In this week’s episode, Tija speaks to us about oral traditions, reparative justice, the violence of colonization, and how that generates intergenerational harms. We talk about the erasure of culture, the loss of language, and the role of storytelling, song, and intergenerational love and joy as part of the healing process.

Tija offers us a hopeful way forward for collective healing from the intergenerational harms of colonisation.

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In this week’s episode, we speak to Silvester Kasozi from Light for the World Uganda about the systemic approach they have implemented to decolonise the way they work. We talk about putting a strategy in place to approach decolonisation in multilayered ways and interrogate the issue from different perspectives.

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Dr Romina Istratii, who tells us about the DLDL project, which takes an interdisciplinary approach to looking at domestic violence and religious communities. We speak about co-created and community-grounded research which then feeds back into knowledge production and good practices in the West.

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Shilpa Alva about Surge for Water’s model of partnership with community led organisations to address the global water crisis. Shilpa speaks about the importance of building trust and elevating the voice of community led organisations.

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Leslie Mudimu, a participant from Cohort 2 of our Skill Share Programme on Decolonising Development. We discuss what Afrocentric development could look like, and how decolonisation and localisation is perceived and understood in the African academic context.

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In this week’s episode, we speak to Kim Kucinskas and Dr. Ishbel McWha-Hermann about equity in compensation and fair reward in international development organisations. We talk about the Equitable Compensation Playbook, which organisations can use as a benchmark to reflect on their approaches to compensation, as well as Project Fair. We dive into the specifics of operationalising change in equitable compensation and pay in INGOs in the development and humanitarian sectors.

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Kate Moger and Sidhee Patel from Adeso’s Pledge for Change initiative. The three pledges focus on equitable partnerships, authentic storytelling, and influencing wider change. The Pledge consists of a community of 13 INGOs who commit to working towards the shared objectives. They talk about the importance of making public commitments to change both individually as leaders and collectively on behalf of organisations. 

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Jessica Oddy, founder and director of Design for Social Impact Lab (DFSI) about applying an equity-centred intersectional lens to social impact projects. We talk about the importance of co-design centred around care and solidarity throughout the entire project cycle. We talk about re-centering research around the people who have lived experience of structural inequity, and ensuring they are centred as experts.

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Faye Ekong about management approaches to leadership which are rooted in African experience. Faye introduces us to African Humanism, which embodies dignity, social harmony, coexistence and community. We talk about the importance of understanding historical, social, and cultural contexts within organisational policy, instead of importing a prescriptive Western model.

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Jonathan Glennie, co-founder of Global Nation, about the insufficiency of global aid as a response to current global affairs. Jonathan speaks about the importance of dignity, listening, and ownership in aid projects, which are often overlooked in favour of material impact and development indicators.

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In this week’s episode, we speak to Yacine ait Larbi about the critique he and Sarah Edgcumbe present in a two-part blog on paid-for development research. They outline the competing expectations of consulting companies who often value quick and relevant research outputs over research that is in-depth, reliable, well-grounded and ethical, due – in part – to time and resource pressures. 

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In this week’s episode, Ajoy Datta talks to us about organisational change, leadership development, and policy, advocacy and influencing. Ajoy tells us about promoting change within an organisation with a focus on difference and diversity.

He focuses on an “unconventional” approach which highlights the complexity in working relationships and makes space for emotions and for people to show up as their ‘whole selves’.

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In this week’s episode, we speak to Nancy Kankam Kusi from West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) about their focus on advocacy, influencing, and facilitating an enabling environment for civil society organisations across West Africa and beyond.

Nancy talks to us about the importance of knowledge sharing on issues of decolonisation and localisation, and how WACSI facilitates spaces for fruitful discussions across the sector.

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In this week’s episode, Alba Murcia and Kate Bird (The Development Hub) explore the findings from their research paper on feminist organising and decolonial initiatives. We talk about the work that feminist organising has developed in terms of understanding power and positionality, adopting an intersectional approach, and embracing diverse knowledges and value systems.

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In this week’s episode, Nompilo Ndlovu and Kate Bird reflect on their journeys so far within The Development Hub. 

We talk about the launch of the Skill Share Programme, which begins next Monday February 19th, and will provide participants with 6 weeks of structured content on personal transformation, working together across international teams, partnerships and organisational change, and finally, ecosystem transformation. Stay tuned for the following run of the programme!

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Kate Newman, INTRAC CEO, about the organisation’s shift in order to respond to the changes happening in the international development sector. She speaks about understanding decolonisation as a verb, as well as a commitment to processes of critical reflection, learning and unlearning.

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Allan Moolman, a South Africa-based staff member of a leading INGO, who tells us about their development of a decolonial partnership strategy. We focus on the power relations present in language, resource allocation, and local decision-making.

Allan emphasises the importance of community, building space to engage new ideas, and questioning language hierarchies in development projects.

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In this week’s episode, Asif Saleh speaks about BRAC as an INGO based in Bangladesh, which delves into understanding the underlying structural causes of poverty. Their work has focused on addressing the most pressing issues in a way that generates long-term stability.

We discuss the need to build capacity of Southern-based organisations, especially for climate change adaptation. 

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In this week’s episode, Edgar Villanueva tells us about his book Decolonising Wealth, which was written in an effort to disrupt the flow of capital and to liberate resources for marginalised communities. 

Edgar tells us about how indigenous worldviews can contribute to community healing and to repairing the harms caused by the philanthropic sector.

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In this week’s episode, Fredrick Ouko and Mary Ann Clements discuss ADD International’s organisational structure, especially their roles as co-CEOs and how representation matters. They tell us about modelling the team leadership in line with the lived experiences they want to represent and advocate for. 

Through participatory grantmaking, they challenge the “colonisation of resources”, through which international funding goes mainly towards INGOs, rather than organisations of people with disabilities. 

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In this week’s episode, Sarah Rose introduces us to USAID’s approach to localisation as one of the biggest funding partners amongst bilateral donors. Sarah emphasises the importance of gathering the entire global development community in order to rethink roles and reform practices for localisation to be effective.

We talk about how USAID can think about strengthening their own capacity as an organisation to adapt to localisation efforts and integrate learnings from the Global South or majority world.

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In this week’s episode, Heather Grady from Rockefeller Philanthropic Advisors (RPA) and Tanya Beer, an independent consultant, present the Shifting Systems Initiative Evaluation. The evaluation explores what systems change means to the philanthropic and funding sector, and evaluates the contribution of the Shifting Systems Initiative to the sector.

Our discussion examines systems change practically, and explores alternative entry points such as ‘doing the inner work’, working together, implementing intersectional systems thinking, and trusting in order to cede control and take risks.

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In this week’s episode, Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi from African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) describes the transformative approach they are implementing, through which African institutions work together to grow capacity in tendering and contract delivery, thereby strengthening the network of Think Tanks across the continent.

By doing this, they are demonstrating agency and flipping the narrative on the decolonisation and localisation agenda, which has been historically driven by the Global North.

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In this week’s episode, Maya Hasan, founder of the Fearless Project, talks us through her Shifting Power Accelerator program. Maya approaches decolonisation from her personal experience as a ‘third culture’ individual straddling multiple identities and growing up and working across the Global South and Global North.

She introduces her training program, which takes on a participatory applied learning approach which adopts feedback into the design of the program. Through the training program, Maya attempts to challenge the hierarchical notion of a set of values or technical expertise being valued more than lived experience of a local community. 

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In this week’s episode, Dylan Mathews talks us through Peace Direct’s journey as a Global North-based peacebuilding organisation. He reflects on the pivotal moment in which Peace Direct spoke to local partners and began to actively question how structural racism is embedded into the sector.

Dylan contends that there is a need for both organisations and individuals in the Global North to acknowledge that they may have benefitted from the development sector and that they have “done harm in the process of trying to help”.

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Lena Bheeroo (Bond) introduces us to Bond’s Anti-racism and Decolonising Framework and the wider work she’s done in tackling racism across organisations in the development sector. Lena highlights the importance of bringing in people working at all organisational levels as part of a collective effort.

She opens up about the personal and professional costs that come with speaking up about situations of racial discrimination or injustice within organisations, and highlights how processes of decolonisation and anti-racism must involve everyone.

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In this week’s episode, Priyanthi Fernando (IWRAW Asia Pacific) tells us about her ‘disruptive’ approach to the development sector by continuously asserting Global South perspectives to the work being carried out.

Priyanthi highlights the importance of IWRAW-AP’s global agenda which is not only anti-racist and decolonial, but also anti-patriarchal and anti-neoliberal. 

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In this week’s episode, Arbie Baguios talks us through the Anti-Racist and Decolonial Framework he has developed with Start Network, which finds that racism and colonialism are based on structural superiority.

Arbie emphasises that trust, bravery, and democracy are necessary and essential values when attempting any kind of organisational change towards anti-racism and decolonisation. We discuss double standards when it comes to INGOs ‘failing’ and how to reframe notions of capacity to provide space for both learning and failure.

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In this week’s episode, we speak to CREA’s Piyumi Samaraweera about CREA’s position as one of few organisations led in and by the Global South. Piyumi describes how CREA approaches its intersectional feminist values to generate South-South learning through its Institutes across India, South Asia and East Africa.

This conversation allows us to move away from the conventional centering of the Global North, and understand discourses about development and decolonisation from a Global South-led organisation. Piyumi also highlights CREA’s approach to working where their work will be valued, as well as learning from the work of others. 

Finally, Piyumi ends with a call to de-centre hierarchies of knowledge which value knowledge from the Global North, and instead to place vernacular languages at the centre of development and decolonisation learning.

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In this episode, Disha Sughand from Womankind Worldwide talks us through her organisation’s anti-racism pledge and what this means for decolonisation. Disha delves into the ways in which anti-racism and localisation should be approached from a reflective and thoughtful place. Disha emphasises interrogating processes across an organisation’s structure in order to think through how they can be simplified or made more flexible.

We also discuss the principles and values present in Womankind and other feminist organisations that can contribute to furthering decolonisation and anti-racism objectives. Particularly, we draw on self-reflection as a tool within feminist organising that can be applied to decolonisation.This episode shines a light on what can be learned from feminist organising in order to enact a power shift towards decolonisation and anti-racism.

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In this week’s episode, we invite Steve Murigi back on to the podcast to have a more in-depth conversation about localising funding. Steve identifies localisation as the principal mechanism through which to shift power, and provides us with practical tools to ensure that localisation is effective. He states that localising priority setting and development strategy (what is done with development funding) is even more important than who holds the money.

We discuss the challenges that come with such a transformative approach, which Steve categorises as structural, administrative and ideological challenges. The conversation then shifts towards what localisation needs to look like in terms of accountability, flexibility, and agency for those working in the Global South.  Our conversation is highly practical and hands-on, and it allows us to get closer to understanding localised funding as a mechanism to decolonise international development.

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In this week’s episode, Steve Murigi explores the power dynamics in international development practice which are inherently racialised and often go unchallenged, particularly in the leadership of field projects in the Global South.

The conversation then shifted towards the issue of localization of funding in international development; Steve emphasised that localization needs to be carried out with accessibility and unconditionality in mind. 

They discuss the relationship between localisation and decolonisation, and finally emphasise the importance of language and the way that ‘development aid’ is framed. With great clarity, Steve talks us through his experience working in development, his thoughts on the third sector, and how we can begin to change the conversation towards a positive shift in power dynamics for everyone.

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Prof Kate Bird and Charmaine McCaulay, founders of this podcast series, reflect on what they have learned from the past eight episodes.

Kate speaks on White fragility and ‘best White-ism’ within the development industry, and how she’s engaged in self-reflection regarding her role in the industry as a White woman.

Charmaine explores the hesitation from podcast guests to discuss their personal experiences of racism and colonial relations of power – and how this clashes with her background in psychotherapy.

They discuss the way self-reflection could be a first step to decolonising current practices of power and privilege.

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This episode explores the processes of racialisation inherent in international development, with a focus on critical reflexivity and praxis.

Kamna Patel explores this from her personal and professional perspective of living and working in the UK, evidencing how politics of difference and processes of Othering have constructed the basis for international development practice.

Kamna speaks with quiet passion about how racism is ‘baked into’ the very idea of ‘development. She proposes critical reflexivity as a tool to enact anti-racism practices within the industry of international development, and advocates for enacting change through everyday actions which work towards changing the discourse surround anti-racism and decolonisation.

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Episode #7 of The Power Shift: Decolonising Development challenges viewers and listeners to acknowledge the ‘dark side’ of ‘progress’ and ‘development’.

Dr Eyob Balcha Gebremariam, scholar activist specialising in decolonial African development, discuss the politics of knowledge production, Eurocentrism, the metaphysical Empire and pluriversality.

Eyob leaves listeners an important message about epistemic diversity and the power of acknowledging multiple histories and the dark underside of civilisation and development. 

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In Episode #6 of The Power Shift: Decolonising Development, Emilie Tant discusses the links between feminism, decolonisation and climate change. Drawing on their experience of living, working and organising in Santiago Chile, Emilie reflects on how Indigenous value and knowledge systems, such as cuerpo territorio and buen vivir, have the power to flip traditional understandings of development goals. Emilie reflects on legitimacy and ego as a White European person working in decolonisation and talks about the importance of using power and privilege to advance decolonisation efforts.

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In this episode, Dr Nompilo Ndlovu explores how Eurocentric understandings of Zimbabwe have been consolidated in written histories of the country and how this directly counters the lived experience and oral traditions and testimonies of Black Zimbabweans. Nompilo describes the many issues that need to be taken seriously if development research is to be decolonised and speaks eloquently about the the importance of listening, local knowledge and nuance – and identifies a set of practical steps for progressive change.

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This episode explores the land debate in South Africa and its links to national identity, nationalism and the unmended repercussions of South Africa’s experiences as a settler economy and the long run and brutal impact of apartheid. In a wide ranging conversation, Andries covers nation building, the trap of ‘best whiteism’, the need for social solidarity and local action, and how White people engaging in anti-racist and decolonisation spaces need to work on themselves and take personal responsiblity.

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Amiera, Chief Research and Engagement Officer of Climate Outreach discusses links between racism, orientalism and coloniality and organisational performance – with people of colour commonly excluded from leadership roles and the priorities of communities at the ‘front line’ of the climate crisis poorly represented.

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Charmaine McCaulay, lead facilitator of the groundbreaking ‘Racism in Real Time’ training programme, and Prof Kate Bird, Senior Research Associate, ODI and Director of The Development Hub, talk about what drew them to work together on the decolonisation agenda.

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Charmaine McCaulay, lead facilitator of the ground-breaking ‘Racism in Real Time’ training programme, and Prof Kate Bird, Senior Research Associate, ODI and Director of The Development Hub, talk about what drew them to work together on the decolonisation agenda.

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Prof Kate Bird introduces the podcast series and explains what it will cover – and why. 

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