The Do More Foundation Trust
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Mission Statement
We inspire more people and organizations to "create better tomorrow's for young children and communities of South Africa". The Foundation identified early childhood (conception to age 6) as a critical developmental period for children, and one that does not receive appropriate levels of attention by government, business and society in South Africa. This inadequate allocation of resources is seen to result in poor performance in primary and secondary schooling. The investment into ECD is significant in terms of the country's future workforce and the ability to have a nation of individuals that develops to its full potential. To change the prevailing poverty-based trajectory of South African society, more needs to be done to support early childhood development in the country. The work of the DO MORE Foundation is based on three principles of Scaling Up, Scaling Out and Scaling Deep: > Scaling Up relates to advocacy for young children at a local, provincial and national level; > Scaling Deep refers to convening partners to catalyse ECD in communities to support young children and families; > Scaling Out refers to scaling early learning, parent support and food resourcing beyond the “deep” communities, The result of these actions aims to create a better future for young children through partnerships- partnerships and collaboration fueling the system. The Foundation aims to mobilise resources to support the comprehensive basket of services outlined in the Integrated ECD Policy (2015) in chosen impoverished community areas across South Africa. The Foundation also works with the three spheres of government: local, provincial, and national to advocate for young children. The DO MORE Foundation’s work is also based on our Model of Collective Impact and partnerships which drives our initiatives at scale. The DO MORE model of collective impact places the young child at the centre, and acknowledges their households and communities as spheres of influence and impact. The Foundation seeks to mobilise communities to realise the right and needs of young children. Using a stakeholder engagement process we catalyse resources to meet these needs. The Foundation has a range of programmes operating at national-level and strategic local community development initiatives are underway. The purpose of the Foundation’s National Programmes is to deliver resources and capacity building in the fields of nutrition, early learning and parent support at scale through various partners in ECD. For example, one of our early learning programmes – called DoMorePlay – uses waste materials (such as wood offcuts from wood pallets) to make educational toys. Further, the toys are assembled by differently abled youth, thereby having a dual positive impact for young children and differently abled youth. Another example is Repurpose4Purpose, a programme supported by DO MORE and Barrows Global which repurposes excess business inventory (waste offcuts) to create 2D card games and posters by printing educational materials on cardboard which are distributed to ECD centres. These programmes are also involved in training and capacitation of communities through partners to facilitate the success of these programmes. This recycling initiative is part of a climate resilience strategy. DO MORE’s community development work is implemented through its "Everyone Gets to Play" model (the Everyone Gets to Play collective impact model was endorsed by the President of South Africa - Cyril Ramaphosa as a model that should be replicated in order for our children to flourish) , which aims to drive deep systemic change by catalysing resources to implement Government’s National Integrated ECD policy (2015) in the following areas; Nkomazi, Bushbuckridge Pongola, Hammarsdale, Molteno, Worcester, Rustenburg and Randfontein. The policy is brought to life through a responsive basket of services tailored to communities’ needs, which include service areas of nurturing care such as food security and nutrition, parent and caregiver support, maternal and child health, early learning through play, child safety and protection, infrastructure and services and enterprise development. Advocating for young children at local and provincial level also forms part of the work of the Foundation.
About This Cause
Since 2019, the DO MORE FOUNDATION (founded by RCL Foods) has come to formally identify itself as a Backbone Support Organisation within a Collective Impact framework. We believe in the importance of working in collaborative partnerships with key public and private stakeholders to meet the needs of young children as set out in South Africa’s National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. As such, the Foundation identifies its role as one that enables partnerships, effective collaboration, mobilisation of resources and policy implementation focused on improving the environment for the optimal development of young children. We know that BIG problems require BIG solutions – the collective impact approach is most relevant and effective when the problems addressed are complex “adaptive” social problems (such as those facing SA’s young children) and where the complete answer is not known. It is clear that no single entity has the mandate or resources to bring about the necessary change for the young children in our country, we have to work together in a coordinated and intentional manner. “Shifting from isolated impact to collective impact is not merely a matter of encouraging more collaboration or public-private partnerships. It requires a systemic approach to social impact that focuses on the relationships between organisations and the progress toward shared objectives. And it requires the creation of a new set of non-profit management organisations that have the skills and resources to assemble and coordinate the specific elements necessary for collective action to succeed”. - Kramer and Winter, 2011. While collaboration is central to collective impact, it goes beyond that with a “centralised infrastructure, a dedicated staff, and a structured process that leads to a common agenda, shared measurement, continuous communication, and mutually reinforcing activities among all participants. The common theme is that large-scale social change comes from better cross-sector coordination rather than from the isolated intervention of individual organisations” - Kramer and Winter, 2011 Whilst the Foundation was not initially set up expressly as a backbone organisation, our role as such has became very evident after a few years. A core component of our backbone organisation role is a dedicated staff (what we call “implementing teams”), separate from the participating organisations, who can plan, manage, and support the initiative through ongoing facilitation, technology and communications support, data collection and reporting, and handling the myriad of logistical and administrative details needed for the initiative to function smoothly. Key to the development of our watertight implementation model in Nkomazi (the Leave No Young Child Behind model), which we have been able to scale quite quickly, includes the formation of a Provincial Steering Committee, Functional Technical Team made of all ECD stakeholders at sub district level and Young Child Forums attended by ECD programme representatives. By targeting our interventions at both community and national level and placing children at the centre of our programmes and initiatives, we are able to respond to the immediate needs of communities with the intention to effect systemic change and achieve large scale and sustainable impact. Our communication channels and strategies have been essential to bringing in new partners and mobilising local stakeholders, and allowing them to “tap into the big picture work” using their own ideas and offerings (monetary, products, services etc…). We aim to embody the principles of adaptive leadership, focus people’s attention and create a sense of urgency for issues facing the children we serve. We also have the skill to apply pressure to stakeholders without overwhelming them, the competence to frame issues in a way that presents opportunities as well as difficulties, and the strength to mediate conflict among stakeholders. All of which have been highlighted by Kramer and Winer as successful components of a backbone organisation structure. By acting as a catalyst for the public, private and NGO sectors to come together under one vision and guiding the combined activities, we are proving how backbone organisation structures are hugely successful in effecting change for young children and the communities in which they live. The Foundation is committed to playing a long term role in supporting sustainable and systemic change. We are able to play this key role in the communities in which we work thanks to the support of RCL Foods (our founder) as well as Rainbow and Vector logistics (part of RCL FOODS) – our key corporate partners who help us drive significant impact at community level.