The best kept secret in international development, and why Global North CSOs will not talk about tied aid
The author is an Embassy Staff with a European country based in the Global South, and wishes to remain anonymous. Did you know that less …
#ShiftThePower
The system we want – A curation of posters exhibited at the #ShiftThePower Global Summit
In December 2023, 730 people from 77 countries met in Bogotá for the #ShiftThePower Global Summit. Participants represented the range of the civil society and funding …
Did the pandemic prompt a rethinking of funder-grantee dynamics?
The pandemic also saw funders who had previously shied away from social justice work become more amenable to funding these critical areas.
How I lost my respect doing community-led work
I came into the development sector as a very passionate person. That passion drove my career from the “entry-level” to various senior roles. I rose to eventually manage one of the international organisations (INGO) as its Country Director. In this role, I was responsible for all country operations. The role came with many privileges and a lot of status. It gave me access to high-level meetings not only in Tanzania where I am based, but also at the international level. From this, I got a lot of respect, status, and access to a luxurious life.
How collective care and holding each other’s hands could change the global aid sector
Musimbi Epillose The concept of #ShiftThePower is rapidly taking over the old development approaches. For a long time, grassroots organizations were placed behind the scenes …
What a Balinese massage taught me about measuring what matters
In July 2024, the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) extended their global reach to include Australia in the #ShiftThePower movement. I was fortunate enough …
Leading, learning and letting go: PSJP’s journey
At Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (PSJP) our goal has been to centre the normative values of justice, solidarity and agency in the field …
From the road to Bogotá to continuing the dance of the revolution in sustaining ourselves and nurturing our movements
Burn-out is not an isolated issue but one that affects many across social movement. Collective care involves a commitment to care for each other. It is about making sure that we address the systemic issues of the society, but also attend to keeping the fire burning without burning ourselves out.
Measuring community wellbeing; beyond numbers and donor agendas
If we want the people to be resilient, how can we build a vision of evaluating that based on well-being? How can we measure resilience? How can we measure happiness? How can we measure some of these really extraordinary indicators?
To my feminist siblings, there is a funding crisis in feminist activism.
When the sector talks about donor fatigue or donors saying they don’t see where the money is going. Well, only less than 10% of your money comes directly to us. They should ask Northern CSOs about the other 90% – they shouldn’t ask us.