Playing our part in decolonising International Development
by Andres Gomez de la Torre and Lucy Morris
“If your conversation on this matter is not uncomfortable, you are not having the right conversation!”
Recent developments around the world have rightly brought back old calls for structural change in the aid sector, including taking anti-racist action individually and as organisations, contributing to what some refer to as the need to “decolonise international development.”
This blog summarizes some of our own uncomfortable conversations, during a recent event to reflect on “How to advance decolonisation in our own lives and complex organisations? Where/How are we making progress and what is hindering us to move forward?”
We are both members of a group of individual INGO staff and consultants from different organisations, countries and nationalities, that has been meeting online and regularly reflecting on topics relating to ‘Re-inventing INGOs’, and felt it was time to engage in the important topic of how to advance decolonisation in our work. The session covered a wide range of issues, from personal power to organisational power (exercised in formal and informal ways), to the now more obvious biases in recruitment, organisational culture, resource mobilisation and prioritisation.
The session explored both the personal and the collective/organisational context, and began with reflections by participants on “What are you thinking about in connection to your own experience with the topic?” This threw up some very profound reflections — from: “How to give up my personal power as a white, older man and not put myself forward for that senior role?” to “What are my own ‘micro-complicities’ and when should I embrace discomfort by challenging colleagues?” It was interesting to hear how such a diverse group in the virtual room has experienced, witnessed or seen manifestations of racism in our sector.
From an organisational context, there was a presentation on how some of us had been actively working to address racism and/or supporting decolonising our operating models, in the organisations we relate with. Without pretending to present a recipe or a ‘one-size fits all approach’, from our own and other participants’ experience, we found several commonalities and actions/steps that have been working ‘relatively’ well. Certainly, the process is never linear or quick. In fact, it is important to be prepared for a “bumpy road” ahead.
We found that some common steps in taking ‘anti-racist’ action and playing our part in decolonising our work were:
1. The basics …
When addressing the ‘how to be anti-racist’ question, a helpful start was to begin by seeking a common understanding of what racism is and how it manifests in our area of work. In our context, it can be said that racism is a system of structuring opportunities and/or assigning value, based on the social interpretation of physical characteristics such as skin colour, in a way that unfairly disadvantages some, benefitting others.
“…from overt experiences of racial discrimination, to everyday micro-aggressions and unsafe workplace cultures, nearly everyone had a story about how the dominant policies, practices and cultures have marginalized them.”
Furthermore, it is key to acknowledge that racism is structural and embedded into all aspects of our society and intersects with other issues too. As a result, it is inevitable for our sector not to be deeply marked by it, despite the idea that it should be a sector that embraces humanity, equality and empathy. In fact, it seems that for People of Colour, “…from overt experiences of racial discrimination, to everyday micro-aggressions and unsafe workplace cultures, nearly everyone had a story about how the dominant policies, practices and cultures have marginalized them.” (1)
Racism in the sector is very real, highly complex, and inextricably related to the way in which funding, knowledge transfer and aid, in general, are organised. That is, with INGOs and donors still being in a position of (disproportionate) power. While the links are not immediately obvious for everyone, many argue that International Development (including Humanitarian work) is anchored in colonialism and white supremacy and that it suffers from a ‘white gaze’ problem, in which whiteness is considered as the standard category against which non-white thinking and people are judged, irrespective of the history of the organisation (i.e. if it has colonial origins or not).
At our learning session, we agreed that a meaningful debate about racism cannot be separated from decolonisation and tackling asymmetrical power structures.
“You don’t need to be racist or a white supremacist to support white supremacy culture.”
2. Making it personal
There needs to be a reflection on our own privileges and how we have engaged with racism (and systems that embed them) in our lives. As part of the International Development/Humanitarian sector, it is fair to say that by action or omission, we have supported a system that is constructed by a dominant power and narrative of white supremacy. As Stephanie Kimou said during an #AntiRacistInAid webinar: “You don’t need to be racist or a white supremacist to support white supremacy culture.” If we feel called out, fragile, guilty or uncomfortable with this discussion, as Kimou said, there are plenty of resources developed and written by People of Colour, that we can use to educate ourselves.
As many in our learning session agreed, self-education is not only a possibility but a responsibility for everyone who works in our sector and is part of the impact we envisage to create. Irrespective of what our individual starting point is, there is always room to better understand the roots of the sector and why we have operated in the way we have. In most of our cases, this process will probably require consciously “un-learning” certain behaviours or habits too!
“It is when organisations really look in the mirror and dare to face their own reflections and the uglier spots that they would rather ignore, that various issues become apparent which are the starting point for change.”
3. Moving into organisation-wide reflections …
Challenging racism demands that our organisations and operations look in the mirror and talk about what hurts. “It is when organisations really look in the mirror and dare to face their own reflections and the uglier spots that they would rather ignore, that various issues become apparent which are the starting point for change.”
Part of the reason we have not managed to tackle systemic discrimination and racism (including feelings of guilt and shame) is that we do not talk about race and racism in the workplace. If we do not talk openly and honestly about systemic racism, we are complicit in it. It is therefore essential to engage all employees in an organisation-wide process to learn (and un-learn) about racism; to better understand each other’s lived experience; and to reflect on how best to promote change in behaviour and policies, procedures, and structures that enhance belonging and inclusion.
“I get it, anti-racism is important, but it is kind of a very narrow issue.”
It is important to recognise the risks of organisations seeing these efforts as “a DEI-only” issue (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), or even more narrowly, as an “HR issue”. A participant described what a well-intended person shared with him: “I get it, anti-racism is important, but it is kind of a very narrow issue”. While we may have all heard similar remarks, we believe that taking an anti-racist approach needs to be seen instead as a critical aspect in everything we do, from our organisational vision to our operating models or our impact creation. It is key to remember what while transformation can be encouraged by adequate policy, without the human conversation and a shared sense of urgency among the staff, diversity and racial equality become ‘just another box to be checked’.
“If your conversation is not making you feel uncomfortable, you are not having the right conversation!”
We agreed that these conversations need to be supported and that organisations should aim to create safe spaces for them to take place. Leadership certainly has an important responsibility as these will not be easy discussions. As someone put it very clearly, “if your conversation is not making you feel uncomfortable, you are not having the right conversation!” Leaders should particularly promote spaces for staff to discuss racism, inclusion, gender inequality and privilege. Leadership holds the reigns in defining and creating an organisation’s culture.
4. From realisation to concrete action and commitments …
Once it is clear that it is not enough to be passive non-racist individuals and organisations, we need to move into a clear organisational commitment to change, complemented by concrete goals, in support of a truly organisation-wide journey.
The phrase “close to the point of delivery” is of particular relevance here. Those of us working on specific functions (Programmes/Operations; Fundraising; Communications/Images; Knowledge Management; HR practices; Governance, etc) are best placed to identify how racism manifests itself in that particular area of work, and more importantly, what we need to do to tackle it.
The following are some concrete change examples, which members of the group are actively engaged in during our day-to-day work:
- Leadership and governance: Apart from self-educating on racism and its manifestations, people in leadership and governance positions in INGOs (still predominantly white men) are being encouraged not to run away from difficult conversations because of their political nature. The international aid system is political, as everything is about power relations and hierarchies. Appointing People of Colour professionals as part of the membership of Boards and leadership, needs to be closely looked at as an obvious start.
“Our plea is that you work with us not against us. We need to be supported, not competed with.”
- Programmes: Enabling programmes to be truly led by those directly affected/working in their own contexts. Key questions when considering any intervention should be: “What is needed and who is best placed to meet that need?” instead of starting by articulating what we -as INGOs- can offer or bring (“our expertise”). On localisation (a contested term by the way), INGOs are being challenged to properly listen and engage with demands from national actors. The open letter shared a few months ago by more than 200 national and subnational organisations based mostly in the global south (2) is an important prompt for internal reflection — particularly the signatories’ call: “Our plea is that you work with us not against us. We need to be supported, not competed with.”
- Fundraising: Other actions include the way INGOs fundraise and allocate funding and take an honest look at how we work with our own donors to promote a different agenda. This includes how un-restricted funds are utilised, and how we support our national partners' core functions and needs, instead of only offer support via project-based funding. We can also include more investment in locally-led actions, engage in more equitable partnerships (those that value and embrace the different contributions and added value that each partner brings), and be aware and transparent on how much of the money we raise reaches local communities versus how much stays in headquarters. Ultimately, having an exit strategy is critical to avoid perpetuating our presence and/or creating harmful dependency.
- Communication: On the use of communication materials, it is not enough to ask for permission to take and use photos “we take” and use in “our channels” or trying to portray the communities we aim to support in a dignified way. Instead, we are asking organisations to focus on re-thinking who should tell the stories, who to get the credit for the work done, and constantly reflect if we are behaving as “white saviours”.
“Going to ‘the field’ …fuels this…fantasy of ‘exploring in the wild’ or going somewhere dangerous to rescue people with no autonomy or initiative. We never refer to European or North American offices as ‘the field’. The term perpetuates this idea of a powerful centre and places outside this as the ‘other’. If we believe in the notion of a networked, multi-polar world, where ideas, capacities, money, power, exist in contexts outside the West/North, we should stop reference to this term.”
- Language: Finally, we acknowledge the power of language. There are certain words/terms that we are actively eliminating from our conversations: beneficiaries, capacity ‘building’, first and third world, “going on a mission” or “travelling to the field”, and localisation (if not referring to long-term development and humanitarian work to be truly led by those directly affected/working in their own contexts). On the last, Tessy Cherono Maritim (3) said: “Going to ‘the field’ …fuels this…fantasy of ‘exploring in the wild’ or going somewhere dangerous to rescue people with no autonomy or initiative. We never refer to European or North American offices as ‘the field’. The term perpetuates this idea of a powerful centre and places outside this as the ‘other’. If we believe in the notion of a networked, multi-polar world, where ideas, capacities, money, power, exist in contexts outside the West/North, we should stop reference to this term.”
So … there is a lot to consider and more, and it is for each organisation to choose what the right next steps are, with long-term commitment. If organisations are still struggling to see where to start and are looking for inspiration, then listen to Degan Ali (4), who inspired many of the ideas here. She recently suggested three concrete steps: “Consider something simple enough but potentially very telling: three possible audits (organisational culture, partnerships and communications). They will be good enough to inform a concrete organisational plan.” The main thing is to begin the conversation.
Andres Gomez de la Torre is Director of Confederation Development at CARE International. Lucy Morris is a Principal Consultant, Organisational Development at INTRAC. However, both authors are writing in a personal capacity.
(1) BOND — “Time to dismantle racism in international development” by Lena Bheeroo, Leila Billing, Eliza-Helen Ampomah, Pontso Mafethe and Alan Lally-Francis.
(2) openDemocracy — “An open letter to International NGOs who are looking to ‘localise’ their operations”
(3) Co-presenter at our learning event
(4) Degan Ali is the Executive Director of Adeso, with an impressive track record in the sector and an authority on issues of anti-racism and decolonising aid.
