At the Centre for Disaster Preparedness (CDP) in The Philippines, we have always dreamed of contributing to system change in development. But we were also conscious that persuading and encouraging those in the status quo will always be difficult as they wittingly or unwittingly contribute to perpetuating the system we seek to transform. We believed that only in planting a new system through prototyping new ways of doing things such as grant making, transforming revolutionary concepts into practice, that new praxis and models will gradually and ultimately make the existing system obsolete thereby giving birth to a new system.
This is definitely a lonely battle, but it’s worth the investment. In doing this, we count on the many kindred spirits that only need to tag along and connect to push the change-momentum forward.
However, with decolonising aid and #ShiftThePower becoming an agenda of the Southern NGOs globally, CDP decided to contribute to this. As a true-blue organization, it took actions to make this call real in our context, and to make it work towards system change for a good society in favor of marginalized peoples. In a way, the pace and commitment for change has already been accelerated. The efforts to shift the leadership of humanitarian action to national and local actors and putting communities at the center of the work has in the past, never been highlighted as it is today. Decolonising aid has become an important concern for humanitarian actors to ensure that the sovereign will and leadership of country and local actors are taken into consideration and given paramount significance. Aid is being re-defined to be as directly as possible, without the need for any intermediaries such as INGOs.
But asking current intermediaries to step aside would be very difficult as it would eventually result in losing their reason for being and very existence in this humanitarian and development field. Ultimately, causing the old system to vanish.
A Re-envisioned Aid
By radically shifting the mindset and practice including the values and language, a new and emergent system is being co-created by actors and stakeholders involved. The Abot-Kamay Community Solidarity Fund (ACSF) is a promising and emboldening effort to advance community-led actions for community resilience, empowerment, and development. Within it, four ingredients have been well-thought out as some of the ideas to pave the way for a new practice and model towards a new system.
Intentional Partners from Communities
The first and most important is the intentional and purposive prioritization and targeting of partners from communities and community organizations. These are the ones working at the grassroots level and building the agency of community people. In doing so, the natural default is changed. These are organizations who work just as hard in both normal and difficult times on agendas that matter to communities, with or without money. As such, access to funding support in simple and appropriate ways within the means of people’s organizations as opposed to being on the radar of big and medium-sized donors becomes a measure to flattening the playing field.
We believed that only in planting a new system through prototyping new ways of doing things such as grantmaking, transforming revolutionary concepts into practice.
Seeing the Agency and Strength of Communities
The second is recognizing the agency and strength of community organizations and their constituency who choose and drive their own community-led actions. As organizations grow in the work they do, continuing capacity needs to be understood for continued collaboration and support with one another for modeling partnership and collaboration. Partnership models bloom in the context of community partners between and among them, and also, between community partners and their host partners or anchor institutions. Both the horizontal and vertical accountability are well-established, contributing to a more equitable relationship and partnership.
Due Diligence
Due diligence processes can be simplified without scaring and intimidating the target partners. The whole idea is to get to know the would-be partner for a collaborative engagement, so it should be done in a non-threatening type of inquiry and approach. When successful, this is the start of a closer and personal relationship. At CDP, the reporting was also made simple, defining the importance of capturing learning from their own perspective and the partnership perspective.
In all these community engagements and community-led actions, many wonderful truths and stories are woven together. Sharing and disseminating these become a source of inspiration and worth replicating in similar situations at country level or in other countries. Harvested learnings, especially those that made an impact on individuals, families and communities were worth replicating and probing.
Power Starting to Change
The strong interconnection between decolonising aid and shifting the power is evident. The efforts to decolonise aid strengthens shifting the power. The efforts to shift the power, inevitability directly or indirectly address decolonizing aid.
One important starting point is recognizing that all communities have assets. These include various types of capital such as human, social, intellectual and physical assets. When they are consolidated and harnessed by the communities, they provide agency and strength for communities to pursue their goals and aspirations. Making these visible also establishes the communities as co-investors. It is all about cultivating a mindset, that communities have something to bring to the table and those are assets for building relationships and partnerships. When communities collectively give for shared community goals, trust is strengthened and it becomes social capital for the community and society.
The #ShiftThePower movement in different parts of the globe now has the potential to create a global community that supports and learns from one another. It also provides the strength that we are not alone in this cause.
The time is now for new and emergent practices to influence the way aid is transformed. It also makes it possible to shift power to communities in their efforts for resilience, empowerment, and development. Little by little, from small to big, all the efforts by local civil society organizations and people’s organizations will bring about the change in the system. The emergent practice is critical and shows the way in which a new system can be brought to light. The strength built in the course of the battle between the old and new whether in values and in practice is paved by both human and social capital of the communities and organizations on the ground. It is worth celebrating every small victory and gain that emerges. The pockets of people and organizations connecting and kindling the spirit of change are mushrooming in every community fertile for change.
What matters most on this journey to decolonize aid and #ShiftThePower is the human and social capital that makes all this happen slowly but surely, in an intentional and purposive manner with collective strength and wisdom from the people, for the people.
A version of this article was first published by the Centre for Disaster Preparedness.