Bibliography on “Decolonizing aid”

This is the work: Resources for practical anti-racism, Bond, Peace Direct, Advocacy Team, 2024
Bond, Peace Direct, and the Advocacy Team have created a new set of resources and findings focused on advancing anti-racist and decolonial approaches in international policy and advocacy with the aim to inspire transformative change across the sector.
https://www.bond.org.uk/what-we-do/anti-racism-equity-diversity-and-inclusion/this-is-the-work/

Where do we go from here? Navigating power inequalities between development NGOs in the aid system, LSE, University of Ghana, KNUST, Wageningen University, Makerere University, Radboud University, University of Manchester, 2024
This research examines the extent and nature of concrete actions undertaken by Northern NGOs and
Southern NGOs to tackle power asymmetries, explicitly comparing their understandings, perspectives
and initiatives.
https://www.partos.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Where-do-we-go-from-here-2-2_new.pdf

Too Southern to Be Funded: The Funding Bias Against the Global South, The Shift Power Movement, 2024
This research shows systemic imbalances in the distribution of funding from the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Despite commitments to support Southern leadership and civil society, approaches to ‘tied aid’ are disproportionately benefiting organisations within DAC member countries, while marginalising those in the Global South.
https://www.peacedirect.org/too-southern-to-be-funded/

Envisioning an alternative ecosystem for global development and humanitarianism, Themrise Khan, Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, Deakin University, 2023
This concept paper challenges the terms ‘decolonisation’, ‘localisation’ and ‘shift the power’, which have been the stand-out keywords within the heightened discourse in global development and humanitarianism. It does so by taking a more radical view: firstly, by turning the focus on countries themselves, rather than on specific centres of financial and political power as the key drivers of development and change; and secondly, by considering that it is not a ‘reimagining’ of aid that is necessary, but rather the end of the aid systems—at least as we know them.
https://www.centreforhumanitarianleadership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Alternative-ecosystem-paper_FINAL.pdf

Transforming partnerships in international cooperation, Peace Direct, 2023
Despite ongoing reform processes emphasising improved and equitable partnerships, many approaches still reflect neo-colonial hierarchies, undermining the value and dignity of local partners. In the second half of 2022, Peace Direct convened a global online consultation to discuss the issue of inequitable partnerships and how to decolonise them. The findings presented in this paper build on the previous reports, Time to Decolonise Aid and Race, Power and Peacebuilding, which were published in 2021 and 2022, respectively. These reports highlighted the prevalence of systemic racism across the wider humanitarian, development and peacebuilding sectors. The aim for this report is to provide a series of accessible approaches to building and sustaining better partnerships between civil society actors in the Global South and Global North donors, INGOs and intermediaries.
https://www.peacedirect.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Peace-Direct-Transforming-Partnerships-Report-English.pdf

Understanding the role of narratives in humanitarian policy change, Patrick Saez, John Bryant, HPG Working paper, ODI, 2023
Humanitarian policy narratives are stories constructed and disseminated to shape beliefs and attitudes relating to humanitarian crises and aid, and thereby influence the policies of governments and aid organisations in this area. This article seeks to understand the origins and sources of humanitarian policy narratives, and analyzes the interests, objectives and functions behind the construction of these narratives. The authors propose the construction of new shared humanitarian frameworks for more people-centered, locally-directed humanitarian action.
https://media.odi.org/documents/Understanding_the_role_of_narratives_WP_SaezBryant_final.pdf

Decolonising Aid: Perspectives from Civil Society in Francophone Sub-saharan Africa, WACSI, 2023
The design of aid programmes is overwhelmingly rooted in Western values and knowledge systems, which means that many programmes inadvertently create a norm based on Western values and practices that communities in the Global South must adhere to. This research report aims to answer four interconnected and fundamental questions:
(1) What is the decolonisation of aid in practice?
(2) What are the experiences and perspectives of CSOs in Francophone Africa?
(3) how do these CSOs plan to contribute to a decolonisation and restructuring of the development aid system, in order to make it more just, equitable and efficient?
(4) Finally, what will be the role of donors, especially INGOs, in this process?
https://wacsi.org/decolonising-aid-perspectives-from-civil-society-in-francophone-sub-saharan-africa/

Development Co-operation Report 2023: Debating the Aid system, OCDE, 2023
In the last three years, multiple global crises and the growing urgency of containing climate change have put current models of development co-operation to, perhaps, their most radical test in decades. Critique of the roots, rationale and operations of the international aid system is resulting in calls for fundamental change, manifesting, for example, in the movements to address colonial legacies and racism in the sector. This Development Co-operation Report takes stock of these challenges and proposes ways forward along four lines of action: unlock progress to deliver existing commitments; support locally led transformation in partner countries; modernise business models and financial management practices; and rebalance power relations in international decision making and partnerships.
https://doi.org/10.1787/f6edc3c2-en

An open letter to international donors and NGOs who want to genuinely help Ukraine, 24 August 2022
https://globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/news/an-open-letter-to-international-donors-and-ngos-who-want-to-genuinely-help-ukraine/

Whose Aid? Findings of a dialogue series on the decolonization of aid, International Institute of Social Studies, KUNO, Partos, 2022
This report summarizes five seminars held on the theme of decolonizing aid. Each episode addressed a different aspect of aid: historical perspective; development cooperation; humanitarian aid; ethical perspective; the role of the donor. This dialogue series highlights the need for change in the sector, for responses guided by local actors, calls for reflection on ethical frameworks and principles to guide the decolonization process, and for a rethinking of funding and resource allocation mechanisms.
https://www.kuno-platform.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Whose-aid-Findings-of-a-dialogue-series-on-the-decolonisation-of-aid.pdf
Link to the five seminars:
https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-projects/humanitarian-governance-accountability-advocacy-alternatives/decolonization-aid
See also these three short documents which continue the reflection of these seminars:
Future Brief: Decolonisation of the development sector, KUNO, Partos, The Broker, 2022
https://www.partos.nl/publicatie/tracing-the-colonial-roots-of-development-cooperation-a-brief-history/

Decolonize! What does it mean? Sara Duvisac, Oxfam, 2022
This document introduces the key concepts of decolonial theory that inform many current calls to decolonize. It provides examples from Latin America, Africa, and North America of how activists have envisioned or realized decolonial futures. These movements led by Indigenous Peoples, people of color, women, and queer people articulate and define the possibilities of decolonial futures.
https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/decolonize-what-does-it-mean-621456/

Decolonising Aid: A reading and resource list, The New Humanitarian, 2022
Links to resources, publications, podcasts and webinars on decolonizing aid, racism and diversity in the sector, as well as localization and visions for the future.
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2022/08/12/Decolonising-aid-a-reading-and-resource-list

Racism and Humanitarian Action, Elba Rahmouni, Marc Le Pape, MSF Crash, 2022
This Crash dossier gathers a selection of Crash publications published over the last twenty years: all of them, in different manners, tackle the themes of racism and humanitarian action. They also evoke the way discussions about racism have been addressed at Médecins sans Frontières.
https://msf-crash.org/en/dossiers/racism-and-humanitarian-action

La décolonisation, c’est maintenant ! Guide pratique d’inspiration pour une collaboration internationale équitable, NGO Federatie, 11.11.11, 2021
Reflection and discussion on what decolonization means, and why it is important, are the defining stages of decolonization in practice. The aim of this publication is to facilitate reflection and exchange, to encourage organizations that have not yet begun this exercise to do so, and to show those that have already started the process new paths to explore.
https://11.be/sites/default/files/2021-11/20210928-FR-guide-d-inspiration-decolonisation-inspiratiegids-dekoloniseren-nu.pdf

Webinar

Rethinking Aid Financing: How Locally Led Organizations are Funding Their Futures, The New Humanitarian, 25 September 2023
After years of inaction on the emergency aid sector’s promises to shift power and funding, grassroots groups are finding their own workarounds. During a wide-ranging panel, aid leaders described how local organisations are taking matters into their own hands.
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2023/09/25/rethinking-aid-financing-locally-led-organisations-funding

Podcast

“Is decolonized aid an oxymoron?”, Rethinking Humanitarianism, The New Humanitarian, 19 october 2022
This episode of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast interviews Degan Ali, Director of the Kenyan NGO ADESO. Focusing on the decolonization of aid, he argues for systemic change in global governance and international financial systems.
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/podcast/2022/10/19/Degan-Ali-decolonising-aid