Re-imagining the INGO (RINGO)

“No person or group does anything right 100% of the time, and investing in our own capacity while also sharing our capacity to the benefit of others is a gift.” Hear more from USAID’s Arjun Tasker on what donors and international organizations can learn from local leaders. Download the newly updated tool, “Mutual Capacity Strengthening Guidelines for Transitions to Local Ownership,” from SAS+! https://lnkd.in/eqxNGg4u PS. It will be available in French, Spanish, and Arabic very soon! CDA Collaborative Learning Projects Search for Common Ground ConnexUs #ResponsibleTransition #ShiftThePower

Quick - before you turn on your out-of-office, sign up for the RINGO Gathering 2025: Learn, Connect, Act! Like the title suggests, over the course of 11th and 12th February, you'll LEARN about new innovations, CONNECT with peers who are working to #shiftthepower, and plan how we can individually and collectively ACT to transform civil society. Register here: https://lnkd.in/dF9VDShH

Yes, we've learned some new things! Come along for some for some inspiration to kickstart 2025 and keep up the momentum to #shiftthepower

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR THE RINGO GATHERING 2025: LEARN, CONNECT ACT! https://lnkd.in/dF9VDShH Join us to kickstart 2025 with a renewed sense of agency and collective power to transform civil society! Get ready to Learn, Connect, Act! Over 11th and 12th February 2025, we’ll highlight the latest learnings from the RINGO #innovations, action pods and research, as well as share insights from other initiatives across the ecosystem. This gathering is more than a talking shop: the RINGO team and a host of brilliant guest speakers will explore practical ideas to take forward in your own work in the following areas: ⚡ Resource Flows ⚡ Accountability and Risk ⚡ Leadership and Governance ⚡ Solidarity and Partnerships While #decolonisation and #locallyled #development have been key talking points for a while now, tangible progress has often felt slow. This is no great surprise as this work is tricky to navigate and can feel overwhelming. But there are many innovative models, brilliant resources and #systemschange initiatives across global #civilsociety that are showcasing that #transformation is possible! It’s time to learn, connect and put ideas into practice! We have scheduled the sessions across different timezones to accommodate members of the RINGO community in different regions. All sessions will be recorded and shared after the event. Keep an eye out for further announcements in January! We look forward to seeing you at the RINGO Gathering 2025! West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) Reos Partners Nana Afadzinu (PhD) Charles Kojo Vandyck Nancy Kankam Kusi Jimm Chick Janet Mawiyoo Deborah Doane Jennie Richmond Sparkle Richards Rebecca Freeth PhD David Winter Akanimo Andrew Akpan, PhD #shiftthepower

Check out this great new resource from Partos! The Power Awareness Tool offers a digital platform and guidelines to help you and your partners agree the desired level of decision-making power 👇

📣LIMA DECLARATION: LATIN AMERICAN PERMANENT FORUM ON DECOLONIZING AID 🌎 🌱In Lima on December 4th and 5th, the inaugural event of the Permanent Forum for the Decolonization of Cooperation was held, providing a meaningful space to reflect on the colonial practices within international cooperation. The event brought together over 200 organizations from 21 countries. Amongst them were social and workers' organisations; indigenous, Afro-descendant, peasant, environmental and women's movements; regional organisations; academia; and Latin American NGOs; all committed to the decolonisation of aid. 🧩The Forum is envisioned as an open and dynamic space, welcoming all those committed to advancing more just, inclusive, and participatory forms of cooperation. We invite donors, international NGOs, philanthropists, and other allies to join this initiative, as its relevance and urgency continue to grow in addressing shared challenges across both the Global South and North. 📍Below you can read the Forum's Final Declaration 📹You can also watch Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro's reading of the declaration here: https://lnkd.in/dyCtCqR5

There is the potential for disruption and innovation in all of us, but what we simply need is time, space and opportunity to realise our ideas. Glad that the Re-imagining the INGO (RINGO) project was able to do that for Nicola Banks and Chibwe Masabo Henry who have shown no fear in showing how things can be done differently!

We need to talk about development NGOs. That's what I chose to talk about for my Inaugural lecture. Britain's development NGOs spend billions of pounds supporting global development. And it's us, the British public who are the biggest supporters of the sector. We contribute nearly 40% of that income. For us, development NGOs are the place we can show solidarity to global issues, where we can contribute directly to the issues we care about. But when you look at the data in more detail, you find that we're giving in ways that perpetuate an unequal system that doesn't work for communities. We give nearly all our support to a small number of the largest charities. This is a system that prioritises donor, rather than community interests. That searches for scaleable, 'magic bullets' rather than individualised projects that centre community contexts and differences. That takes a project-based and service-delivery oriented approach to development that is incompatible with structural and long-term change. And has zero flexibility to cope in crisis or adapt when things change. Of course, these big brands have huge names and huge fundraising budgets to make sure we know where they're at. But small charities are also all kinds of awesome, often working in close partnerships around the world. In contrast to the big guys, the smallest 50% of Britain's development NGOs only spend 1.2% of the sector's expenditure. These figures matter. They matter because we believe that this generosity can be so much more powerful if we get it closer to communities. If we can get it TO communities. And that's what led Chibwe Masabo Henry and me to launch One World Together. To pool affordable donations from people that want to support communities and to channel those directly to our 4 community partners in Kenya, the UK and Zambia. So far we've done that to the tune of £11,000 and to the mightiest of impacts! That's a story for another day. In the meantime, if you want to show your solidarity in ways that maximise community impact you can join our Solidarity Fund here from as little as £1.25: https://lnkd.in/eNTRAgZ5

We're excited to introduce the 2024 / 2025 #ShiftThePower Fellows: 15 global change-makers from 12 countries, representing varied efforts to transform communities & challenge existing power dynamics in international development & philanthropy. With Naro Alonzo, Lena B., Adior Ibrahim, Éva Fekete, Graciela Hopstein, Facundo Ibarlucía, Doel Jaikishen, Hellen Kuria, Vica Larasati, Ntombi Mcoyi, June Omune, Karolina Soliar, Son Pham & others! https://lnkd.in/ezgBX96q

Last week the Global Majority fund launched its call to action to funders seeking to fund racial justice work. You may look at these calls and be thinking: “None of these calls are radical”. You would be correct. They are based on the wealth of experience of our funded partners and the body of evidence that exists from well respected organisations such as The Ubele Initiative, #CharitySoWhite, Runnymede Trust and others. As funders, investing in racial justice requires a two prong approach: Firstly, ensuring meaningful and long term resources are ring fenced for Global Majority-led organisations (not projects) enabling them to determine where and how to invest these resources. Secondly, to critically explore internal systems, structures and policies that disproportionately excludes Global Majority-led organisations from accessing mainstream funding. Funder practice can reinforce and uphold inequality. Whilst ring fenced funding for Global Majority-led organisations is important, funding for racial justice is increasingly drying up so main stream funding needs to be more accessible. To every funder who joined us last week at the panel discussion, thankyou for your interest and for starting this journey with us. We look forward to following up discussions on how we can further this call to action in the New Year. For funders who sadly couldn’t join us - we will be reaching out to share with you highlights from the event and to explore how you can join this us on this movement. If there are any other funders who would like to find out more, please do get in touch with me! I would love to connect. Lastly - in the spirit of transparency to end with two reflections. Firstly, Comic Relief has begun work on these call to actions. We are starting that transition and building an action plan (see my previous post on why I haven’t used the term “journey”) - and future LinkedIn posts will reflect on how we are doing. Secondly, as Comic Relief deepens our engagement and work with the #ShiftthePower movement, we will explore how in the UK, organisations working on racial justice can better align with this community. There is a wealth of knowledge and expertise to share and synergies with what we are trying to do - that it makes sense we consider how the principles of #ShiftthePower can have meaning in the UK given racial justice work is rooted in deep solidarity with the local communities we are trying to serve. More updates on this and reflections to follow! Grateful for any thoughts from the racial justice and #ShiftthePower community on this! Fund Reference Group (FRG) National Emergencies Trust Esmée Fairbairn Foundation The Health Foundation City Bridge Foundation