IDIA Equity and Inclusion Taskforce Reading List: Decolonising Development
IDIA created Operational Taskforces under their 2020-2022 strategy in response to agencies increasingly focusing their efforts on internal, operational innovation and creating the right kind of agile, institutional environment that will enable them to be effective and efficient partners to others in the innovation ecosystem. The first Operational Taskforce launched focused on Equity and Inclusion where agencies examined and addressed diversity and equity within organisational objectives and workplace policies. Increasingly, these calls have expanded to include becoming actively anti-racist and inclusionary. For those committed to the work of development, these calls amplify the imperative felt while navigating the legacy and day-to-day work of addressing power imbalances and market systems that fail the most marginalised.
The Equity and Inclusion Taskforce was co-chaired by Kedest Tesfagiorgis (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and Kippy Joseph (The Global Innovation Fund) and the five exploratory sessions were co-facilitated by consultants Dr. Althea-Maria Rivas (SOAS, University of London) and Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou (Overseas Development Institute). Throughout the sessions the Taskforce consultants identified opportunities for asynchonous learning in the form of Weekly Reading Lists that focused on topics needing to be unpacked further within the group.
This blog series shares the four themed Reading Lists which address 1. The Power of Langugage, 2. Decolonising Development, 3. Intersectionality, and 4. A Watershed Moment. Each themed reading list includes three resources for those who have just a few moments to engae, those with a few minutes and those who have more.
If you have moments…
BLOG: Practicing Anti-racism and Anti-colonialism in International Development by Carolina Ramazzina van Moorsel (2020) | Find it here
In this piece, the author encourages development organisations undergoing re-structuring or re-imagining initiatives to frame these issues around anti-racism and anti-colonial ideas, and provides advice on some ways to go about doing so
If you have minutes …
PODCAST: Shifting the Power: Decolonizing Aid and Development by Safa Shahkhalili (2020) | Find it here
In this podcast Programme Quality and Accountability Specialist at ActionAid UK, Arbie Baguios speaks about an initiative he founded called Aid Re-imagined which aims to 'help usher the evolution of aid towards justice and effectiveness through deep radical and evidence based reflection and research'.
If you have more …
REPORT: Time to Decolonise Aid by Peace Direct (2021) | Find it here
In this report, Peace Direct presents findings and recommendations from a three day consultation they led with 158 activists, decision- makers, academics, journalists and practitioners across the globe. It outlines how structural racism manifests itself in their work, and how they envision a decolonised system that is truly inclusive and responds to their needs.
