For the seventh year in a row, the 2015 CSO Sustainability Index for Sub-Saharan Africa offers a snapshot of seven key dimensions affecting the sustainability of CSO sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. This year’s Index includes six new countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Namibia, and Niger, bringing to thirty the total number of countries covered1. For the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa included in this volume, the year 2015 had notable highs and lows. Among the bright spots was the victory over the lethal Ebola epidemic. CSO staff and volunteers in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone showed resilience and courage as they worked as respected partners alongside communities, governments, and international agencies to battle the disease. In Guinea local associations established village and neighborhood Ebola watch committees, while in Liberia CSOs helped the government ensure that a strong new surveillance and response system was put into place. Sierra Leonean CSOs continued several important initiatives to assist women and youth affected by the disease. However, the large influx of donor funds for Ebola-related efforts—amounting to US$1.62 billion by the end of 2015, according to the World Bank— introduced its own challenges. Not only did the fight against Ebola divert money and attention from other urgent needs, forcing some organizations to suspend their activities, but the management of Ebola-related funding itself aroused public concerns, especially in Sierra Leone, where the auditor general identified a number of irregularities in the conduct of both public authorities and donor agencies.
DW Angola
Development Workshop Angola