Foreign aid cuts: Time to leave the broken aid model behind and shift the power.
Boris Johnson recently saw off his party’s rebellion and won the vote to ‘temporarily’ cut UK foreign aid spending from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5%. No timescales have been set to reinstate the 0.7% promise Cameron’s government made to the poorest people across the world, and as an NGO headquartered in the UK, we’re unsure it ever will be.
Theresa May, speaking during the Commons debate, issued this warning about the impact of the aid cut: ‘fewer girls will be educated, more girls and boys will become slaves, more children will go hungry and more of the poorest people in the world will die’.
The international development sector is in crisis. The government’s U-turn is just the latest demonstration that our funding environment is changing rapidly, and that previously reliable funding models are no longer sustainable.
And it’s all coming at a time when need has never been greater. Globally, we are facing multiple crises; Covid-19, climate chaos and rapid biodiversity loss, shrinking democratic freedoms and civil society space and in the wake of COVID-19, increased levels of poverty, inequality and injustice.
Decolonising aid
The Black Lives Matter and #ShiftThePower movements have challenged the legitimacy of International NGOs based in the global north but operating in the global south.
The major challenge is that many are implementing donor-driven projects rather than running programmes which are driven by the communities they seek to support. This perpetuates power imbalances stemming from a deep-rooted post-colonial heritage.
Traidcraft Exchange has been operating within these embedded structures. The #ShiftThePower movement calls for an alternative approach to decolonise aid, one which recognises and supports communities in the global south to lead the change they want to see, rather than be reduced to passive ‘beneficiaries’.
Traidcraft Exchange is transforming
Early last year we recognised we must change.
At the heart of our new vision lies a commitment: to transform ourselves from a UK-centric model into a community-led organisation, locally rooted and globally connected, which puts the communities we seek to support in the driving seat.
In those countries in which we work, we are committed to finding ways for producers, workers, entrepreneurs and other local experts to play a leading role in our decision-making structures and to be represented in our governance. We are now looking for partners to support us in our efforts to become truly community-led.
Working in a participatory way
Traidcraft Exchange has worked on issues of trade justice for more than 35 years. We have a deep expertise and knowledge of trade and supply chain issues and extensive experience of working with partners to enable farmers, artisans and workers to benefit from fairer trade.
We want to build on this history but go further. In future we will be an intermediary, a funder, a facilitator, catalyst and networker. Working in a deeply participatory way, partners and communities will set the agenda, and lead the change, and we will support them to build on their capacities, to grow their networks, and to deliver the change they want to see.
This is an evolution for Traidcraft Exchange and a natural progression from where we are now. But it represents a revolution in the UK development sector.
Our funding model is changing
Most big funders set out with the best of intentions. But somewhere along the way the international development system has unintentionally impeded real change in the global south and perpetuated post-colonial power dynamics. Many funders still use systems which mean they’re inadvertently dictating the change rather than allowing themselves to be led by the people they seek to support, the experts.
The people they seek to support then respond by trying to fit their problems into the funders’ list of priorities - rather than their own. This at best, limits impact, and at worst guarantees unequal power dynamics through its ‘donor’/’beneficiary’ model of working.
We want to support funders to change and to learn from funders who already have and we’re seeking conversations with funding partners who align with this new way of working.
We believe we have much to offer funders. We’re locally rooted and have been developing partnerships at the grassroots in India, Bangladesh, and East Africa for many years with a lot of success. Our participatory methods of listening and learning and our commitment to shift power to communities means that we’re able to get to the root of the genuine issues facing people, as they see them, and can therefore co-create lasting solutions in an equal power dynamic.
We need funders willing to adopt a trust-based approach to fund critical programmes that may be complex and long-running, but which can have a transformational impact when they succeed. Unrestricted or semi-restricted funds enable non-profits like Traidcraft Exchange to model and test multiple approaches and innovate and pivot as needed. This empowers organisations like ours to develop solutions that are based on a deep understanding of the problems and evolving needs of the communities they work with.
So, how can philanthropists make this ‘leap of faith’ to unrestricted or semi-restricted grants? They can evaluate the soundness of the team and the clarity of their vision based on the solutions they propose. A mission-driven, capable team—a team that can experiment, fail fast, learn fast, and fix fast—is key to developing high-impact models and sustained impact on the ground.
Partnership is what it’s all about
Partnership means cooperation, alliance, sharing, connection, union and participation, according to the Oxford English dictionary. In my own words a partnership is where two or more entities get together as equals, seek and implement solutions to shared goals. Each partner puts something in, and each partner takes something positive out.
Since we began 35 years ago in our mission to fight poverty through trade, a core part of our role has been to support people being exploited at the bottom of the supply chain to get a better deal for their hard work. And partnership working has been key. We help individuals form groups, and we connect groups both with partners who can support them locally and to each other, building strong networks which can then support each other long term, whether that means saving together, buying and selling together or advocating together.
We believe partnership is the way to bring about sustained change which outlives a ‘project period’ or ‘intervention’ and that developing new partnerships is the key to our transformation.
Grassroots groups are our partners
Hard-working farmers, artisans and workers are ambitious and forward-thinking people capable of shaping their own journeys of change. We play our part by bringing some of the tools, investment and support they need to help them on their path. We want to strengthen our engagement methods and develop our community-led approach further to ensure that ultimately all our programmes are led by, and therefore in the best interests of, these partners.
Local and national civil society organisations are our partners
Their knowledge, skills, local expertise, national decision-making processes and close connections with those they represent makes them essential partners of ours and help us join up conversations that matter in the countries where we work. We need more of these kind of partners in the future.
Our funders are our partners
Funders have a crucial role to play in this Shifting the Power strategy and we’re very lucky at Traidcraft Exchange to have some amazing funders on board, who help the people we work with realise change. But we need more funders willing to support community-led work as it evolves.
Over the next five years we want to work in partnership with funders to deepen the community-led approach and together find new ways to shift power to the communities we work with.
Could you partner with us?
On advocacy
If you’re a local or national civil society organisation in the global North or South committed to advocacy, development, trade Justice and/or climate justice, we invite you to get in touch with us to explore potential partnership.
· For advocates - please contact: campaign@traidcraft.org to book an informal exploratory conversation.
· For development organisations – please contact hello@traidcraft.org
On funding
We believe change should be community-led, not funder-led. We’re looking for more funders who are committed to decolonising aid and shifting power to the people who know best how to make big change happen within their own communities. We are looking for more funders who believe the people they support are the best designers, monitors and evaluators of success.
We know many funders are on different stages of this journey, and we’re happy to meet funding partners where they are, working with them on community-led initiatives in order to bring about lasting solutions to injustices in trade.
If you’d like to chat informally about funding partnerships please contact Amy Wilson via hello@traidcraft.org