The Solidarity Fund has received pledges totalling R2.6-billion up to April 23, with R1.1-billion designated for healthcare-related efforts.

The Solidarity Fund is a special purpose vehicle set up on March 23 to help government and civil society fund South Africa’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, to prevent its further transmission and support those affected by it.

Solidarity Fund’s website will be relaunched over the weekend to display information that is updated on a daily basis around pledges received, allocation of resources and the tracking and reporting of the impact that the fund is making.

Solidarity Fund chairperson Gloria Serobe says the R2.6-billion in pledges have been made by foundations, companies and more than 75 000 individuals.

In the past four weeks, the fund has been registered as a public benefit organisation and an independent board of 12 members has been set up with guidelines they need to adhere to in managing the organisation.

“The Solidarity Fund has created a platform for all South Africans from all sectors to contribute to one consolidated effort against Covid-19. It is separate from government and a fund for all of South Africa,” Serobe notes.

Solidarity Fund interim CEO Nomkhita Nqweni says work on the fund has been focused on building capacity and appropriate processes within, to ensure the fulfilment of the necessary operational activities, which will be measured against the strictest levels of governance.

“The fund has a clear mandate to support the national health response, to contribute to the resultant humanitarian efforts related to the pandemic and to mobilise South Africans to drive a united response in efforts to flatten the curve of the infection.

“As an independent and agile organisation, we have been able to activate meaningful interventions in a short space of time,” notes Nqweni.

She adds that, across the fund’s main areas of health, fundraising and humanitarian efforts, it has a suite of accountable executives that are working hard and offering their talents on a pro-bono basis.  

Three board subcommittees are monitoring the fund’s performance, while professional services firm PwC has been appointed as the external auditor, also providing their services on a pro-bono basis.

“While the amount raised is commendable, especially in such a short time, against the scale of the challenges that we face, it is still a drop in the ocean. Given the limited resources we have, it is imperative that we act meaningfully and with sustained impact.

“In terms of health, we have procured personal protective equipment that is very much needed to support our healthcare workers and also in supporting our increased capacity to facilitate testing,” explains Serobe.

She adds that one of the key catalysts in the fund’s ability to combat the spread of Covid-19 is anchored in awareness and educating one another to influence behaviour.

“We have launched a Solidarity campaign with information being spread through various media. As part of the campaign, we have partnered with 15 radio stations that reach across all nine provinces, offering educational segments in 11 languages, supported by experts and identifiable role models to communicate important messages such as washing hands and physical distancing.”

This campaign’s work is worth millions but because the Solidarity Fund is a pro-bono organisation, it has worked with creative agencies that have given their time and skills, while media owners have generously donated the media booking slots and various billboard platforms for the fund to flight this campaign.

“Going forward, we know that the virus’ situation and impact is constantly evolving; and while our focuses are currently on health, unifying the nation and humanitarian efforts, we will continue to re-evaluate the situation to ensure that our interventions remain relevant and impactful,” affirms Nqweni.

HEALTH EFFORTS

Solidarity Fund healthcare lead Jonathan Broomberg says the foremost priority as a society at the moment is to intensify the health interventions that are needed to contain and delay the spread of the virus, as well as to allow time for our healthcare systems to prepare and to save lives, ensuring emergency equipment and supplies are stocked.

To this end, the Solidarity Fund focuses on highly targeted, impactful interventions.

The fund has allocated R1.1-billion in funding for the health sector, focused largely on the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) that will protect frontline healthcare workers, and other critical pieces of equipment including ventilators and Covid-19 test kits.

“We have seen a significant shortage of PPE for use by healthcare workers and market prices have increased because the whole world has been competing for these items. It was critical that the fund was able to step in and work quickly to bring in these much-needed supplies as quickly as possible.

“We work with various stakeholders to determine the needs from the health system resulting from the pandemic. We needed to make sure that our procurement was focused on areas where government was not yet ready to take action or where certain products were outside of capacity to be produced at short notice,” Broomberg states.  

Business for South Africa (B4SA) is acting as the procurement engine for face masks, goggles, surgical gloves and respirators, besides others, according to the standards needed in specific healthcare operations across the country.

The fund is working closely with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, the Department of Small Business Development, higher education facilities and B4SA to ramp up local manufacturing of low-tech items such as gloves and high-tech items such as ventilators.

All sorts of facilities are being repurposed to manufacture medical supplies.

HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS

Solidarity Fund humanitarian efforts lead Nicola Galombik remarks that, over the past few weeks, as a result of the lockdown, the need for humanitarian assistance has rapidly increased.

The Solidarity Fund has injected humanitarian relief in the form of food parcels in vulnerable communities across the country.

“We set the task to provide emergency relief to 250 000 families by the end of April and over the medium term, will have more systemic solutions such as sustainable food supply chains,” Galombik explains.

Twenty-five per cent of the fund’s food distribution is being done through the Department of Social Development, while the balance of the fund’s disbursement decisions around humanitarian efforts are made independently by the fund and involve contracting relevant organisations for food distribution assistance.

The fund is working with four major food distributors, with established footprints and networks, as well as good track records, including FoodForward South Africa, Islamic Relief South Africa and the Lunchbox Fund. These organisations, in turn, through nine implementing partners ensure food reaches the most underserved and vulnerable communities in South Africa.

“We have ensured in the contracting that the fund’s monies have gone as far as possible directly to the beneficiaries and not to overhead costs of organisations,” Galombik assures.