The report, Reclaiming Agency: Dreaming of a Decolonial Feminist Philanthropy in West Africa, explores the philanthropy landscape in West Africa through a decolonial feminist lens and contributes a West African perspective to dominant narratives on decolonising philanthropy
Philanthropy continues to face several challenges in its effort to collaborate with activists in the pursuit of Africa’s transformation and liberation agenda because of its colonial origins and continued legacies. Evidence shows that the current philanthropic landscape is inherently unable to create sufficient space for participation and/or co-creation in the process of conceiving its interventions or in providing feedback on its work from the intended implementing partners. When we examine the current philanthropic landscape in West Africa, we see a web of donor-grantee relationships threaded together by power dynamics and relations that perpetuate the power imbalance which usurp agency. What we also see is a growing body of work disrupting spaces, raising critical consciousness, and uncovering invisibilized and normalised patterns of power that have real consequences on activists and the communities they work in. To bring to the fore emerging changes in philanthropic practices in other parts of the resistance, raise critical consciousness on key issues around power and agency in philanthropic practices in West Africa, Liberation Alliance Africa as part of #RoadtoBogota for the #ShiftThePower summit will hold a space for transnational experience sharing and weaving of feminist, resistance and liberation efforts to decolonise philanthropy. ?️ 22 November 2023? 2:00 PM WAT/4 PM EAT/8 PM WIB/9 AM ESTRegister here Language: English, French and Spanish translation will be provided
One of the legacies of colonialism is the narrative that African states are incapable of effecting inclusive and transformative impact without foreign aid, either in the form of multilateral and bilateral funding or from private foundations. Indeed, philanthropy has made important contributions to supporting efforts aimed at ensuring Africa’s political, economic and social transformation. Philanthropy’s role in the fight for equitable and democratic transformation in Africa cannot be overlooked. However, there is a growing body of evidence of donors funding programmes with little or zero input from the community most impacted by the problem. This form of donor relation with implementing partners often manifests as NGOs working in the Global South being led by leadership in the Global North. The consequence hence, is a dependency culture on global North aid, invisibilisation of realities of implementing partners and loss of autonomy and decision-making processes. In the rise of fundamentalism and shrinking of civic space in Africa, there is an urgent need to rethink philanthropy in a way that will truly sustain feminists, decolonial and liberation movements and collectives in Africa. It is upon these reflections that Liberation Alliance Africa will host the Disrupting Colonial Legacies of Philanthropy in Africa. We are called to interrogate the historical and colonial legacies of Philanthropy. With the webinar, we aim to respond to the following questions: What are the key representations of colonial legacies of philanthropy and how do they shape the development landscape? In what ways has the deprivation of agency affected the idea and practice of philanthropy in West Africa? In what ways does philanthropy as practised affect epistemic agency? What are the different initiatives, solutions and changes that will support the reimagination of a people-centred philanthropic landscape? Date: Friday 27th October, 2023Time: 2 PM WAT | 4 PM EAT | 9 AM ESTRegister hereLanguage: English
