When I landed in Bogotá, my instinct was to stop for a while and fill my lungs with air, realizing that my body, accustomed to living at sea level, felt the need to move more slowly and breathe more deeply.
If we view this as a journey and not as an individual, separate outcome, it makes for a thought worth reflecting on.
As global leaders met at the COP in Dubai, over 700 change-makers who work in communities in over 80 countries met in Bogotá with a focus on harnessing and mobilizing resources so that all may thrive, even in the midst of the climate crisis.
Do you want to be part of a global conversation that puts communities in charge of their own development and that produces flourishing lives for all?
Do you believe that the current international funding system can and must be re-shaped to be more locally-owned and locally-led?
Do you want to be inspired by new ways of deciding and doing that are emerging around the world, that centre dignity, equity and trust – and that recognize the resources and inherent power of communities?
If so, join us in Bogotá from 5–7 December 2023!
Over the course of 2023, a number of events and discussions are being organized on the road to the #ShiftThePower Global Summit in Bogotá.
The #ShiftThePower Fellowship, organized by the Global Fund for Community Foundations, is excited to announce the second cohort of the Fellowship.
But power is what it is all about. It’s the whole point of development. That’s why you can’t speak to a development professional for more than 30 seconds before the word “empowerment” pops out. The difference between humanitarian response and development is that development is not just about change; it is about sustained change.
As we undertook this work, we came to appreciate the depth of our personal conditioning as well as that of the staff, leadership, and organisations that engaged in these conversations. We became more aware of the extent to which our own personal perspectives and those of others involved in the discussions have been shaped by existing norms and practices of aid.
Unicorn organizations are extractive, ruthlessly competitive, and hierarchical in their relationships with others, especially local organisations, while zebras tend to have flatter structures informed by the people they serve, and they value empathy and solidarity. Unicorns speak sophisticated English and they “impress” with terms like scalability, profitability, innovation, impact, cash, burn rate, key performance indicators, and IRR (internal rate of return). Zebras don’t know those fancy words because they speak like regular people using less technical terms.
On 9th May 2023, the Global Fund for Community Foundation hosted a meeting with Deepthy Menon in conversation with Barry Knight on Measuring What Matters. The following are extracts from the meeting repurposed into a written Q&A to extend this conversation to a wider audience.
