Open Society Institute Research Articles

The philanthropic privatization of supranational justice?

Abstract In European Human Rights Justice and Privatisation, Gaëtan Cliquennois illustrates how a handful of tax-exempt philanthropic foundations, predominantly American, have redefined European courts to further their commercial agenda. Foundations such as the Open Society and Ford Foundation finance activist non-governmental organizations to carry out litigation that promotes the philanthropies’ preferred policy objectives, notably exemplified by systematic disregard for socio-economic human rights, which conflict with neoliberal principles. This review essay suggests that a deeper understanding of these dynamics can be achieved by moving beyond the philanthropic facade to view these benefactors not merely as neoliberals exploiting tax breaks for their lobbying activities, but more broadly as oligopolists converting their immense wealth into considerable non-majoritarian political power. Cliquennois’s findings reveal a situation less reminiscent of a “new Cold War” in lawfare, as he puts it, indicating a balanced contest, but rather a comprehensive Kulturkampf weaponizing supranational courts to undermine traditional Christian values and national sovereignty. Cliquennois encourages us to scrutinize the genuine philanthropic nature of these organizations, and, importantly, to assess their real effect on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

ОГЛЯД ГРАНТОВИХ МОЖЛИВОСТЕЙ ДЛЯ УКРАЇНИ В УМОВАХ ВІЙНИ ВІД ВІДОМИХ ФІЛАНТРОПІВ ТА МЕЦЕНАТІВ

The article provides an overview of grant opportunities provided by well-known American philanthropists, namely: George Soros, Mackenzie Scott, Michael Bloomberg, Gordon and Betty Moore, Jim Simons, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chen, Sergey Brin, Michael and Susan Dell, Pierre and Pam Cherise Omidyar, and the Marsh family. The grant instruments of the charitable foundations they have created are analyzed, namely: The Open Society Foundations, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mackenzie Scott Initiative, Bezos Earth Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies, Protect Our Planet Foundation, Renaissance Technologies Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sergey Brin Family Foundation, Google Foundation, Dell Foundation, Omidyar Network Foundation, and the Marsh Family Foundation. The study demonstrates the priority areas of these foundations. Most support is focused on the following areas: humanitarian aid, healthcare, education, civil society development, ecology and climate change, environment, reconstruction and infrastructure, support for cultural initiatives, and economic development. Emphasis is placed on the types of support: in addition to grant assistance, Omidyar Network's impact investing in Ukraine is aimed at financing projects in the fields of education, technology, building communications between citizens and government, creating property rights, and finance; and the peculiarity of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's support is that it is implemented, in addition to grants, through “ventures” when capital is invested in companies around the world that develop transformational solutions to problems that meet the CZI's key mission. It is emphasized that the assistance to Ukraine from American philanthropists is diverse and large-scale, covering both large grant programs and individual initiatives. It is summarized that funding for projects in Ukraine is possible not only from the government and donor legal entities, but also from well-known philanthropists and patrons, including American philanthropists, who support various projects in Ukraine during the war by directing part of their wealth to charitable foundations and other philanthropic structures. These efforts help Ukraine overcome the humanitarian and economic challenges caused by the war and contribute to the country's recovery.

The growth of social work in palliative and end-of-life care in the United States: how did we get here?

A historical look back at the 'beginnings' of palliative social work in the United States provides a lens through which to view current areas of focus and future trends in hospice and palliative care with the objective of emphasizing the need for equitable practice approaches. The background and formative efforts to establish palliative social work in the United States as a specialty field of practice were scaffolded by the Project on Death in America, Open Society Institute's Social Work Leadership Development Award Program, and two Social Work Leadership Summits on End-of-Life and Palliative Care, which help to explain how we got here. In the development of the social work role in providing palliative and end-of-life care for individuals who are seriously ill and their families, several important functions unfolded naturally as part of our practice repertoire as professionals. Practitioners, researchers, advocates, policy developers, and more have advanced the field and strengthened palliative social work, especially as the profession addresses inequities and promotes quality of life. Social workers' administrative reports, academic literature, professional standards and educational programs, assessment tools, and evidence-informed practice interventions contribute to illuminating the roles that social workers have on interdisciplinary palliative care teams, while emphasizing the importance of leadership development. Social workers in palliative and end-of-life care are on a firm ground from which to move forward into the ever-evolving future of providing essential quality care at such a critical time in life.

Alexander B. Makulilo; Eugène Ntaganda; Francis A. Away; Margaret Sekaggya & Patrick Osodo, Election Management Bodies in East Africa: A Comparative Study of the Contribution of Electoral Commissions to the Strengthening of Democracy. Nairobi: Open Society Foundations, 2015. 293 pages, ISBN 978-1-920677-96-1

Election Management Bodies (EMBs) are critical to the conduct of elections and the consolidation of democracy. Nevertheless, there remains a scanty comprehensive analysis of EMBs in East Africa. Makulilo, Ntaganda, Away, Sekaggya, and Osodo’s book ventures into that journey. Their book analyses the nature and role of EMBs in five East African countries, namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, centring election management at the heart of democratisation and democratic consolidation. The book situates EMBs into a broader perspective, assuming "their status as a product of the struggle for democracy, their anchorage in the constitutional traditions of each society, their place in the history of political reform, and their interaction with the other institutions of each country" (p. viii). The book's essence draws from the reality that African elections and governance contestations primarily revolve around the management and administration of elections (p. 1).

Coxiella burnetii infections from animals and ticks in South Africa: a systematic review.

Coxiella burnetii is a zoonotic intracellular bacterium that is widely distributed and affects domestic animals, wildlife, humans and non-mammalian species. This systematic review was aimed at synthesizing research findings on C. burnetii in both domestic and wild animals of South Africa. The systematic review protocol was registered with Open Society Foundations of systematic reviews ( https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8WS ). PRISMA guidelines were followed to collect and evaluate relevant scientific articles published on C. burnetii infecting domestic and wild animals in South Africa. Published articles were sourced from five electronic databases, namely, Google Scholar, PubMed and ScienceDirect, EBSCO and Scopus. Results showed 11 eligible studies involving four domestic animals, three wild animals and one ectoparasite species from seven provinces across South Africa. The occurrence of C. burnetii infection was high in Ceratotherium simum (white rhinoceros) (53.9%), medium in sheep (29.0%) and low in pigs (0.9%). Limpopo province (26%) had the most recorded infections followed by KwaZulu-Natal (19%) and Free State (3%) had the least reported occurrence of C. burnetii. The current study discovered that there is scarcity of published research on prevalence and distribution of C. burnetii infecting domestic and wild animals in South Africa, and this is of concern as this bacterium is an important zoonotic pathogen of "One Health" importance.

‘We all came from Soros’

Focusing on the period between 1994 and 2006, this study of the Soros Foundation and its spin-offs employs a mixed-method approach to explore the structure of the visual arts scene in Croatia and the role of Soros Foundation organisations within it. Based on a quantitative analysis of network visualisations and a qualitative structural analysis of narrative interviews, which are theoretically framed around the notions of network and complexity, the article moves the research agenda away from assumptions about what Soros Foundation organisations were supposed to be, to a more embedded understanding of what they actually were in a specific space-time. The analysis foregrounds varying strategies and trajectories of Soros Foundation’s Croatia-based organisations. It demonstrates that they served mostly to maintain continuity with the socialist period during the 1990s, while real structural change, at least partially due to the Foundation’s influence, happened only after 1999 with the emergence of the independent cultural scene.

Roma Mentor Project: The Roma Intellectual Friend Model

Abstract Introduction: The Roma Mentor Project has originally been the experimental educational model of Open Society Institute for multiply disadvantaged Roma and non-Roma youth in the period 2006-2013. Following the closure of OSI’s experimental and alternative educational projects, it has been run further, during the 2016/17 academic year, with the support of the Norway Grant, by the Bhim Rao Association (located in Northern Hungary). Purpose: The Roma Mentor Project aims to establish the pedagogical model of the intellectual Roma friend in order to effectively overcome the sociocultural disadvantages of the Roma and non-Roma children with multiply disadvantages. Methods: Throughout the program a Roma mentor may be a Roma intellectual, artist or well-known figure from the media, whose primary goal is to act as a role model for the Roma children through presenting their own personal and professional life, as well as to become a friend of the mentored. Conclusions: A mentor from Roma origins appears during the project as a Roma intellectual friend in multiply disadvantaged Roma and non-Roma children’s lives, which is especially true considering that the Roma mentor draws tools of socialization from Roma culture.

Division, Persecution and Rearrangement - The AKP’s Controversial Relationship with Turkish Civil Society

Turkish culture has always valued foundations, such as mosques, schools, public baths, free kitchens, and hospitals. However, much of this structure was abolished by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after the proclamation of the republic in 1923. Turkish civil society was slowly reorganized following Western examples and had a second heyday under Turgut Ozal’s liberal economic policy and media market liberalization. However, after the Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, civil society in Turkey was significantly rearranged. This article discusses the conflicts and current situation of Turkish civil society, including the campaign against Amnesty International and the Open Society Foundation. Sources include renowned Turkish journalists and abundant literature in Turkish and English.

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

Division, Persecution and Rearrangement - The AKP’s Controversial Relationship with Turkish Civil Society

Throughout history, and especially in the Ottoman Empire, Turkish culture has attached great importance to foundations. In the past, mosques, schools, public baths, free kitchens, and hospitals alike, all operated in the form of foundations. After the proclamation of the republic in 1923, much of this structure was abolished by the state founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk because he believed that they were tied to the Muslim clergy by a thousand threads. In the initial period of the republic, Turkish civil society was slowly reorganized following Western examples. It lived its second heyday as a result of the introduction of the new constitution in 1982 and Turgut Ozal’s liberal economic policy, and his media market liberalization after 1983. After the Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, the civil society in Turkey was significantly rearranged. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party favored some with a system of opportunities, and sued those who put the government in a politically awkward position. Building on some of the scandalous cases of the second half of 2010s, this article seeks to explain the current situation of Turkish civil society and the conflicts that characterize it. The article highlights the campaign against Amnesty International and the Open Society Foundation, which by November 2021 was only partially over. In the case of current events, in the absence of scientific sources, the writings of renowned Turkish journalists at world-famous news portals were used as a basis. However, in order to substantiate the theory, an abundant literature in Turkish and English was also used.

Best-Selling Author to Discuss How Psychiatrists Can Help Create More Equitable World

Best-Selling Author to Discuss How Psychiatrists Can Help Create More Equitable World

Evolving networks: International sponsors of post-socialist art scenes

ABSTRACT In the countries of the former Soviet Bloc, the state had controlled art and culture according to strict ideological criteria – but it also subsidized cultural production. After 1989, the cultural infrastructure largely collapsed together with the state. The vacuum following socialist state subsidy opened up opportunities that were partially seized by international sponsors in the East-Central European region; the Soros Foundation and the ERSTE Stiftung were the two most important of them. Both organizations developed an extensive network of cultural workers across post-socialist Eastern Europe. With their programmes, the two foundations made considerable efforts to make known and brand East and Southeast European art on an international stage. Nevertheless, they, or rather their relevance for the cultural field of post-socialist East-Central Europe, are hardly known outside the region. Based on the insight of central actors in both these networks, this contribution revisits the activities of the two major donors and assesses their impact from today’s perspective.

Six Key Approaches in Open Society Foundations' Support for Global Palliative Care Development.

Between 1998 and 2021, the Open Society Foundations (OSF) network invested around US$50 million in supporting the emerging field of palliative care worldwide, funding different approaches and interventions to advance its objective of putting palliative care on the global public health agenda. To describe six approaches that were instrumental to the successes of Open Society Foundations' support in building the global field of palliative care. A robust discussion of lessons learnt is unfortunately not possible because Open Society Foundations did not commission a rigorous evaluation of the impacts of its investments. This article describes these six approaches: Investing in versatile palliative care leaders at national and regional level; investing in palliative care champions within the OSF network; proactively engaging the World Health Organization (WHO) in efforts to promote palliative care; developing tools and skills to improve palliative care financing; using a human rights-based approach; and supporting self-advocacy by people with palliative care needs. Deep, long-term investments in national and regional champions from the palliative care community and OSF's own network built palliative care leaders with well-rounded skills, knowledge and opportunities to develop their own networks. The active engagement and involvement of the WHO in efforts to advance palliative care enhanced the credibility of palliative care as a discipline as well its champions, whereas the human rights approach resulted in more diverse strategies to overcome barriers to palliative care. The focus on palliative care financing and self-advocacy showed significant promise for impact. The approaches and strategies described helped a nascent palliative care field develop into a health service that is increasingly integrated into public health systems. Other funders and national governments can build on OSF's long term support for the palliative care field and support further integration of palliative care within public health to increase access.

Kathy Wilkes at the Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik

The text presents the activities of Dr. Kathleen Vaughan Wilkes, a philosopher from the University of Oxford in the Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik (IUC) from the beginning of the 1980s to the end of the millennium. Dr. Wilkes was co-directing the longest standing IUC course Philosophy of Science, but she also initiated other IUC academic programmes. As a member of the IUC governing bodies, she was highly engaged in securing scholarships for participants from Central and East Europe in IUC programmes, mostly through the Open Society Foundation. Dr. Wilkes played a crucial role in spreading information from the city of Dubrovnik during the attacks of the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 and during Croatian’s struggle for independence, for which she was awarded honorary citizenship and posthumously one of the squares was named after her.

Changes in Hungarian academic psychology after the end of "people's democracy".

The paper surveys the last 30 years of Hungarian academic psychology. Around 1989-1990, the time of the great social changes Hungarian psychology was rather Westernized, but still a relatively small scientific field and applied profession. The opening and liberalization of politics made psychology in Hungary a booming profession and a rich research field. Education of psychologists was spreading, and becoming more Westernized in textbook usage and reading materials. Entrance numbers at two universities with 80 students were replaced by 2010 by 6 university programs and about 8000 incoming students. The training system is a Bologna type BA + MA + PhD system, The educational booming has its own problems. As all university subjects, psychology training is also underfinanced, with high teaching loads and a move by university management towards applied areas, neglecting basic research. The research activity is characterized by a fivefold increase of English language publications coming from Hungary over a 20 years period. University research was strengthened, and competitive grant systems were introduced, whth good success aretes by psychologists. Here again, managerial thinking questions many aspects of basic research and liberalized science management. These factors are peculiar to psychology, but they do have an impact on it. The paper gives some details about one chapter of academic psychology, cognitive psychology. Institutionally, support by the Soros foundation in the 90s for the university cognitive programs had as one consequence that three departments of cognition are active in Budapest today. Another aspect of insitutional development was the series of multidisciplinary conferences in Hungary (MAKOG), and Hungarian involvement in international graduate training programs in cognitive science. The most successful cognitive group, at Central European University (5 ERC grants, publications in leading journals) is recently chased out of Hungary by anti-Western and antiliberal legal moves. This would certainly have a detrimental effect on Hungarian cognitive psychology for quite a time.

Forced Sterilization

Forced Sterilization

Progress Update: Development of Palliative Care From 2017 to 2020 in Five Countries in Eurasia.

In the early 2000s, palliative care was largely unknown in the Eurasian region. For a period of twenty years starting around 2002, Open Society Foundations (OSF) supported palliative care pioneers in the region to establish palliative care services, train health providers, and advocate for the integration into health services. To report on the development of palliative care in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine during the period 2017-2021 and explore the impact of OSF's sustained funding for palliative care in these countries. Activities and developments to 2017 were described in country-specific papers in 2018. A retrospective case study analysis was used to examine how palliative care developed in each country. We reviewed theories of change, funding and advocacy strategies, implemented activities and interventions, and their outputs and outcomes, and compared them to legal, policy and service developments in practice. By the mid-2010s, each country had laid the foundations for rolling out palliative care-basic policies and guidelines were in place; palliative care medications were available; key health providers were trained; and training capacity and models of care had been created-but service availability remained limited. In subsequent years, advocates increasingly embraced public advocacy to hold governments accountable for meeting their commitments and to include palliative care in universal health insurance. By 2021, Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine had significantly scaled up service availability and palliative care was firmly embedded in universal health coverage in Moldova and Ukraine whereas progress in Georgia and Tajikistan was more modest. Experiences in these countries suggest that a strategy that initially emphasizes training, technical assistance, and engagement to create the building blocks for palliative care combined with or followed by public advocacy and campaigning to demand roll out of services can result in significant advances. Continued progress, however, is not guaranteed, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic and dwindling donor support.

A Report from LGBTI Philanthropy

A Report from LGBTI Philanthropy

Organizing Workers in the Informal Economy in Selected African and Latin American Countries: The Potential of Trade Union and Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) partnerships

The article gives an account of the result of the research developed in response to the call made by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Open Society Foundations (OSF) in 2021 to carry out a project that would identify the potential of the link between unions and cooperatives to organize workers in the informal economy in African and Latin American countries. Researchers from ODI, London, with the collaboration of researchers and practitioners from Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, identified and documented partnership examples through which to shed light development processes, identify learning on successes and challenges, and inform recommendations for future support. A country case study of Colombia is provided to illustrate the variety, complexity and possibilities of the topic studied. Three nascent partnership experiences, linked in different ways to the social and solidarity economy, demonstrate the potential of this approach to promote fair trade, responsible consumption and local markets, boost entrepreneurship and create decent working conditions for workers who traditionally face informality.

“Sorosoids”: Dehumanization and open society in contemporary Bulgaria

This text elucidates some of the uses and connotations of the word “sorosoid,” which has recently permeated the public discourse in Bulgaria, used to refer to individuals and organizations affiliated with Soros’ Open Society Foundation. I am particularly interested in the inflection “-oid,” which seeks to echo the word “humanoid.” In other words, my specific concern is with strategies of dehumanization of neoliberals in Bulgaria, whereby the fundamental values of open society in this country are challenged. The paper provides a glimpse of some key ideological attitudes in one of Europe’s post-communist democracies.