Mikawy
Image: Fikra project in Fernana, Jendouba district, north west of Tunis. Photos copyright, and courtesy of Fikra.
Publication date: Article featured in the September 2015 issue of Alliance magazine.

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