Blogs

Post-Summit a number of blogs have been posted on various platforms and websites, including reflections on the event itself and thoughts on what happens next. Keep checking back here as we signpost to these!

I reached Bogotá after 42 hours of leaving Kathmandu via Doha and New York with my colleague from Nepal. We were exhausted and hungry when we reached our hotel. We immediately entered a nearby restaurant and ordered our first Colombian food – Arepa and Platano Maduro. We enjoyed every bite. After we were finished and relieved of our hunger, my colleague tried to pay the bill with his debit card. Unfortunately, the card did not work. We only had USD as cash and did not have time to exchange Colombian Pesos until then. The manager told us not to worry and come back later for the payment. That was my first experience of trust in Colombia. Read more in Alliance magazine's special feature on the Summit

Trust is the key to shifting the power

By: Soni Khanal, Accountability Lab Nepal

“I come from a very small village with barely any educational facilities. When I sit in this conference here, it is difficult for me to explain the lack of access I had to quality infrastructure while growing up.” “Then this is where you find your tribe. The people who inspire you, push you to think further, and comfort you – these are the people you connect with here, and help guide you through life.” This was one of the many diverse conversations I’ve had at the Summit. To rally people around a hashtag-turned-into-a-movement is no easy feat. The conference was in English and Spanish and both sections felt included – really quite telling of how languages have the power to include and exclude. Read more on the Adeso website

As I sit in the comfort of home reflecting on the whirlwind experience of the Summit, I realize there is much to celebrate and learn from, both in terms of how the Summit was organized and what each participant brought to the convening. The overall Summit design remains a highlight for me. With a late start on Day 1 and 5pm closures, long lunch breaks, plenty of coffee breaks, limited number of parallel sessions, and fun reception experiences on all three days, I managed to not just engage with the content but also absorb and retain it. Moreover, the intentional pace of the Summit allowed me to interact with people beyond their job and project descriptions. Read more on the Adolescent Girls Investment Plan website

"The #ShiftThePower agenda is a liberation agenda"

Tarisai Jangara, Africa Philanthropy Network, interviews Dzikamai Bere, ZimRights

I was filled with excitement when I crossed paths with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) at the Summit. As someone who had transitioned from the mainstream media industry to the development sector, ZimRights was the very first organization I had the opportunity to work with back then in 2013. They are a remarkable grassroots movement in Zimbabwe, consisting of ordinary individuals who are passionate about human rights. With a membership of over 250,000 people, ZimRights has become the largest grassroots movement in the country since its establishment in 1992. Read more in Alliance magazine's special feature on the Summit

In the first week of December 2023 a glorious event happened. The Summit brought together over 700 individuals from 70 countries to have a joint experience. It wasn’t a conference, it was more akin to an "unconference." Hoping to emulate what the movement is aiming to do, the Summit went against the "rules" of a conference, it did away with structure and formalities and opted, instead, for space to share and weave ideas, for challenge as well as agreement, for conversation, for healing and for much needed joy. Read more on the Bond website

We recently visited the Gold Museum in Bogotá, Colombia, where we had the opportunity to deepen our learning about the ancestral knowledge of the original pre-Colombian population, their ways of life, and their relationships with nature. The visit to the Museum’s archaeological goldwork exhibitions and collections also highlighted the learning we had during the #ShiftThePower Global Summit. The Summit was an opportunity to meet with colleagues, partners, and other actors from the philanthropic ecosystem to talk about how systemic changes happen, through resilient communities and respect for local practices. Read more on the Global Fund for Community Foundations website

“This is not just for the Global South, but for our global survival,” Nana Afadzinu, Executive Director at West Africa Civil Society Institute (WASCI), told us as 700 people from 70+ countries gathered for the #ShiftThePower Global Summit in Bogotá, Colombia this past December. We spent the following three days at the Summit discussing the role we all have to play to shift power, build solidarity, heal from trauma to transformation, decolonize philanthropy and aid, and so much more. Read more on the Stopping As Success website

It takes all of us: Shifting power and decolonizing development

By: Grace Boone, CDA Collaborative Learning & Jasmine Kato-Naughton, Peace Direct (Stopping As Success consortium members)

This quote represents what the #ShiftThePower Global Summit was to me: a space to hear uncomfortable truths and to collectively reimagine solutions. When Marie-Rose Romain Murphy of the Haiti Community Foundation said that “we can’t shift power without breaking some rules” it got me thinking… Why do we need these rules in the first place? Why can’t we simply co-create guidelines and principles to follow together with the communities we serve? Read more on the CIVICUS website

The energy of local changemakers is our most powerful resource

By: Eleanor Cater, Community Foundations of Aotearoa NZ

Funding into communities is important, but what if unlocking local energy is our most powerful resource of all, enabling us to embark on the transformational work and empowerment that our communities need? This idea was central at the #ShiftThePower Global Summit in Bogotá, Colombia, where surging community philanthropy and the changemaking energy from within communities was explored by over 700 delegates from 70 countries. I was lucky to travel to the Summit with a delegation from Australia and New Zealand and I was left with a sense of the immense power of community energy in self-determination, along with the central role of community foundations in unlocking energy and empowerment at the community margins. Read more on the Community Foundations of Aotearoa NZ website

When I landed in Bogotá, my instinct was to stop for a while and fill my lungs with air, realizing that my body, accustomed to living at sea level, felt the need to move more slowly and breathe more deeply. The reason for braving the altitude of the Colombian capital was to accompany my colleagues from the Comuá Network to the #ShiftThePower Global Summit. Here, I’ll share some of the reflections I gathered during the event and which have returned with me to Brazil, still reverberating in the exchanges and work we do at Comuá. When we arrived at the event, the welcome was slow and warm, and soon gave way to long-awaited hugs from people who used to be just windows on Zoom, but who now shared their deep inspirations with us. Right away, you could tell we were moving at a different pace. Read more on the Global Fund for Community Foundations website

Four takeaways for philanthropy from #ShiftThePower

By: Ayan Ahmed, Jesse Eaves & Lexi Ferry-Smith, Humanity United

In line with our organizational value of curiosity, we approached the Summit as an opportunity to listen and learn from those engaged in impactful work around the world. We wanted to deepen our journey of knowing how we can support communities that are using their power to address issues that impact their ability to thrive. There were several themes relevant to our areas of work that emerged, including the need for collective action, the power of relationships, the importance of prioritizing well-being, the importance of working through networks, and the idea that communities hold the solutions to the problems they are facing. However, one of the biggest recurring themes that came up throughout the Summit was around the power dynamics between funders and those seeking funding. Read more in Alliance magazine's special feature on the Summit

In the heart of Bogotá, Colombia, the Shift the Power Summit posed a crucial question: “Do you believe that another way is possible?” Humentum’s Christine Sow and Kim Kucinskas, part of the gathering, share their experience of a conference that defied norms. Reflecting on their takeaways, they stress the need to acknowledge uncertainties and act despite imperfect conditions. Spanning three days, the Summit underscored the importance of collective efforts and diverse contributions in shaping a more locally led and locally owned future. Let’s dive in! Read more on the Humentum website

Shifting the power and breaking norms

By: Christine Sow & Kim Kucinskas, Humentum

Weaving liberatory actions: Reflections from the #ShiftThePower Global Summit

By: Oluwatobiloba Ayodele, Liberation Alliance Africa

The Summit served as a platform for creating "good collisions" and establishing connections among individuals shaping people-centred practices. These practices are driven from the grassroots, and the Summit also brought together those leading experiments and efforts to #ShiftThePower within the existing system. The Summit marked the culmination of various global activities. Conversations leading to the Summit explored questions about how power can and should be transferred to communities, the practical implications of this shift, and the role of current philanthropic practices. For us at Liberation Alliance Africa, we focused our energies on exploring decolonial feminist philanthropy in West Africa. Read more on the Liberation Alliance Africa website

The Summit unfolded as an inclusive dialogue, bringing together a diverse network of 700+ people from more than 80 countries...As Barry Knight put it, to achieve change we need to remove “egos, logos, silos and halos” – and this commitment was evident at the Summit. It felt like a warm embrace: extremely inclusive and uplifting. Participants arrived burdened by the world’s crises and the sense that the current system is not fit for purpose. They left invigorated with new ideas, connections and a commitment to work to shift power and increase accountability. Read more on the CDAC Network website

As you settle after the #ShiftThePower Global Summit experience with 700 plus changemakers in Bogotá, Colombia, the aside "Summit Communique" is here. It is dedicated to you who felt restless and vow to reclaim the lost power of alternatives, diversity and solidarity to create the world we want. Much credit goes to the event organizers for confronting the world’s pain through relaxed atmospheres, lightning talks, and plenty of connecting spaces. Read more on the Nguzo Africa website

International development has become the primary vehicle for the delivery of humanitarian aid and development supplementing the State functions in developing countries. The theoretical underpinning of this system can be summarized around the aspirations of bottom-up development, with people at the centre of these endeavours, working within the framework of human dignity, rights, and development for all. Read more on the Alliance magazine website

Engaging in peacebuilding work often feels like navigating an uncharted path, and the journey can sometimes be isolating. Despite our unwavering commitment to our communities, we were longing for connection with fellow peacebuilders who share our passion and challenges. When we were informed that we, the co-creators, would have the opportunity of meeting one another physically, we hardly imagined it could happen. Read more on the Peace Starts Here website

“He who pays the piper calls the tune”

By: Nishchhal Kharal, Celine Osukwu & Le Sen, Peace Starts Here campaign co-creators

Last December, as political leaders, billionaires and development professionals attended the COP 28 conference in Dubai, a very different kind of convening was drawing a crowd in Bogotá. The #ShiftThePower Global Summit, like COP 28, was focused on convening and mobilizing problem-solvers in government and civil society, to figure out how to address some of the biggest challenges of our time. But the audience and tone were very different. Read more on the Proximate website

Is this community philanthropy’s moment?

By: Ledys Sanjuan Mejía, Proximate Press

I intended to share the incredible conversations I had at the conference. On our arrival that morning, I vividly remember being on the bus with Soheir, a Palestinian and Ruth, a Kenyan who are both human rights lawyers and activists. Our discussion revolved around Palestine and our expectations for the Summit. The weaving conversations leading up to the #ShiftThePower Global Summit had been radical, thought-provoking, and powerful. I was eager for the next three days, anticipating they would hold the same energy. Read more in Alliance magazine's special feature on the Summit

Decolonial justice at the border: #ShiftThePower in Bogotá

By: Massah Esther Nyally Bockarie, Purposeful

When someone asks you to introduce yourself, what’s the first thing you think of? For me it’s “Hi, I’m Yande the Power Shifting Director at Restless Development…” and the rest follows. Who are we without the values that shape us and follow us in our vocational day jobs? “No more egos, logos and working in silos” was the introductory call to action in building a community space at the #ShiftThePower Global Summit. The #ShiftThePower movement has emerged over the past decade as a result of dissatisfaction with top-down structures that fail to deliver. Coming together to insert new voices in the development knowledge economy and to explore new ways of deciding and doing, with a manifesto to guide our collective thinking. Read more on the Restless Development website

For the first time in four years, activists from the #ShiftThePower movement gathered together in Bogotá this past December for a Global Summit. The aim was to inject new energy into the movement through deepening connections and relationships, forging a stronger and more unified action agenda for change. Many from the RINGO team and wider RINGO community were present as allies to help influence funders and INGOs alike to ensure they actively and rapidly shift power and resources to national and local civil societies. Read more on the Rights CoLab website

The road to social transformation is never easy to traverse. As the saying goes, we need to slow down and take time to smell the roses and not miss a thing during the journey. This was my reflection when we provided the space for activists from different parts of the world to contemplate on their work during the session “What’s the point of the revolution if we can’t dance? Sustaining ourselves, nurturing our movements and regenerating our activism” at the Summit. It was an opportunity to just be in the present moment and be free to express our vulnerabilities, discuss issues of burn-out, of not feeling safe in fighting for social justice, and the feeling of isolation and not being supported. Read more on the #ShiftThePower Treehouse

Continuing the dance of the revolution

By: Jane Austria-Young, Sentrong Pagpapalakas ng Negritong Kultura at Kalikasan (SPNKK)

On the first day Jenny Hodgson of the Global Fund for Community Foundations delivered a captivating speech which brought to light the journey of the #ShiftThePower movement. As a person interested in statistics and evidence-based arguments, she provided the compelling need for shifting power. She stated that in 2016 there was a realization from international humanitarian donors that 97% of aid was channeled towards international organizations while only 3% went to local organizations - yet they are at the forefront of mitigating challenges that confront humanity. A commitment was then made to increase humanitarian funding to local organizations to 25% but since COVID-19, the funding has in fact decreased. Numbers do tell a story. Read more in Alliance magazine's special feature on the Summit

Reflections from the #ShiftThePower Global Summit

By: Shelly Satuku, SIVIO Institute

Three lessons for peace, from Latin America

By: Felipe Bogotá Rodríguez, TerritoriA

Bogotá was the epicenter of a global conversation about new dynamics and ways of deciding in relation to power. Over the three days we had the privilege of bringing together more than 700 agents of change from all continents to dream of community philanthropy that contributes to global issues such as climate change, gender inequality, violence and armed conflict and socioeconomic inequalities. We questioned, from a critical perspective, how we can change the established power systems to solve the poly-crises we face as humanity. Read more in Alliance magazine's special feature on the Summit

Have you heard of imaginal cells? This is what Amaha Selassie asked us as we sat in the jungle-themed hotel lobby. It was the night after the #ShiftThePower Summit in Bogotá, and 5 of us had come together seemingly by accident, talking for hours about the worlds of possibility and complexity that the Summit had unlocked. None of us knew about these cells, so Amaha explained. Read more on the #ShiftThePower Treehouse

At the Summit, most of us were forced to reflect on the ways in which we have resigned ourselves to the “busy-ness” of this work because we live in a fast-paced capitalistic world that demands our constant productivity at the expense of intentionality and space to imagine. The Summit was filled with such an expansiveness that we usually do not see in large global spaces with over 700 participants from diverse cultures and identities. It was there that we had the space to connect with one another without feeling the pressure of identifying ourselves with our job titles. We interacted without limiting ourselves to boxes of our job roles or titles, but rather the true essence of who we are and how we show up in this work. Read more on the #ShiftThePower Treehouse

Co-existing in a flawed system, in rest, in care

By: Gloria Mugabekazi, UHAI EASHRI

In December 2023, at #ShiftThePower Global Summit in Bogotá, I attended a session on “Measurement is Political.” After the session, I started to think of how measurement has been politicized. All my professional life, I have always had a problem with the MEAL system (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning), and how we measure people in numbers. Using numbers to fit into donor agendas, expectations, log frames, and all kinds of other insensitive measurements. Read more on the #ShiftThePower Treehouse

The change is now - but how?

By: Rebecca Hanshaw & Barry Knight

After 18 months of work with the H & S Davidson Trust on its Reforming International Development programme, it is clear that the system is broken. As the world drifts towards ever more violent conflict, there is less freedom and more polarization than ever before. Too few resources continue to reach local communities and when they do, our evidence suggests that the way they are delivered often “disempowers” and causes harm. Read more in Alliance magazine

It is impossible to hold a gathering of almost 700 people from all over the world and not talk about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. That is why it was an honour and a pleasure to hear Soheir Assad from Rawa Creative Palestinian Communities Fund speak on the second day of the Summit in Bogotá. In a fiery and brutally honest talk which needed to be had, Soheir tore apart the glossy veneer of solidarity and community in detailing the impact of Israeli occupation and aggression on Palestinians in Gaza since the events of 7 October. Read more in Alliance magazine's special feature on the Summit