Surplus People Project (SPP) is one of the key organizations in southern Africa working on food sovereignty and economic justice for landless people.

In 2011, Thousand Currents (then IDEX) was told to learn about SPP’s work in South Africa as they developed their program strategy.

Then program director Rajasvini Bhansali says that Thousand Currents approached Surplus People Project “as Thousand Currents does.” That is, with humility and with the desire to enter into a one year relationship to learn about each other. SPP had supported land and agrarian struggles of people who are poor in the Western and Northern Cape provinces since the 1980s.

“We were so sure that they would be delighted to hear from us,” says Bhansali.

And of course they were. Bhansali recounts that SPP director Herschelle Milford was extremely kind. After a long, first conversation at their offices in Cape Town, Bhansali got to the point:

"We’d love to send you a grant and we’d love to begin this relationship.”

But to Bhansali’s surprise, Milford refused.

“Oh, that’s lovely. Why don’t we wait on that a little bit?”

Bhansali explains that Milford said, “While you’ve done your desk research and homework about us, we need a little time to do our due diligence.”

As a norm, SPP doesn’t accept U.S.-based funding, having critiques of the role of USAID in landlessness issues in South Africa. The organization had also experienced the fatigue of development financing as a root cause of some of the civil society problems in South Africa.

Read the full article about when grantees have the power by Thousand Currents at Medium.