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Recent developments have rightly brought back old calls for structural change in the aid sector, and for taking anti-racist action individually and as organisations. CARE International’s Andres Gomez de la Torre Barrera makes a compelling personal case that we can either remain tone deaf (again) to these calls or take the opportunity to listen, reflect and act with a renewed sense of urgency.

The pandemic is exposing deep inequalities in our world, and our sector is not immune

It’s difficult to sum up how I’ve felt in the last few weeks. I’ve gone from frustration to excitement, sadness to hope and, at points, rage. It’s been heart-breaking to witness people in my home country, Peru, dying due to COVID-19. But even more than the virus itself, the real killers are years of oppression, inequality, corruption and gender-based violence, underpinned by structural racism, indifference and patriarchy. All around the world, the pandemic is exposing the deep inequalities in our world in the most brutal way.

Protests and reactions around the world are also refocusing attention to how racism is structural and embedded into all aspects of our society. It’s inevitable the aid sector is also deeply marked by it, despite the ideals it embraces of humanity, equality and empathy. Nearly everyone has a story, as highlighted in this recent Bond blog, “from overt experiences of racial discrimination, to everyday micro-aggressions and unsafe workplace cultures”. Passionate and thought-provoking statements from within seem to be finally shaking our sector, particularly (but not exclusively) from Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC), despite these same voices (and others before them) having already tried for so hard and for so long to prompt change.

A new opportunity to challenge ourselves and make our sector more equal and inclusive

We have an opportunity, with a renewed sense of urgency, to go as deep as we can and face the real underlying issue: we need to decolonise the aid sector. The level of change needed is so significant, that we can’t waste time in accelerating actions to tackle racism and colonialism in aid. It’s a call for all of us, because no one is immune – individually or as an organisation, by action or inaction – to structural racism. We need to see this as an opportunity to reflect on how racism – subtle or open – shows up inside our organisations, shaping the way we conceptualize our work, our behaviors and ways of working.

Anti-racism means learning and listening as individuals

White supremacy culture, with roots in colonialism, designed and constructed the aid system we work in and – by action or omission – we have supported this dominant power and narrative. As Stephanie Kimou, Founder of PopWorks Africa, said during last week’s #AntiRacistInAid webinar, “You don’t need to be racist or a white supremacist to support white supremacy culture.” If we feel called out, fragile, guilty or uncomfortable with this discussion, there are plenty of resources and voices that we can use to educate ourselves. They can help us start reflecting on our own privileges and how we have engaged with racism and the systems that embed them in our own lives.

Listening to inspirational and fearless leaders will challenge the way we see the world and the aid sector, while helping us to reflect on our own assumptions and privileges. I’ve been particularly drawn to Stephanie Kimou and Degan Ali, Executive Director of ADESO, in the two superb and inspirational webinars that took place last week, #AntiRacistInAid and #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Essential reading is this fantastic piece by Vu Le on Have nonprofit and philanthropy become the “white moderate” that Dr. King warned us about? and Jennifer Lentfer’s ‘Professional do-gooders, here’s 14 ways to be in action against anti-Black racism’. And if you enjoy audio, listen to Challenging the “‘White Gaze’ of Development” during COVID-19 with Liberian academic, activist and author Robtel Neajai Pailey.

Anti-racism means taking active stands, engaging in difficult conversations as leaders

If we’re in a position of leadership within an ICSO, it is key to listen, learn fast, and reflect on the role and responsibility we hold, and bring attention to the need for change. Tweeting supportive messages or publishing solidarity statements mean very little if not accompanied by reflection and concrete commitments, including taking an active anti-racist stand in our own organisations. As Degan Ali says, we need a “radical reckoning” else #BlackLivesMatter might become a trend in our sector, if structural issues are not addressed.

People in leadership positions in our sector – predominantly white men – should not run away from difficult conversations because of their political nature. The international aid system is political, as everything in it is about power relations and hierarchies. As compellingly argued by Vu Le, if sector leaders do not publicly call out white supremacy or nationalism when protesters are risking their lives in a pandemic, or ‘think it’s too political or uncomfortable to say that Black lives matter and act/fund accordingly, then…you are part of the problem.”

Leaders should promote spaces for staff to discuss racism, inclusion, gender inequality and privilege, without forcing our presence in what might need to be safe spaces. We need to support these as important and necessary ongoing investments in our staff well-being and organisational development. Our own Leadership Teams must learn and reflect about these issues, listen to the lived experience of others, and be prepared for uncomfortable conversations, at least at the beginning. If these are not making you feel uncomfortable, then you’re probably not having the right conversation.

Anti-racism means reflecting the diversity of our communities in our own people

Our leadership and teams should better reflect the diversity of our own communities. Significant changes are needed in the way we approach our own people and what we value the most – recruitment and promotion, equal pay for equal jobs, expat salaries and benefits, investment in training and support – and the promotion of an organisational culture that truly embraces gender equality and inclusion. Women, and particularly Black, Indigenous and Women of Colour must be fully represented in the most senior leadership, executive and board roles in our organisations.

Finally, and irrespective of the position we hold in our organisations, we should all reflect on our privilege and, from this point, engage in discussions with a different perspective. We should be able to recognise if (or how) we are beneficiaries of a system that discriminates BIPOC, and engage with more empathy, acting and seeking fairer practices and, why not, taking a step aside.

Anti-racism means being serious about localisation in our operating models and behaviours

All the #AntiRacistInAid panellists agreed, “we can’t be truly anti-racist in this sector if we are not serious about true localisation”, although tokenistic localisation itself is coming under question as another construct of the same system we’re trying to change. We must start by asking what is needed and who is best placed to meet that need, rather than articulating what we – as ICSOs- can offer or bring (“our expertise”). We need to properly engage with demands from national actors for a paradigm shift whereby we support and not compete with them. And we need to stop trying to justify why this is not possible yet, and instead make it happen. “As national as possible and as international as needed” is regaining momentum as a clear vision, and “leading from behind” or “speaking on behalf of the voiceless” finally starting to lose ground.

This also means taking actions to ensure we are: investing more in locally-led actions, engaging in more equitable partnerships – which recognise power imbalances but genuinely embrace the added value of each partner brings, being fully transparent on how much of the money we raise actually reaches local communities, questioning who makes the decisions on the use of the funding, and having effective exit strategies which avoid perpetuating our presence and/or harmful dependency. Everything we do must aim at complementing existing local capacities – which were there way before we arrived and will be way after we depart.

Anti-racism means rethinking our knowledge, communications and language

The aid sector has basically been built on the transfer of knowledge and resources from “givers” to “recipients”, reinforced by all actors in the system. From donors reinforcing paternalistic needs for “capacity building’ to those at the ‘receiving end’ embracing the model – for multiple reasons – white supremacy practices are not exclusively by White people or those from “the global north”. Most examples of driving progress, innovation or “out of the box thinking” seem to be “exported” by the same suspects. Communications focus should be on rethinking who is telling the stories and getting the credit for the work done, and constantly reflecting if we are behaving like “white saviours”. Simply asking for permission for photos “we take” and use in “our channels” or trying to portray communities in a dignified way is not good enough.

Last but definitively not least, language is both power and political too. Let’s start just by getting rid of all these terms I still hear: “beneficiaries”, “capacity building”, “first” and “third world”, “going on a mission” or “travelling to the field”. My colleague Tessy Cherono Maritim really gets us thinking on this: “Going to ‘the field’ is the same as saying ‘third world’ and fuels this racist and white saviour fantasy of ‘exploring in the wild’ or going somewhere dangerous to rescue people with no autonomy or initiative. We never refer to European or North American offices as ‘the field’. The term perpetuates this idea of a powerful centre and places outside this as the ‘other’. If we believe in the notion of a networked, multi-polar world, where ideas, capacities, money, power, exist in contexts outside the West/North, we should stop reference to this term. Changing language is a simple way to communicate our commitment to anti-racism.” The responsibility for changing white supremacy language is on those who constructed it.

Anti-racism means us joining together to shake the system we’re part of.

While this is obvious, sometimes it seems like we don’t want to see it: ICSOs are just one set of actors within a much broader and complex aid architecture. But we have both a right and responsibility to shake the system from within, “unlearning” from being in it for so long, and getting our act to work together in solidarity to bring about this much-needed change.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CARE International.

Resources

1. The organisers of #AntiRacistInAid made available some free resources they are happy for us to share. Take a look.

• Taking this implicit bias test may be helpful in unpacking your own unconscious biases.
• This reading list on anti-racism specifically for aid workers, put together by the Fifty Shades of Aid community.
• A compilation of resources on anti-racism in general.

2. A good collection of articles, reflections and suggestions by Nadine El-Nabli and Anna Myer. It includes useful resources and suggested practical commitments on several areas. (link).

Andres Gomez De La Torre

Head of Organisational Development

Care International

Andres Gomez de la Torre Barrera is the Director of Confederation Development & Governance (Interim) at CARE International. Originally from Peru, Andres works at the CARE International Secretariat on issues such as confederation development and diversification, operating models, governance, policy and strategy. Previously, he worked for a range of organisations, including global alliances (Family for EveryChild), international INGOs (CAFOD and WomanKind) and national CSOs, government and private sector firms.  

This year´s development definitely caught us all by surprise. The reality of Coronavirus translated into very real restrictions on our freedom to move around, meet-up or simply to sit at the office together. This woke up many of us and made even more obvious the path that is no longer a choice, but a necessity: to act together in building inclusive communities for us all. In this article, we invite you on a journey towards inclusion, which is the topic and the long-term goal of the virtual conference Global Perspectives 2020.

Inclusion has many layers and aspects, relating to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status and many more. We can argue about the success of our communities towards it, but many marginalised groups not only in the developing world, but also in cosmopolitan cities, such as Berlin, remain neglected. We still have a lot to do, especially if we truly hope to achieve at least some of the ambitious 17 SDGs[1] during the last decade for their implementation.

The urgency and the importance of the topic put it on top of the International Civil Society Centre´s agenda. We decided to offer safe space for interaction and exchange on inclusion within the community we host. At our biggest platform for exchange, Global Perspectives, participants from around the world will explore new ideas and strategies together on how to make inclusion a fundamental part of our work towards achieving the goals, outlined in the Agenda 2030.

Our aim is to open discussions on:

• Including civil society in political processes;
• Empowering inclusion in CSO programmes;
• Creating and maintaining CSOs as diverse and inclusive organisations.

Global Perspectives is a dynamic place to be, with a diverse group of participants – civil society leaders, academics, social entrepreneurs, journalists and many more. The common theme between them all is their passion to co-create, connect and collaborate to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.

Furthermore, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Global Perspectives will be entirely a virtual experience. We will provide both the award-winning conference mobile application Whova and an interactive software to open up the possibility to dive deep into the virtual networking. With shorter sessions scheduled to accommodate different time zones, we will enable high-levels of creativity, proactive engagement and fully inclusive discussions with participants from all over the globe.

This experience sounds exciting? It truly is, and we want to invite you to be part of it! There are many possibilities for collaboration, sponsorship and tailored support. Don’t hesitate to and discover the most suitable one.

We welcome you to support our effort for sustainable inclusion now!

[1]  https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld

Anna Simitchieva

Fundraising Officer

International Civil Society Centre

Anna joined the Centre as Fundraising Officer in November 2019. From Bulgaria, Anna has studied and worked in Germany, Spain, Colombia and Armenia. She gained previous fundraising experience at SODI e.V. in Berlin and in the Caucasus, when she was sent to Armenia by Bread for the World to support Women for Development as Communication for Development and Fundraising Officer for two years. Before entering the nonprofit sector, Anna worked for different (inter-)national TV stations for live news productions in Berlin for more than 5 years, among them RBB and Deutsche Welle. Anna holds a MA in Intercultural Communication Studies from the European University Viadrina in Frankurt Oder and a BA in Journalism and Communication Studies and Spanish from the Free University Berlin.

This page is part of a series of COVID-19 resource pages that we are creating to help civil society actors.

Click here to view all available pages.

Click here for our latest events news.

On this page, you will find links to readings, podcasts and videos related to the latest COVID-19 news and analysis. If you have a recommendation or a suggestion, let us know. Many thanks to our volunteer researcher Ineke Stemmet.

The sections are:

Staying up-to-date: Links to sites that will keep you abreast of important developments related to our sector and the latest news.

Strategic: We look at the impact and responses to COVID-19 in a general and intersectional way (i.e. impacts on human rights, climate change, etc).

Policy: Civil society’s policies that respond to challenges posed by COVID-19.

Operational: A list of what your organisation can do now to navigate these unprecedented times.

    1. Staying up-to-Date

• Controlling COVID-19 will carry a devastating economic cost for developing countries (The Conversation)
  Isolation measures threaten the food security of millions of people. This means that even if the epidemic is successfully managed at the health level, the impact on economies – and people – will be devastating.
• COVID-19 is deadlier for black Brazilians, a legacy of structural racism that dates back to slavery (The Conversation)
  In Brazil, black COVID-19 patients are dying at higher rates than white patients. Worse housing quality, working conditions and health care help to explain the pandemic’s racially disparate toll.
• COVID-19’s Impact on Nonprofits’ Revenues, Digitization, and Mergers (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
  Interactive charts show how hundreds of nonprofits face dramatic changes in their operations and plans as the pandemic continues to upend life around the world.
• Global Economic Prospects Report, June 2020 edition (World Bank)
  Lasting Scars of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Relevant chapters of the World Bank Group’s latest forecasts for the global economy.
• Government responses to COVID-19 are exacerbating gender-based violence (Open Global Rights)
  Government-mandated lockdowns are trapping millions of women and girls with their abusers, isolating them from support networks.
• How to talk about COVID-19: insights from the British public (Bond)
  How should international NGOs connect with the current public mindset? New research from the Development Engagement Lab (DEL) sheds light on the British public’s receptivity to development cooperation in the context of the global coronavirus pandemic.
• Local professionals step in to fill delivery gap amid questions over resources (Devex)
  Travel restrictions are enhancing the role of local aid workers, but many say they are still not receiving the support they need, according to Devex’s latest survey.
• Northern-founded NGOs: the time has come to face existential funding challenges (5 Oaks Consulting, guest blog)
  The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated underlying fundamentals challenging the financial stability of seven Northern-founded INGO families.
• The political economy of the fight against COVID-19 in Africa (Democracy in Africa)
  In spite of the lack of evidence of rapid spread, African governments have been accused of copy/pasting strategies used in the global north, creating a double burden of economic and political crisis. This paper reviews how African countries are responding to the pandemic, and reflects on the opportunities/threats the virus represents for policy and practice.
• What are citizens saying during the COVID-19 crisis? (Inter-American Development Bank)
  IDB’s tool shows the perceptions and concerns expressed online by citizens of Latin America and the Caribbean on the COVID-19 pandemic. This data enables better listening and understanding of various categories of information related to civic needs, related to dignity, trust, security and visibility.

    2. Strategic

Biodiversity and Climate Change

• Dispatch From 2030: What a Global Pandemic Taught Us About Tackling Climate Change (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
  A look back from 2030 reveals how ambitious industrial policies, high-quality data, and courageous leadership saved us from an affliction worse than COVID-19.

Civic Space and Human Rights

• Aggravating circumstances: How coronavirus impacts human trafficking (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime)
  Poverty, lack of social or economic opportunity and limited labour protections are the main root causes and drivers that render people vulnerable or cause them to fall victim to human trafficking. This unprecedented crisis will likely exacerbate all of those factors and result in developments that must be noted by anti-human-trafficking communities and stakeholders.
• Coronavirus and the right to online political participation (Open Global Rights)
  Making access to the internet a human right can address inequalities in access to public discourse, especially where free speech is limited.
• COVID-19 and the politics of the year of the nurse (The South African Institute of International Affairs)
  The challenges critical medical personnel are currently facing all lead back to a central question of care. There are three main challenges these critical workers face: insufficient supply of necessary protective equipment on a global scale; growing hostility towards them; and difficulties with access to childcare.
• Southern Africa: Persons with albinism especially vulnerable in the face of COVID-19 (Amnesty International )
  This article argues that South African governments must ensure the protection and well-being of persons with albinism, who are increasingly vulnerable amid the COVID-19 crisis as lockdowns across the region hinder access to healthcare facilities and skin cancer clinics as well as vital sunscreen.
  
• Will COVID-19 increase religious hostilities and discrimination? (Open Global Rights )
  COVID-19 and its impacts may hit some religious minorities disproportionately hard, exacerbating economic inequalities, social hostilities and discrimination.

Data and Digital

• Africa must unmute its mic as e-diplomacy takes root (Institute for Security Studies)
  COVID-19 could make diplomacy more inclusive, but Africa’s weak internet connectivity means it might be left behind.
• Supporting civil society during the COVID-19 pandemic: The potentials of online collaborations for social accountability (U4)
  COVID-19 highlights the potentials of online collaborations for social accountability. There are new opportunities for civil society to embrace digital civic engagement as an anti-corruption initiative.

Economic

• OECD Economic Outlook: The world economy on a tightrope (OECD)
  COVID-19 has triggered the most severe economic recession in nearly a century and is causing enormous damage to people’s health, jobs and well-being. The Outlook focuses on two equally probable scenarios – one in which a second wave of infections, with renewed lock-downs, hits before the end of 2020, and one in which another major outbreak is avoided.

Education

• Future shock: 25 Education trends post COVID-19 (Foresight for Development)
  School closures carry high social and economic costs for people across communities, with a particularly severe for the most vulnerable and marginalised families. The resulting disruptions exacerbate already existing disparities within the education system but also in other aspects of their lives. This blog summarises 25 related trends from UNESCO analysis.

Food security

• COVID-19 recovery is a chance to improve the African food system (The Conversation)
  What we see happening as a result of actions to contain COVID-19 is like a global natural disaster. It’s also an opportunity for a different kind of recovery. Going back to “business as usual” investments in agriculture and food systems could reproduce those systems’ inequities. Instead, recovery efforts should be geared towards creating a better future.

Futures

• COVID-19 scenarios for the humanitarian ecosystem: Opportunities to translate challenges into transformation (IARAN)
  The global response to the pandemic is rapidly changing and there is a high degree of uncertainty. IARAN’s preliminary scenarios are focused on exploring the factors they think are most influential in driving social/political and economic changes rather than reflecting the current situation in any particular region.
• COVID-19 Global Aftershocks: The Secondary Implications of COVID-19 across International Development and Humanitarian Sectors (InterAction)
  A summary of some of the COVID-19 secondary impacts across the humanitarian and development sectors, including: children and youth, climate change, conflict, democracy, development assistance, education, food security, gender equality, global health, WASH and humanitarian assistance. Updated since its original publication on May 1, 2020.
• Global poverty: coronavirus could drive it up for the first time since the 1990s (The Conversation)
  75% of new COVID-19 cases detected each day are now in developing countries. Governments face juggling the health consequences with economic ones. Our research shows that the poverty impact of the crisis will soon be felt in three key ways. There is likely to be more poverty. It is likely to become more severe. And as a consequence, the location of global poverty will also change.
• What a “Feminist” Approach to Fighting COVID-19 Might Have Achieved (Just Security)
  Imagine how COVID-19 might play out differently with institutions informed by “feminist” principles of cooperation, human security, pragmatism, transparency, diversity, and inclusivity.

Gender Equality

• COVID-19: “Who is Skilled and Who is Unskilled in this Pandemic Moment?” (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)
  In this article, Cynthia Enloe realises that there are so many times in life when one finds one lacks the relevant skills to make sense of, and to grapple effectively with a pressing condition. That repeated realisation has made her think about skills – and what “counts” as a skill, and who gets to do the “counting.”
• COVID-19: Making our Recovery Green and Feminist (Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom)
  This article explores the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment and advises that the recovery from the pandemic should be feminist and green in nature.
• Rape cases spike in South Sudan as girls and women left vulnerable during COVID-19 (Plan International)
  A spate of rape cases in South Sudan has exposed the extreme risks girls and women have been left to face in COVID-19 pandemic, warns Plan International.

Humanitarian

• This global pandemic could transform humanitarianism forever. Here’s how (The New Humanitarian)
  As the crisis born of this global pandemic has evolved, some of the promises of deep transformation in a humanitarian aid sector that has long resisted reform have proven overly optimistic – at least so far. Here are 13 ways the pandemic may change the future of humanitarianism – and the forces of resistance that may get in the way.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

• COVID-19 responses expose gaps in global governance (The South African Institute of International Affairs)
  This report analyses the effectiveness of the WHO and explores the ways in which the pandemic has exposed not only how far the world is from effective and unified global governance, but also a crisis of confidence in the institutions expected to guide international action and cooperation.
• Tackling COVID-19 as a Grand Challenge (Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society)
  How does the COVID-19 crisis relate to other grand challenges and how should we deal with, such as climate change?

Pandemic Specific Consequences and Responses (economic, health & social impacts)

• Epidemics and Social Observation: Why Africa Needs a Different Approach to COVID-19 (African Arguments)
  In the absence of a vaccine, the main tool for control of COVID-19 is human behavioural change. Social scientists are not fully agreed on what determines behavioural change, but there is a broad consensus that individual agency is influenced by social factors. It matters what your family, friends and neighbours think.
• Will Patents stop COVID drugs from saving lives? (From Poverty to Power)
  The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a global race of public- and private-led research to develop vaccines and treatments. Will patents hinder access to the products it generates? Comparison with HIV/AIDS indicated access problems may mainly affect middle-income countries facing higher prices. Low-income countries will likely receive drugs at discounted prices, and with governments and philanthropic donors covering the costs.
• Youth or consequences: Put youth at the center of COVID-19 recovery (Brookings Institution)
  This article argues that to head off the worst repercussions of this youth unemployment challenge in the wake of the coronavirus, we must act now, focusing on three critical issues, education, engagement and employment.

Politics & Governance

• 6 experts on how capitalism will emerge after COVID-19 (Fast Company)
  We have an unprecedented opportunity to rein in capitalism’s excesses and reshape our democracy. Here’s how business leaders and experts from MIT, Harvard, and more would tackle the biggest problems. What’s been lost—and what could be gained—in the new world order?

     3. Policy

• Ensuring women’s representation in COVID-19 policymaking (Online event) (Devex)
  This 1-hour virtual event discussed why there’s an urgent need to integrate women in COVID-19 policymaking and highlight some of the work that has already been done to advance their voices in not only the response to this pandemic, but also long-term recovery efforts.
• It’s Not Just About Health: Four Lessons From Ebola for the COVID-19 Response in Conflict-Affected Countries (Peacelab.blog / Search for Common Ground)
  Lessons from Search for Common Ground’s response to the Ebola and COVID-19 epidemics: Support civil society in violence prevention and trust-building measures, provide adequate training for security actors, and ensure the meaningful inclusion of local communities.
• Mining industry profits from pandemic (The Ecologist)
  More than 300 organisations from around the world have released an open-statement condemning the ways that the mining industry and numerous governments are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to manufacture new mining opportunities and enhance their damaged reputations.
• NGOs call for continued support for transparency and accountability
  This letter calls on providers of development assistance to continue to support transparency, accountability and open government during COVID-19 and the global economic crisis. The aim is to have it published in the media and to distribute widely through our online tools and networks once published. NGOs working on transparency, accountability and open government can sign here.
• Strongest Together: An NGO Consortia View on Structural Issues in the Humanitarian Response to COVID-19 (White paper)
  COVID-19 has aggravated previously deteriorating humanitarian conditions and increasingly complex operational environments for frontline responders, prompting new operational challenges to emerge. InterAction has partnered with nongovernmental organization (NGO) consortia in 13 countries globally to draft this Working Paper delineating these challenges.
• With attacks against health workers on the rise, advocates call for action (Devex )
  Attacks against health workers have increased under the strain of COVID-19, according to a cohort of medical and humanitarian organizations. In a joint declaration, they call for governments to do more than talk about it.

     4. Operational

• How telemedicine can provide a lifeline for health workers as well as patients (Devex)
  Portraying Dr. Chibuzo Okonta of MSF on remote diagnosis and treatment of patients in conflict or Covid-19 situations: could it prove a key tool for ensuring the safety of health workers and providing patient care?
  

Robert Vysoudil

Communications Student Assistant

International Civil Society