Abstract
M.A. (Public Management and Governance)
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), a German political foundation, opened its office in
South Africa in 1982. Political foundations assist in strengthening democracy and the
promotion of good governance through funding democracy promotion activities in
developing countries. The relationship between donors and recipients of funding is a
complex one. Recipients depend on donors for funding and thus in most instances it
seems that they take orders from donors and that they may compromise their own
ideas/projects and implement what the donor prefers.
Donors are also frequently blamed for tying aid to conditionality, thus putting recipients in
the difficult position of trying to please the donor even though they have a better
knowledge of what their countries or people need. Despite also experiencing some of the
abovementioned issues, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung refers to the relationship with its
recipients as a partnership.
KAS refers to the recipients of funding as partners because KAS works together with its
partners to ensure that the projects succeed. In very exceptional cases, where KAS head
office has partnership contracts with recipients, funds for such organizations are
disbursed at the start of the project, upon receipt of a budget. Even in such cases, KAS
still has continuous engagement to see that funds are used as stipulated in the contract
and budget. However, with the majority of recipients the funding model operates in two
ways: recipients may send invoices to KAS and the latter pays the service providers
directly, or the recipients may pay the service providers and submit invoices and proof of
payment to KAS for reimbursement when financial reporting is completed at the end of
the project. KAS does not dictate terms to recipients. Instead they both work together to
ensure that the project succeeds. The research investigated the relationship between
KAS and its recipients. The sample in this study comprises selected recipients of KAS
funding in South Africa during the period 2006-2011. KAS does not fund all projects of
the selected recipients; they have other donors as well. The primary issue with which all
of them are dissatisfied is the lack of institutional funding from KAS specifically, but also
from donors in general. The issue of funding being made available for projects only is
creating difficulties for recipients because they have to source funds for other costs e.g.
salaries.