The Power Shift: Decolonising Development Kate Bird

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. 
We speak about development research being interest-driven rather than values-driven, and the consequences this has on ‘local’ research teams, the communities in which research is conducted and the way in which research findings are disseminated. 
Yacine talks about the clash of cultures between donor research agendas and community needs, where donor research often reproduces power dynamics and enacts epistemic violence.
Yacine Ait Larbi is a Ph.D. Candidate and a member of the Political Sociology program group at the AISSR of the University of Amsterdam. With over five years of experience in migration research, he has collaborated with international organisations like IOM and engaged in short consultancies. His research spans return and reintegration, forced displacement, and labour migration in various regions including France, North Africa, and the East and Horn of Africa. Yacine is passionate about discussions on decolonization, post-colonial migration, and social transformation. Additionally, Yacine provides part-time operational and logistical support for project management at ODI. Over the past year and a half, he has contributed to projects totaling £3.9 million in funding by organisations such as SIDA Mali, AFD, GIZ, and the African Development Bank.

Find out more about Yacine’s work, here:
Yacine’s research profileTwitterLinkedInRelevant resources:
Larbi, Y., and Edgcumbe, S. (2023a) Development for profit: The commercialisation of research? Blog. New Thinking. Larbi, Y., and Edgcumbe, S. (2023b) Development for Profit: Rethinking Research Practice. Blog. New Thinking.

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. 
Working alongside people to unlock their knowledge and transform their conversations is part of the action learning approach for organisational change that Ajoy speaks about. When thinking about decoloniality, this approach means interrogating the ways in which coloniality is being reproduced in daily life.
Ajoy is a freelance consultant specialising in two areas:
The first is organisational change and leadership development: Here he works with leaders, teams, organisations and networks taking an approach which combines psychodynamics, systems and complexity. 
The second is policy advocacy or influencing. Here he informs, designs and evaluates work to influence policy and practice drawing on studies of the policy process, political economy approaches and outcome mapping.
If you’re interested to find out more about Ajoy’s work, take a look here:
Personal website: www.ajoydatta.com (soon to be updated)Linkedin and TwitterShorter articles about organisations, policy influencing, partnerships can be found on the following platforms:Substack | Medium | OTT Longer form publications can be found on ResearchgateRelevant resources:
Chris Mowles has blogs on medium and wordpressUniversity of Hertfordshire's Complexity and Management CentreVideo showing a murmuration of starlings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dedVszDI9aE Doing DevelopmentDifferently and Thinking and Working PoliticallyTheory as Liberatory practice by Bell Hooks: https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/yjfem4&div=6&id=&page= Systems psychodynamics thinking: https://tavistockconsulting.co.uk/approach-systems-psychodynamic-thinking/Rewire: a book by Chris Yates and Pooja Sachdev about tackling diversity: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rewire-Approach-Tackling-Diversity-Difference/dp/1472913981

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. The Decolonising Advisory Community at WACSI provides support to organisations in the Global South in decolonising their practice. They focus on community building and shared learning in order to come up with collective strategies to reimagine the role of INGOs and influence policy in the long term.

Nancy Kankam Kusi is Program Officer of Knowledge Management at the West African Civil Society Institute in Ghana. Nancy also leads a diverse team of civil society actors to initiate and implement international development programs that promote community philanthropy, shifting power and resources to the grassroots, localising and decolonising development initiatives in the Global South. She's also a member of the RINGO Project and the initiator of the Decolonising Advisory Community.

If you’re interested to find out more about Nancy’s work, take a look here:
Nancy Kankam Kusi LinkedInYou can connect and join the Decolonising Advisory Community Platform hereWatch the launch of the Decolonising Advisory Community platform hereGet to know about the work of WACSI hereConnect with her via email on info@wacsi.org and on all social media handle Read more about RINGO hereRINGO innovationRINGO Funders action podRINGO INGO board action podRelevant resources:
Pledge for Change (Adeso)Participatory Grant-Making: Transform Trade in Alliance MagazineUganda National NGO ForumA Red Cross Red Crescent guide to community engagement and accountabilityGlobal Fund for Community FoundationsDecolonisation of aid in francophone sub-SaharanLocalisation agenda

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.

The paper features thematic case studies which focus on  bodily autonomy, land rights, and territorial integrity across the Majority World. We also highlight feminist organisations which are engaging in anti-racist and decolonial strategies, such as Womankind Worldwide, CREA and IWRAW AP.

We discuss the importance of valuing diverse voices, questioning whose voice is in the room, and working at the community level to articulate power. 

Alba Murcia is a Consultant at the Development Hub. She is interested in the intersection of decolonial feminism and resistance in Latin America, with a particular focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

Kate Bird is Director of The Development Hub, Professor of Practice at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Surrey, Senior Research Associate with ODI and Associate with the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network. She brings over 25 years experience to her work designing and leading multidisciplinary research, training and advisory work.

If you’re interested to find out more about their work, take a look here:
Alba Murcia LinkedInKate Bird LinkedInThe Development Hub LinkedInThe Development HubRecent work:
The Development Hub (2023) Challenging global power asymmetries: Insights from feminist organising for decolonisation initiatives

In this week’s episode, Nompilo Ndlovu and Kate Bird, co-conveners of The Development Hub’s Skill Share Programme, reflect on their journeys so far within The Development Hub. 
We discuss the lessons learned from the 5-day immersion programme, and highlight the depth of discussions and diversity of shared experiences throughout the sessions. We also reflect on the reasons behind the majority of participants being women from the minority world, and how to address this disparity for future programmes.
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!
Kate Bird is Director of The Development Hub, Professor of Practice at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Surrey, Senior Research Associate with ODI and Associate with the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network. She brings over 25 years experience to her work designing and leading multidisciplinary research, training and advisory work.

Dr. Nompilo Ndlovu  is a Senior Associate at The Development Hub. She is a gender expert and specialist in marginalisation, exclusion and intersecting inequalities. She is an oral historian with over 10 years’ experience applying gender frameworks to her work with communities in South Africa, and elsewhere in Africa. Her Ph.D. (Historical Studies) focused on mass violence, memory and local transitional justice initiatives in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Her wider research interests include socio-economic-political relations (with a focus on exclusion and marginalisation), conflict, peace, trauma, restorative justice and leadership.

If you’re interested to find out more about their work, take a look here:
Kate Bird LinkedInNompilo Ndlovu LinkedInThe Development Hub LinkedInThe Development HubSkill Share ProgrammeRecent work:
Challenging global power asymmetries: Insights from feminist organising for decolonisation initiatives

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 talks of realising that rather than exclusively responding to each organisation’s needs, they realised they could be more impactful by taking on an ecosystem approach.
INTRAC’s goal is to build a network of ethical values-driven  consultants, where local context and lived experience is prioritised. This strengthens civil society and promotes locally-led development, as well as empowering consultants within their work. Kate also speaks about understanding decolonisation as a verb, as well as a commitment to processes of critical reflection, learning and unlearning.
Kate has worked in international development for over 25 years, as part of local civil society in Mexico, for large international NGOs (ActionAid and Christian Aid), as an independent consultant and an academic; she joined INTRAC as CEO in April 2022.  Throughout all these roles she has championed the importance of participatory and rights-based approaches; focused on understanding and shifting power, listening to, and learning from the knowledge, insights, perspectives and aspirations of people living in poverty, collaborating to ensure these knowledges are influential for development policy and practice.  She describes herself as a feminist and anti-racist and works to ensure her leadership approach builds from these commitments.

If you’re interested to find out more about Kate’s work, take a look here:
FacebookTwitter / XINTRAC LinkedInKate’s LinkedInRelevant resources:
Kate’s INTRAC staff profileA reflection on 2023 from the Chief ExecutiveDecolonising consultancy: framing the discussionBlog on ethical and values driven consultancyDecolonising consultancy – panel event