Capacity Building & Funding
How did this pod challenge our thinking?
This pod focussed on improving funding systems for community-based mental health initiatives. Its members aimed to address inequities in funding, measurement and evaluation mechanisms and the impact of these inequities on research and innovation. They challenged the research team to unpack the hierarchies and structural assumptions accompanying the flow of funds from the Global North to the South.
This group unites people working to support and sustain mental health programs locally as well as transnationally. They have drawn on their diverse expertise to approach questions of funding, measurement & evaluation, and sustainability from the perspectives of those seeking AND allocating funds.
The pod is currently co-writing a commentary, to be published in a reputable scientific journal, in which we ask: How can we resource community knowledge systems?
In providing some possible answers, the pod is linking funding of community mental health organisations to knowledge production and the transformation of the GMH resource base to make it more sustainable and equitable.
How did they do this?
Listen to this audio summary of this group’s co-working process, highlighting the themes that emerged over six months of meetings (January-July 2022).
Recommendations for improving funding systems
This table summarises the key points of the commentary the group is co-writing. By implementing our propositions, funders can help reform funding systems to support the needs and priorities of community-based organisations (CBOs). These recommendations draw on the group’s collective expertise in mental health support and research; they can, however, be applied more widely to global health.
What did the pod produce?
Guidance for equitable funding
The group has sought to produce guidance for funders that addresses the particular challenges that community mental health organisations face in applying for funds and demonstrating impact.
This checklist, produced by NonprofitAF and RVCSeattle, neatly summarises the group’s views on funders’ responsibilities towards grant recipients. To become a high-level funder, foundations must:
cover organisations’ core costs
lower overhead
actively support smaller or newer organisations
extend the duration of their grants (ideally 5-10+ years), and
make applications accessible and straightforward, as well as flexible.
We challenge funders to ask themselves what they must change to ‘level up’. And we also encourage organisations to reflect critically on the funding they receive, sharing their experiences with other organisations and funders to improve funding systems.
How could these learnings be applied?
“There is a need for a radical shift towards equitable and sustainable funding mechanisms that recognise communities, and the organisations that support them locally, as active agents of change in their contexts.”
