Barings Foundation 2

Barings Foundation 1  is here if you want the background. 

This foundation not only funded the administrative support for the All Parliamentary Group for LGBT they also supported salary costs to embed a Stonewall employee in the Department for International Development. Curiousity piqued I resolved to have a look at what else they fund. I looked at all 163 grants given in 2020 but, for the purposes of this blog, I started drilling down to the funding allocated under the label “International Development”.

The issue is not one of a lack of transparency. All their grants are searchable. Guidance to setting up a Private, charitable foundation highlights the advantage of this vehicle for philanthropy: it allows the foundation to have complete control in terms of their funding priorities.

From 2013 this 👇 became the focus of Baring Foundation’s allocation for “International Development”.

“This programme aims to support civil society organisations to address discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals and communities in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses particularly on lesbian and transgender communities”.

Prior to 2013 the foundation had spent over ten years targeting issues of “gender” and many of the grants were available to women and girls. This is their new focus as the above quote illustrates.

This is a list of all the grants. All of them are either entirely focussed on Transgender causes or at least reference Gender Identity Ideology. Only the Forum for the Empowerment of Women seem the most focussed on actual lesbian issues. Looks to me as if they were included because it is transphobic to imply that Lesbians can’t be “transwomen”.

I have examined every one of these organisations via their websites. Even those that appear to be about Lesbians seem to have rather an elastic definition of what constitutes a “lesbian” and talk of diverse sexual identities.

Social, Health & Empowerment: Feminist Collective

Let’s look at the Social, Health and Empowerment , Feminist Collective. This group, they advise advocates for African transgender and intersex women and claims to employ a feminist framework.

Centring themselves in a discussion of women’s reproductive rights: Check ✅

Making sure the feminist message is rammed home by celebrating er, Beauty Pageants. 😳

Of course no self-respecting feminist group would be complete without undermining the rights of the same sex attracted people. This is how they redefine homosexuality.

The idea that a London based organisation is funding a group who are denying sexual orientation, on a continent where it remains illegal in many countries, should concern you. See my earlier post for the state of play re Lesbian and Gay rights on continental Africa.

Lesbian & Gay Rights in African countries

Website here for S.H.E here 👇

S.H.E

Let us look at another the Forum for the Empowerment of women. This website mainly focuses on black lesbians but nods to the Gender Identity Ideology with a reference to SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity). It is difficult to ascertain if this organisation takes the money and does the bare minimum to demonstrate allegiance to any conditions attacked to their grants. Fair play to them if they do!. Website below. Most of the initiatives relate to Black Lesbians and are concerned with violence against this community and forging networks and up-skilling women to gain a footing in the corporate world. Website below. 👇

F.E.W

The largest sum went to Uhai.Eshari. They have a very unresponsive website but Barings published a case study on their organisation. Here is a clip. They have been given £760,000 since 2018. All to support queer and gender diverse communities.

Every one of these organisations promote Gender Identity Ideology. Projects are in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and this is by no means an exhaustive list. This is what the are doing in Kenya. Maybe there are some more pressing needs in these communities than rolling out “Gender Affirming Care” to some of the poorest nations on earth?

Kenya is often hailed as a success story in terms of its economic development over the past decade. It is not the poorest country on the continent. Here a couple of issues highlighted by Oxfam Kenya.   Gross inequality and 40% are without access to basic health services. 

Sexual violence remains a significant issue and has surged during the Covid Pandemic. 

Another organisation funded by Barings Foundation is  Gender Dynamix.

They also focus soley on Trans and Gender Diverse Communities. What struck me about this organisation was the link to a consent form for accessing masculinising or feminising treatments.

You can see the document here:

Consent Form Feminising 2019.pdf – Google Drive

Here are some clips which jumped out at me.. First up the possibility that your sexual orientation may change temporarily or permanently. This is reminiscent of Gay Conversion Therapy.

Secondly a list of side effects from feminising treatments. These list the impact of hormone treatments only. 

Arundhati Roy called charitable foundations a way to “parlay wealth into power”. We should look at what those badging themselves pro-social justice with as much suspicion as any wealthy individual/group forcing through social change on the basis of their own ideology.

Is it wise to export this ideology to countries with no, or only recent, acceptance of homosexuality?

I am unwaged so any support much appreciated.  If you are in a similar position a share is just as good.  Thank you!