Interviews

Prior to, and following, the #ShiftThePower Global Summit, the Global Fund for Community Foundations spoke with allies from across the global civil society and funding ecosystem to hear their views on the trajectory of the #ShiftThePower movement, the role of INGOs and civil society organizations in this, and a number of other topics.

The road to Bogotá: Where next for the #ShiftThePower movement?

“The phrase ‘#ShiftThePower’ isn’t strong enough – that’s why I talk about decolonization. And when we think about an emergent system, I am talking about one that is really based on real ideas of equality, sovereignty, independence and fairness. One of the ways to move in this direction is to make civil society fully resourced and intentionally political. Let’s give these organizations more unrestricted funding and let’s help them think through these systems issues around the politics of aid and development. If we want to support civil society, we must support movement building, support them to be political actors and agitators and activists, not project implementers. We have to give them the flexible money to do that – and if it takes them ten years to make any progress so be it.” Read more

“The #ShiftThePower movement has been mostly focused at the community, local and sub-national level. What the Global Public Investment model brings to the movement is that it says: ‘you can’t avoid fitting in with the big, international money. Ultimately, we have to link that with small community money and discuss how that will work.’ We need to build the institutions and laws that mitigate for the power imbalances that are everywhere, new institutions that enable voice and ownership more. A new system in which the UN increasingly recognizes civil society as legitimate voices that need to be heard. That’s what we’re trying to do with Global Public Investment.” Read more

“Among the Global Majority, we know we can’t go on with the top-down colonial development system we have had. The challenge is can we get our act together to use this moment to go beyond just making incremental change, which seems to be the comfortable option for many. But the truth is you can’t incrementally fix the system to become more community-led because this is a system that was designed to keep out communities, to keep out local organizations, to keep out Global Majority worldviews. It was a system of domination and control, and it cannot be fixed, it cannot suddenly become a system of equitable partnerships. The kind of change that we eventually get will depend on our ability as Global Majority organizations to come together and use this critical moment to push for transforming the system rather than tweaking it.” Read more

“In terms of practical actions, the most fundamental one is to shift where the money and resources are used, because ultimately so much is about money. At the moment, the money is generated in the Global North and most of it is still spent in the Global North. We need to just hand over the money – at least 70% of what is raised, to strong local NGOs – with no strings attached. We need to shift so-called value add functions too.” Read more

“There’s a lot of tokenism in terms of shifting power to the Global South and not enough action in moving the money. So the first thing we should do is to track what part of the money has moved to the Global South. The second thing is to do with shifting where the decisions are made – and we need to track that too. This is not to just fuel advocacy efforts to push for progress but also to acknowledge those who have made changes. I believe that there is another important piece of work for the movement to focus on – which is to build solidarity in civil society across the Global South and globally. How do we create a solidarity mechanism that really works for the Global South in times of shrinking civic space?” Read more

The road from Bogotá: Perspectives on how INGOs are faring as they work to #ShiftThePower

People talk about building a movement - it’s already here

Kate Moger, Global Director of the Pledge for Change at Adeso

“My sense from speaking to INGO colleagues is that they don’t see themselves as part of the #ShiftThePower movement. They see themselves as a target of advocacy, but they don’t see the movement as being their home. This is symptomatic of a broader malaise in parts of the International NGO sector – they no longer see themselves as part of civil society in the places they work, they don’t see the value or recognize their place in the ecosystem. I think that’s a real problem.” Read more

“We also want to actively contribute in supporting, encouraging and holding INGOs accountable on the ‘how’ they practice power shifts – moving from the words to action. We are not claiming that we have answers on the what, these are coming from elsewhere in the movement, but we do feel that we can contribute on the ‘how’ based on deep experience on INGO organizational change pathways, equitable partnership and organizational development; linked to our intention to support civil society organizations to: develop, engage with others, and do what they want to do, better.” Read more

We need to listen, engage, unlearn and relearn

Kate Newman, Chief Executive of INTRAC

Let’s accelerate the change - and only do flexible funding

Charlotte Timson, former Chief Executive of Transform Trade

“Among INGOs, I feel there’s a bit of a divide now. Some organizations are just going to try to transform, particularly the smaller ones like us, they will just go all in, take the risk and say ‘if we close we close.’ I think this is less the case with the major INGOs. But I wonder how sustainable the sector currently is. The competition for resources is increasing, there are so many INGOs, you have to ask if we are being as effective as we can be with the resources available.” Read more

The road from Bogotá: Perspectives on how CSOs are faring as they work to #ShiftThePower

“We need to take donors into communities and show them the reality on the ground, and the magnitude of some of the failures that come from the systems they have built. We can also show them the successes that new ways of funding are bringing. Once they realize the issues and go ‘aha!’ we can invite them to be part of the solution – and this is when they could be willing to team with us and begin to #ShiftThePower.” Read more

Finding better ways to engage with donors

Jonathan Kifunda, Founder and Executive Director of Thubutu Africa Initiatives

Speak with a collective voice - and claim our power

Rotimi Olawale, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Youth Hub Africa

“If one organization gives feedback to a donor it is not going to be effective, and that one CSO will be worried about saying anything negative to its donors – they won’t want to risk losing their funding. But if there’s a group of civil societies that speak with one voice, there is less risk and the message is something donors are more likely to listen to.” Read more