The Power Shift: Decolonising Development Kate Bird

In this week’s episode, we speak to Kim Kucinskas and Dr. Ishbel McWha-Hermann about equity in compensation and fair reward in international development organisations. We talk about the Equitable Compensation Playbook, which organisations can use as a benchmark to reflect on their approaches to compensation, as well as Project Fair.Kim and Ishbel tell us about equitable compensation as being rooted in challenging Western ideologies around pay. The discourse around decolonisation and shifting ...

In this week’s episode, we talk to Kate Moger and Sidhee Patel from Adeso’s Pledge for Change initiative. The three pledges focus on equitable partnerships, authentic storytelling, and influencing wider change. The Pledge consists of a community of 13 INGOs who commit to working towards the shared objectives.They talk about the importance of making public commitments to change both individually as leaders and collectively on behalf of organisations. We discuss the abundance mindset when ...

In this week’s episode, we talk to Jessica Oddy, founder and director of Design for Social Impact Lab (DFSI) about applying an equity-centred intersectional lens to social impact projects. We talk about the importance of co-design centred around care and solidarity throughout the entire project cycle.Jess talks about having a systems thinking approach which engages with a community’s history and context in order to develop a project. A systems thinking approach facilitates mutual learning, wh...

In this week’s episode, we talk to Faye Ekong about management approaches to leadership which are rooted in African experience. Faye tells us about the absence of African approaches represented in mainstream management and leadership.Faye Ekong introduces us to African Humanism, which embodies dignity, social harmony, coexistence and community. We talk about the importance of understanding historical, social, and cultural contexts within organisational policy, instead of importing a prescript...

In this week’s episode, we talk to Jonathan Glennie, co-founder of Global Nation, about the insufficiency of global aid as a response to current global affairs.Jonathan introduces the idea of ‘global public investment’ in order to address aid reliance through a new form of accountability. We also talk about circular cooperation as a system in which all entities involved respond to the possibility of learning from each other.Jonathan speaks about the importance of dignity, listening, and owner...

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 consequence...