Press Release: Inside The U.S. Christian Right's Spending Boom in Africa

23 Oct 2024 — Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah

US Christian Right groups, known for opposing sexual and reproductive rights, have significantly increased their spending in Africa since 2019, according to new data analysis from the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC)

US Christian Right groups, known for opposing sexual and reproductive rights, have significantly increased their spending in Africa since 2019, according to new data analysis from the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC).

Seventeen ‘anti-rights’ and ‘anti-gender’ groups increased their total annual spending in Africa by about 50% between 2019 and 2022 (the latest year for which financial filings are currently available for all of them).

Notably, these groups increased their Africa spending at the same time as abortion rights in the US were being fiercely challenged including at the Supreme Court, in the case that began in 2021 and was decided in mid-2022, overturning Roe v Wade.

These findings are included in the IJSC’s report ‘Following the Money: Inside the US Christian Right's spending boom in Africa’ , published on 23 October 2024.

Other key findings include:

  • Fellowship Foundation, which focuses on evangelising and organising with politicians, accounted for about half of the total spending in Africa by these groups, over the years examined.

  • The sums identified brings up the total spent by these organisations in Africa, since 2007, to more than $70 million. (Previous research published by openDemocracy had counted $54 million spent by these groups over the 2007-2018 period).

  • Three of the 17 groups in this analysis are named members of the Advisory Board to the controversial ‘Project 2025’. These include Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which focuses on court battles against sexual and reproductive rights.

Notes to editors:

  • The Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC) is a new non-profit initiative bringing together current and future journalists, researchers and activists in service of journalism’s core social purpose: to support democracy. The IJSC’s first major publication, released April 2023, revealed how millions of dollars in international aid went to projects involving anti-LGBTQI groups in Uganda, and led to swift changes in the funding practices of some of the donors implicated. See that report or coverage of it in The Guardian and Vice.