Dismantling White Supremacy in the Humanitarian/Development Sector:
A Working Document
This document was drafted by Nadine El-Nabli, an Egyptian-American woman living in Cairo, who has worked at local and global humanitarian organizations, and Anna Myers, a white woman from the US living in New York who is a consultant in the humanitarian sector.
Intention: As the white-dominated humanitarian sector, embedded in the white-savior-industrial-complex, finally begins to confront its inherent white supremacy and systemic racism, we are hearing questions of what to do among white people (including one of the authors) to really attempt not at reform but at dismantling the existing humanitarian structure. This working document is a collection of small attempts to do so by drawing on so many articles written by BIPOC, particularly those in the ‘Global South’, that are telling us (again and again) what needs to change (see section #1 with articles). As the sector is rooted in white supremacy and colonialism, it is important to question whether the sector can ever truly be anti-racist and anti-white supremacist or whether it needs to be taken down all together. As we grapple with this fundamental question, we must still work to dismantle what we can and meaningfully shift power. These steps, resources and actions included below are in hopes of doing that.
What is in here: This document includes 1) the collection of articles and resources that informed this working document written by mostly BIPOC from the ‘Global South’ and ‘North’, 2) draft commitments for funders, INGOs and white staff and consultants to take, 3) tracking whether INGOs are standing in solidarity, and if so, how are they operationalizing their posts or statements internally and externally; 4) additional articles, resource collections and materials, with a few focused for white people, to guide this process of unlearning.
Acknowledgements and Recognition: We want to acknowledge the labor of generations of BIPOC activists fighting against racism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, capitalism and all other systems of oppression, who have laid the foundation for this work, and produced radical ideas and resources to educate about, and demand justice. This document draws on the work of so many BIPOC humanitarian and development thought leaders who have been speaking up for years, and we reference and give credit to their work throughout this document.
Asks for readers: This document is in draft form in hopes of learning from, collaborating with and supporting the anti-racism work of other humanitarian/development workers. We’d love to hear feedback, input and additions for the commitments and resources/articles, and collaborate with anyone interested in tracking the work INGOs are doing, and be connected and mutually support anyone making commitments in their own work/organizations. If you would like to share feedback or suggestions, or collaborate, please contact us here or leave a comment or suggestion. We are regularly updating the document based on new resources, feedback and suggestions. Thank you!
Table of Contents
1.Compiled articles with demands, proposals and calls to dismantle white supremacy in the sector in recognition that women of color in and from the Global South, and particularly Black women, have been talking about this for a long time. These articles, interviews and panels informed this document.
2. Commitments
Commitments for white consultants
Questions for institutional conversations in process of making commitments
3. Tracking Humanitarian/Development Organizations Solidarity Statements and whether they are doing the internal and external work
Networks for People of Color (consider joining if relevant):
Resources for organizational anti-racism efforts
Resources on Transformative Funding (For INGOs and Funders)
Decolonizing International Aid Trainings
Further anti-racism resources for white people:
Summaries are inadequate at representing the words of the authors so please read the sources. These are collected in no particular order.
Degan Ali, the executive director of Adeso, calling out the systemic racism of the humanitarian sector and who is calling for a new funding structure for humanitarian aid, the defunding and dissolving of the World Bank, IMF and the overhaul of the UN Security Council.
Degan Ali and Marie-Rose Romain Murphy here call for the defunding and dissolving of the World Bank, IMF and UN, especially the UN Security Council because “Calls to reform institutions that are founded on, and perpetuate, unequal and violent global structures is futile.” Funding needs to go to those organizations movement-building and fighting for social justice in their countries, not INGOs. INGOs need new board management and senior leadership that represents the communities they are serving. “If the goal of aid is about ending aid, then INGOs should have an exit plan and develop new metrics of success for their organizations that are centered around devolving power, money and voice to local communities, organizations and movements. Are they transferring knowledge and connections to these forces? Are they helping them to reinforce their capacity rather than taking funding, credit and human resources away from them? Are they ceding ‘market share’ to others as opposed to increasing it through the establishment of national entities in middle-income countries of the Global South purely as a fundraising strategy?” They write that INGOs and other global actors take credit and overshadow the fact that most work is done by those from the communities. Interactions between communities and INGOs must be of mutual respect. Stop all reinforcement of victims/white saviors through images, and show images that amplify the work communities are doing themselves. Give credit to and due public recognition to community organizations and leaders. There must be individual accountability for perpetuating unjust structures. They call for serious global organizing against the current systems and structures - and against top policy-makers, donors and organizations and for a restructuring of the UN security council.
NEAR Network, a movement of Global South organizations for fair, equitable and dignified partnership and genuine local participation in humanitarian action.
Feminist Humanitarian Network working against structural inequality.
Hala Al-Karib here and by Maria Al-Abdeh and Champa Patel here have voiced how the donor-driven, INGO-led movements overrule and quiet the work and priorities of local organizations.
Tindyebwa Agaba and an anonymous co-author have written about the casual and ubiquitous nature of racism that underlies that imbalance between safety, housing, pay and positions between expat white aid colleagues and local Black colleagues.
Madhukar Pai on racism within global health research structures including who gets credit versus who does the work.
Mawuna Remarque Koutonin asks why are white people expats when others are immigrants?
No White Saviors calling out the sector on its white savior complex here
Pasted directly: “Radi-Aid is an annual awareness campaign created by the Norwegian Students' and Academics' Assistance Fund (SAIH). Emerging from the satirical campaign and music video ‘Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway’, the campaign has focused on arranging the Radi-Aid Awards (2013-2017), celebrating the best - and the worst - of development fundraising videos. Along with this, we have produced several satirical, awareness-raising videos. In 2017, we also developed the Social Media Guide for Volunteers and Travelers.”
Charity So White (#CharitySoWhite) calling out racism in the sector through posts of experiences and calling for: candid and honest conversations about racism; publicly acknowledging racism; committing to tackling racism. In April they called for 20% of all funding to go to BAME-led organizations and that at least two members of decision making funding mechanisms have a strong record of racial justice. They were credited for the discussions of racism and diversity at the recent Chartered Institute of Fundraising's (IoF) Convention 2020.
Angela Bruce Raeburn here on the resilience of racism in the aid sector seen by the ability for the Women Deliver CEO to step down but still have a job during the investigation, thanks to her whiteness, and why isn’t there a zero tolerance policy for racism, like there is for sexual misconduct. Angela Bruce Raeburn also wrote here on support for Black colleagues, removing racist photographs and narratives, stopping imposing jargon to misrepresent people’s lives, and stop having all-white leadership teams. She also has previously written on racism in the development and aid sector including here specifically on centering voices of Black and brown women and marginalized groups, ensuring safeguarding mechanisms against SEA, obtaining consent from communities, and supporting leadership and career paths of Global South actors and INGO staff.
Stephanie Kimou of Population Works Africa here on confronting the white gaze, and shifting funding, narrative control and decision-making to the Global South.
Thousand Currents’ recommendations for donors and organizations here on individually doing work to counter white supremacy culture, shifting decision-making power, redefining ‘results’, shifting funding directly to grassroots organizations, and moving past ‘diversity and inclusion’ to justice.
Blessing Omakwu’s questions that every international development organization should ask to make internal policies match external values: the difference of power and empowerment and reflecting on what the board and leadership look like as the custodians of power, recognizing privilege and relinquishing it, pay equity, and decolonizing programs.
Rashida Petersen and Jennifer Lentfer on questioning the need for expats; focusing not just on hiring to improve diversity but on making sure people of color, particularly those from the areas of work, are in leadership positions; moving past diversity to inclusion; and examining how white supremacy functions within the organization here.
Corinne Gray on her experience of racism as a Black woman in the sector, that it is time to accept racism is everywhere, even in us, and the importance of speaking the truth and amplifying the voices of people of color speaking theirs.
Nof Nasser-Eddin and Nour Abu-Assab, founders of the Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration discuss Decolonial Approaches to Refugee Migration.
Reem Farah “inverts the gaze from “researching down” refugees to “studying up” the humanitarian structure that governs them” in her article ‘Expat, Local and Refugee: “Studying up” the Global Division of Labor and Mobility in the Humanitarian Industry in Jordan’
Charity Kamau and Arunn Jegan (MSF) write about what’s not okay, and what needs to happen for the humanitarian sector to actually stand in solidarity.
Lydia Namubiru writes on the privileging of white staff and the day to day racism against national staff and culture of white supremacy in aid organizations in Of Course Development Aid has a Big Black People Problem
Cynthia Keza Birikundavyi on the emotional toll, as a Black woman, when reflecting on and speaking about experiences of racism and being a part of these conversations for institutional change in the humanitarian sector.
Webinars and Podcasts
Decolonising aid Part 1: Humanitarian Neutrality and White Supremacy. Hosted by Adeso and Intersectional Feminist Foreign Policy, the webinar was facilitated by Shaista Aziz with Stephanie Kimou, Degan Ali, Hugo Slim, Jo Davies and Rob Grace. The discussion included whether humanitarian neutrality is and perpetuates white supremacy; the need to decolonize the study of humanitarian neutrality and humanitarianism, not just the sector; Degan Ali spoke of the whole system and structures are formed as part of a neocolonial exercise and needs to be addressed, that Global South leaders should create their own ecosystem and be more radical in their approach through South-South solidarity and lead rather than wait ; Stephanie Kimou argued aid should be considered reparations, that locally-rooted expertise needs to be honored and elevated, and space needs to be made for indigenous leadership, and quoted Dr Rosales Meza “decolonization is an act of love”. They both argued that neutrality is enabled because of white supremacy and perpetuates white supremacy to only being granted to INGOs, in exchange for something, and it removes the humanity of the people where it functions.
Season 2: Episode 13 of the Rethinking Development Podcast: Structural Racism and Speaking Truth to Power. Interview with Angela Bruce-Raeburn. Angela Bruce-Raeburn shares her experience growing up and her career as a Black woman from Trinidad and Tobago and the US, with three masters degrees and fluent in French and yet these weren’t enough because of systemic racism. When she speaks about applying for jobs in the development sector, she references her article, But Wait Until They See Your Black Face. She speaks to the failed response in Haiti, the joke of development (“International development is all about big organizations going into poor countries telling poor people what to do, not understanding the context”) where all decisions are made in DC, NY and London “And the people who are most impacted, the people whose lives will turn on whether or not these plans are implemented, they’re not at the discussion table.” She offers “the only way development gets reimagined is with people like Degan Ali, the woman in Kenya, that’s the only way it gets changed because people like her have voices that are in stark contrast to the UN voices, talking about how much they have changed, how much they’ve helped. If we don’t change that narrative, we don’t make a dent at all.” When asked whether this moment might be a watershed moment, Angela Bruce-Raeburn speaks to the Women Deliver situation. “This is to me about structural racism, that this white woman will have the benefit of the doubt that black women know they will not have, know we cannot have. Because even in this instance, the same Women Deliver organization puts out a statement that they stand in solidarity with everybody, but even in the organization, being accused of these kinds of things, and she still has her job now.” She speaks of the lack of Black and brown people in leadership positions in development organizations and “the answer is unequivocally, don’t even waste your time in development.” Speaking to where real change will happen, “And I don’t have that kind of confidence in that systemic racism, structural racism is a reality that I don’t think that we understand the depths of it, and how much of it is entrenched and ingrained and socialized into who we are.”
When the West Falls into Crisis
Rethinking Humanitarianism in the midst of #Black Lives Matter and COVID-19. Organized by the New Humanitarian and facilitated by Heba Aly, with Candace Rondeaux, Uzodinma Iweala, Angela Bruce-Raeburn, Abby Maxman, Patrick Gathara, Degan Ali and Aarathi Krishnan.
Please listen to this as there was so much said in two hours and it’s impossible to summarize adequately. The current system was and is structured to keep the Global South without power and impoverished - from the UN Security Council, to IMF/WB loans, to the extraction of resources, to the humanitarian action is a business for INGOs, to how the media and journalists portray crises in the Global South compared to the Global North, to the views of white humanitarians that they are there to save Black and brown people. Eradicate false borders that humanitarian crises are only in the Global South; make sure to be privileging the voices of BIPOC and Global South in this re-thinking of humanitarianism; ‘localization’ is pejorative (Degan Ali); stop considering this work charity and ground it in justice, stop the ‘pipeline of leadership’ in this sector that fosters all white, Global North leadership and start hiring BIPOC staff and staff from the Global South- they are applying and they’re being ignored; support civil society to be for themselves and not required to cater to INGOs demands and priorities; “begin with the premise that this is no longer acceptable” (Patrick Gathara). TNH summary here.
How to be Anti-Racist in Aid: Watch video here
This panel organized by Arbie Baguios, founder of Aid Re-Imagined, included speakers Marie-Rose Romain Murphy, Naomi Tulay-Solanke and Stephanie Kimou. Original summary was four pages so please watch the video. Marie-Rose Romain Murphy talks about the narratives of the Global South (Haiti in particular) that need to be deconstructed because they are white washed and uphold white supremacy. She calls out white/donors/INGOs for only wanting people who will agree with them and how people won’t seek structural change “will embrace the anti-local, anti-Black initiatives so they can promote their own interests”. For white listeners, cultivate that humility and empathy to overcome a sense of superiority. She shared the racism she’s experienced in applying for jobs and leading her organization. Change the narrative and representation that perpetuates racist stereotypes, ex focuses on the rich history culture and spirit of Haiti. She calls listeners to check the narrative and perspective that perpetuates this. And she calls out those who speak politically correct, and then turn around and don’t fund her or trust her. “Just do the damn right thing”. And for funding “let’s talk numbers”. Down to 1% goes to local organizations. “The truth is in numbers – I want people walking their talk. Stop hiding behind excuses. Naomi Tulay-Solanke calls out donors for only supporting local organizations to support their ideas that they have decided at the international level, not the local organizations’. She calls for recognizing and funding local-led initiatives, recognize local leaders and support them; and the leadership of local leaders, community and national organizations, and empower local expertise so they can build the community back far past international involvement. That funding for INGOs should only be given if they’re in equal partnership with local NGOs in a partnership of mutual respect and accountability to the people whose needs they are working towards (and don’t raise money through racist photos). That the perception that one-size-fits-all must stop and donors and INGOs deciding what the community “needs” without speaking to them or working with community leaders and experts, must stop, stop making racist assumptions of leaders and the community needs. “I don’t know how to explain to someone the humanness of someone…And if you don’t understand the way I talk, I’m not responsible.” She raised, and Stephanie echoed this, to stop flying Black leaders around to white-led conferences when you don’t even give them sufficient funding to their organization. Stephanie Kimou defined white supremacy as “White supremacy culture (WSC) is the specific ideology stating that white people and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs and actions are superior to those of people of color.” And that WSC is 1) why we have to have this conversation – for white people 2) that you don’t have to be a white supremacies to support white supremacist culture. Listing how white people support WSC: 1) all white leadership in major INGOs and foundations that work in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean; 2) Inequitable pay scales between those from the Global North compared to those from the Global South, even when they’re doing more work; 3) Not speaking out against poverty porn and tokenizing photos of Black people within the office and in communications; 4) still working at racist organizations like Women Deliver and Oxfam; 5) Talking about getting “buy-in” from Black people and “localization”; 6) doing gender mainstreaming without intersectionality and including race/racism. Stephanie recommends: 1) accept racism exists, and take steps to dismantle WSC; 2) have an individual exit strategy; 3) elevate local expertise – it’s the least you can do; 4) follow Black leaders, speakers, thinkers and don’t ask Black friends for recommendations. That the humanitarian sector was built on colonialism. “It’s not a glass ceiling. It’s a concrete ceiling.” In responding to how/if the sector can become anti-racist, Stephanie argued “if anyone can figure it out it’s Black women. Stop silencing them and move out of the way.” For racist language, white people should figure out how to change the words as they’ve come up with them (like beneficiaries). And for white women, there are free resources you can google to build anti-racist capacity written by Black women – do that work.
After watching, donate to the panelists and organizers’ organizations as a thank you for having to speak to predominantly white people on how white supremacist the structure is. Thank you Stephanie, for urging this in the webinar.
Consent in Development: Stephanie Kimou and Angela Bruce-Raeburn on CGD Podcast.
Discussing the inherent racist structure of the sector, and its roots in colonialism and white supremacy. The problematic approaches - lifestyles, wielding of power, assumption of expertise, privileging the education systems and languages of the Global North, creation of a parallel economy, imposing what communities ‘need’ on communities, and white people “living their best lives in spite of the devastation and because of the devastation” (- Angela Bruce-Raeburn with Stephanie Kimou agreeing and adding the second half). Recommendations that white humanitarian workers need a better education to be a part of this sector, that the sector needs Black women-led leadership, to de-center the white gaze, foster transparent partnerships, elevate African expertise above all else, that white women can dismantle their privilege, and for countries to take more control over their own space and fill the gaps if INGOs left.
Shifting the Power: Decolonizing Aid and Development
This interview with Arbie Baguios discussing shifting the power and decolonizing aid. The tools currently being used and how they can be changed to center the needs of the Global South colleagues, for example project management and log frames originate from the US military in the 1970’s to ensure projects aligned with US objects. In addition how the humanitarian sector is donor driven and bureaucratic leaving their priorities mismatched with that of the ‘affected communities’, how language perpetuates power dynamics. Ethics - “is this the right thing to do” - should be a part of program quality and accountability. Consider whether this is shifting the power in this work. Areas of reform - effectiveness and evidence-based work; localization and talking about power dynamics and shifting power to Global South communities; adaptive management systems thinking. Aid Reimagined is advocating to think about justice and effectiveness, and the model is in a working paper stage. Recommendations: to increase diversity at decision-making level, work with Global North governments to lobby for visa policies to not prohibit mobility of colleagues from the Global South.
Challenging the white gaze of development
Robtel Neajai Pailey is interviewed about how the representation of Covid globally and how the response centers the white gaze, in that the perceived ‘need’ is emphasized and not the work actually being done by communities and countries themselves for themselves.
Related to the white gaze article above:
Secret aid worker anonymous piece written by a Communications staff from “a small country in Asia”
[Academic] Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse -1984
Chandra Talpade Mohanty examines the ways western Feminist discourse maintains neocolonialist sentiments when examining ‘third world’ women. She identifies three analytical principles for how to determine ethnocentric universalism in western writing regarding the global south. The first principle brings to light the categorization of womanhood, and brings to question how it's defined, and who defines it. The second principle Mohanty identifies is the lack of analysis in methodologies used to garner evidence that is used globally. Lastly, Mohanty describes how the third principle identifies the unexamined power relations between ‘third world’ women and western feminists.
What will it take to decolonize global health? By Amruta Byatnal and Naomi Mihara.
US resources for organizations
Equity in the Center: Do Black Lives Matter in Your Organization? Living into the Values of Your Public #BLM Statement. This webinar goes through moving organizations from awake to woke to work, when addressing systemic racism and particularly anti-Black racism, including the ‘buckets’ of organizational components that need to be addressed: community, leadership, management, board, data, learning environment, and organizational culture. Their guidance is here.
For employers to do better for their Black staff
Calling in Black: a dynamic model of racially traumatic events, resourcing, and safety
Dear Companies your BLM posts are cute but we want to see policy change
In Defense of Black Staff in the Political Sector
How to Manage When Things are Not Okay (And Haven’t Been for Centuries)
10 ways orgs can show up for Black Lives without exploiting ‘Black Lives Matter’
Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People
Black Lives Matter: Why forming 'diversity' committees with Black staff, who have no expertise in D&I or Anti-Racism, is tokenising, by Nova Reid.
On white leadership + board specific articles
How White People Conquered the Nonprofit Industry
How to think differently about diversity in nonprofit leadership: get comfortable with discomfort
Diversifying Boards means ceding control- Are white non-profit leaders ready?
7 Things you can do to improve the sad pathetic state of board diversity
The default nonprofit board model is archaic and toxic; let’s try some new models
Work Culture/HR:
The Bias of Professionalism Standards by Aysa Gray
An Integrated Anti-Oppression Framework for Reviewing and Developing Policy, Springtide Resources
Our hiring practices are inequitable and need to change,from Nonprofit AF
Why I’ve changed my equity, diversity and inclusion philosophy by Advancing Arts Forward
White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun
Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization by Crossroads Ministry
Moving from Allyship to Solidarity Actions look like by Heidi Schillinger
To share the demands and calls for change by so many Black women, and women and men of color, and white people working in solidarity, the following draft commitments are based, and expand on, the articles and webinars outlined in Section 1. Please let us know if you have any additions or thoughts.
Commitments should be linked to a timeline and include who is responsible. They can be adapted.
For organizations endeavoring to become anti-racist, please see questions to ask and list of BIPOC/-led organizations and consultants to work with on page 22 (and please send us any recommendations or suggestions as we’re eager to expand this list beyond the US).
Commit to:
Overall
Solidarity statements
Leadership
Boards
Staff
HR practices: hiring, retention, promotions, complaint mechanisms
Photos, Narratives and Communications
Panels Webinars and Convenings and external engagement
Monitoring and Evaluation
Language
External/partnerships
Budgeting and Funding
Commit to:
Commit to:
*If interested in a very informal network of white consultants making commitments and holding each other accountable, please reach out.
When undertaking institutional conversations for Humanitarians INGOs/Foundations
on its perpetuation of systemic racism and white supremacy, consider the following questions:
Foundations/INGOs:
Internally:
Externally in partnership with colleagues in the ‘Global South’
This tracking section, compiled by Boram Lee, is a starting point to track which INGOs and Foundations are making statements, and whether they are operationalizing these statements internally. If anyone is interested in tracking with us, please reach out. Please also feel free to send updates.
Other related tracking/monitoring/surveys: recent survey of global humanitarian organizations requesting them to report formal complaints of racism against staff (nearly a third refused to report), as well as a forthcoming equity index for the UK-based development sector.
Organization | Press releases/Statements | Former and current Staff led responses (or comments) | |
CARE |
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Humanity and Inclusion | https://www.hi-us.org/anti_racism_statement_from_the_staff_of_humanity_inclusion |
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IDA |
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International Women’s Health Coalition | |||
IRC |
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MSF |
| MSF former and current staff letter calling for leadership to address institutional racism https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16TF7CTAP3S8BoV4MUOrZxYcIUk_-qT_MUYxSQKhThDU/viewform?edit_requested=true | |
OCHA |
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Oxfam America |
| Retracted first statement, now has Tools to begin your journey towards anti-racism | |
Save the Children |
| Actions: they’ve held a town hall, are looking at hiring practices, conducting anti-racism training | |
UN |
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| Statement by twenty senior leaders in the UN, who report directly to Secretary-General António Guterres, and who are African or of African descent https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1066242
It's time the UN faced up to its treatment of black people like me by Rosebell Kagumire |
UN Women |
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UNDP |
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UNHCR America |
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Women Deliver |
| Published benchmarks; then the incredible @BritanyTatum and @chelsea_wd and others called out WD with their experience of racism as former employees, the CEO has taken a leave of absence, made another statement that there is an investigation going on). | |
WRC |
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Take Two Non-profit Consultants of Color
#blackwomenindev - Black Women in Development: A Global Network
Women of Color in Emergencies Network
Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation
BAMEiD: UK Network for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic practitioners in International Development
The Rooted Collaborative: A Global Community for BIWOC Fundraisers
We are looking for non-US-based BIPOC/-led organizations and consultants to include here. Please share if you have recommendations or contact information. If you only have their personal email accounts, please don’t share until you’ve confirmed with them.
For organizations seeking REDI/DEI consultants, see below for BIPOC-led organizations and consultants working on this. For more advice on what to consider when seeking a consultant, see Michelle Kim from Awaken here and Kerrien Suarez with support from Ericka Hines from Equity in the Center here.
US: Race Forward, the Center for Urban and Racial Equity, AORTA, Dismantling Racism Works, Transforming Culture and Naming Racism, Population Works Africa Decolonizing our work workshop, Sisu Consulting Center for Equity and Inclusion, Change Elemental, The Raben Group, Justice Collective, the Melanin Collective, Itzbeth Menjivar of BridgePeople, Awaken, Antionette D. Carroll, The Angry Africans: Be Better Do Better.
Awaken: List of Black-owned DEI companies and consultants
Take Two Non-profit Consultants of Color (includes consultants working on DEI/REDI
South Africa: Desiree Paulsen
Uganda: No White Saviors/education
UK/Middle East: Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration
Others for organizational change:
While some of these resources are focused on feminist funding, they employ intersectional feminist lenses, and center around wider points of power dynamics and shifts in the sector:
Toward a Feminist Funding Ecosystem, by AWID
Reparations as Philanthropy: Rethinking “Giving” in Africa, by Uzodinma Iweala
Participatory Grantmaking Collective
So many voices are excluded due to the privileging of English at decision-making fora, the lack of prioritization of language accessibility, and the lack of resources and time allocated to inclusive translation and interpretation. Here are just some initial resources for working towards achieving language justice:
Just Communities' Language Justice Network:
How to build language justice, by Antena
Language Justice Curriculum, by the Center for Participatory Change
Resources and Tools on Racism, White Privilege and Anti-Black Discrimination
Sara Bonyadi created this compilation of resources that includes articles, tools, books, films, podcasts, and tedtalks from 20 different countries in a number of languages on racism, white privilege, and discrimination on individual and organizational levels. Sections also include being an ally, race and feminism, race and LGBTQIA+, race and children, and confronting anti-Black racism for non-Black persons of colour.
Resources compiled to stand in solidarity with Black liberation movements: Black women-led orgs to support, templates for starting anti-racism org conversations, books to read, e-course to join, form to volunteer your time, and initiating moving money to Black-led orgs.
Stephanie Kimou, Population Works Africa
Racism in the aid industry and international development-a curated collection
Tobias Denskus compiles and quotes a series of recent articles from Devex and the New Humanitarian on racism in the aid and development sector.
Resource pack: Educate yourself on racism and #Black Lives Matter
50 Shades of Aid, June 2020
Duke University
Gender and Development: Reimagining International Development
A series of articles reimagining international development from an intersectional feminist lens.
Healing Solidarity Conference interviews with actors from all over the world, especially the Global South, speaking on reimagining international aid.
Population Works Africa offers workshops, lectures, townhall discussions and an e-learning course on decolonizing international aid, a webinar on the same topic and is starting an anti-racism course.
How Matters - Ways to be in Action Against Anti-black Racism (Jennifer Lentfer, aka @intldogooder) and many others can be found on her website
Other anti-racism trainings and resources:
People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Race Forward, Leslie Mac’s Allies in Action Bootcamp
Document compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein in May 2020.
Healing Solidarity “Getting Ourselves Together” pop up group for white people working on anti-racism individually and in the humanitarian and development sectors.
Contradictions for white people in racial justice work
Ericka Hart on why white people should not be paid for doing anti-racism work
Six signs your call-out is about ego and not accountability by Maisha Z. Johnson
How good white people silence people of color by Donyae Coles
Anti-racism requires so much more than 'checking your privilege' by Momtaza Mehri.
Unpacking the privilege of the white “expat” backpack: Everyday ways of experiencing, upholding or leveraging white supremacy
Drafted by the authors, open to additions, and inspired by Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack