Organising towards a practice of decoloniality, refugee/IDP leadership, and power redistribution in humanitarian aid: experiences from inside the international humanitarian aid sector

In 2020, as the world was decrying global injustice perpetrated towards Black and Brown bodies, the humanitarian aid sector was also undergoing a reckoning with its own deeply rooted colonial past, present and future. Personnel from organisations Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders), Amnesty International, Save the Children, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). across the sector exposed the insidious prevalence of white supremacy culture and coloniality.

At our international non-governmental organisation (INGO), ‘Our INGO’ is used as a moniker in this article to represent the organisation that article contributors worked in. discussions concerning coloniality, power, marginalisation, injustice, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) were underway in small pockets of the organisation prior to 2020. However, mainstreaming these conversations as a priority for leadership and staff members en masse did not gain traction until concerned and impacted personnel self-organised and ratcheted up external and internal pressure, building on the media and public attention surrounding the 2020 global movement for racial justice. Central to staff concerns were questions pertaining to how the INGO could reconcile with its colonial past, retool itself to address its colonial present, and reimagine a decolonial future that may unfold with or without such institutions.

In addressing the organisation’s colonial present and forging a decolonial future, reflecting on how power is accessed, utilised and shared becomes critical. At our INGO – an organisation rooted in hierarchical structures of authority – examining the profiles and lived experiences of the chief decision-makers reveals the extent to which the institution’s power brokers represent the people it is charged to serve.

The beauty and perplexity of decoloniality are that the practice requires us to confront deep and layered belief systems that affect us all. The process asks us to examine ourselves, our relations to each other, and the systems we operate in to decentre Western supremacist ideologies and embrace a more expanded understanding of the world around us, within us and between us. Decoloniality is a continual, iterative, individual and communal process. We offer this reflection to share our experiences as current and former personnel within the sector, to add to the multiplicity of voices championing decolonial approaches across our industry – including the many organisations led by refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) The United Nations (UN) defines internally displaced people as persons ‘who have been forced […] to leave their homes or places of habitual residence […] to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border’. that put these theories into practice daily, and to continue to work towards building a more just world.

Decolonisation, decoloniality and DEI

To begin this analysis, it is helpful to have working definitions of decolonisation, decoloniality and DEI.

Decolonisation, within the United Nations (UN) context, is defined as a political process through which colonised nations gain(ed) statehood and independence. The UN currently lists 17 non-self-governing territories that are still fighting to gain their political independence, under the banner of decolonisation.

Decoloniality (decolonial processes)is a social theory born out of the Global South. Leading decoloniality scholar, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, defines this practice as a multi-directional and intersectional framework that decentres existing colonial legacies of a singular Western-focused knowledge base that is perpetuated as the universal truth. Decoloniality argues that although the administrative structures of colonialism were dismantled in many countries through the political process of decolonisation, the vestiges of colonialism still remain under the banner of coloniality.

Diversity, equity and inclusion is an organisational framing tool that helps ensure diverse, equitable and inclusive representation that better reflects the multidimensional world that we live in. DEI, on its own, does not require that practitioners challenge systems of coloniality. However, as more diverse voices are empowered within organisational settings, this expansion can lead to a broadened collective perspective that allows for explorations of decoloniality to take place.

The humanitarian aid sector as an agent of coloniality

The humanitarian aid industry, born out of the ashes of colonialism, boasts a long-standing, profitable, and mutually beneficial relationship with global domination and white saviourism. The UN was established in 1945 primarily by former colonial powers to promote peace and security in Western Europe and maintain the existing status quo of global dominance. This era also ushered in the birth of countless non-profit organisations based in the West with mandates across the globe. Central to the expansive reach of the Western non-profit industrial complex is the premise that proximity to global power and resources – most often derived from colonial exploitation – makes actors of these organisations best situated to serve as trustworthy and responsible stewards of funding resources and to achieve high-level results. The dominance of this practice ensures that organisations led by impacted people and communities (such as refugee-/IDP-led organisations) are, at best, tokenised to legitimise Western INGOs as champions of localisation. This reality exposes extreme power imbalances that continue centuries-long practices of exploitation and infantilisation of marginalised communities in perpetual service to dominant culture.

The goal of most humanitarian aid organisations is not to challenge colonial legacies or current power imbalances. The industry is set up to reward continued expansion of well-connected, Western-operated organisations at the expense of localised ownership. Additionally, to finance endless growth, INGOs have well-documented histories of exploiting crises to harness funding which further secures their power as extensions of Western hegemonic might. The dichotomy here is that some of these organisations engage in work that alleviates pain and suffering for many people in immediate crises. However, without a full critique of the operational framework of this industry, we are doomed to continually cycle through phases of conflict, chaos and episodic relief – all under the banner of white saviourism.

The humanitarian aid industry is supported by a system of cronyism that imposes colonial order under the operational framework of white saviourism and exhaustive donor-accounting metrics that favour proximity to Western power. As such, leadership of high-profile charity organisations is overwhelmingly comprised of people who are enmeshed in, beholden to, and beneficiaries of the current systems of global domination – coloniality. This hierarchy of power maintains a racialised caste system that can be easily deduced by any cursory viewing of the chief decision-makers of any well-known non-governmental organisation. Beyond promoting a racialised hierarchy of power, many of these organisations also align themselves with Western private-sector financiers to ensure their economic survival. Corporatised INGOs often adopt an endless growth model of operations that is in direct opposition to transference of power to local, refugee-/IDP-led organisations. Additionally, leaders of these Western INGOs can take home inflated salaries comparable to the private sector but with the veneer of white saviourism that often allows their movements to go virtually unscrutinised and unchallenged.

Coloniality is further manifested in how some members of marginalised communities are socialised to see themselves and their position in relation to power. A subject that is rarely explored, but increasingly of importance in DEI and decoloniality work, is the rise of an empowered class of individuals with marginalised backgrounds who subscribe to coloniality as a core operating philosophy. As the practice of coloniality impacts all aspects of being, understandings of the world, projections of the future and comprehension of power, decoloniality asserts that we are all impacted by the grand narrative of coloniality. As such, many people – irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender, ability, refugee/IDP status, etc. – are deeply entrenched in the dominant-culture philosophy of coloniality. Ultimately, this means that simply having a person with marginalised identities in an elevated position is not sufficient to impact coloniality. It is critical that the individual is actively unpacking and confronting coloniality within themselves, their communities, their organisations, and the larger systems at play.

As people around the globe have called for racial justice and social equity, organisations have felt the pressure from the general public and personnel to address racism and coloniality in substantive ways. This pressure has led to an increase in DEI mandates, offices and initiatives that are often disconnected from true power and set up to fail. DEI leaders are promoted with great fanfare and then quietly and systematically delegitimised to serve as puppet heads and scapegoats to mask performative engagement by organisational leaders. In such instances, DEI becomes a public relations function that allows organisations to shirk any true responsibility to address issues that perpetuate coloniality and inequity throughout companies, systems and society-at-large.

The toxic blend of coloniality, white saviourism, performative DEI, cronyism and financing that controls agenda-setting means that marginalised communities most impacted within the humanitarian aid sector, including refugees and IDPs, rarely hold any semblance of decision-making power. Coloniality becomes so embedded in the modus operandi that people equate white saviourism with public good and altruism. We do not investigate the insidious connections between financing and agenda-setting; aid organisations as extensions of Western imperialism; the history of global/regional conflict and the West’s role as an active agent; and the ways in which people build lucrative careers in the sector with little investigation into whether they are best equipped to serve the needs of diverse marginalised communities.

Decoloniality efforts at our INGO

In April of 2020, following the execution of Breonna Taylor and just prior to the murder of George Floyd, a small group of staff met to discuss coloniality and discrimination in the organisation and in the wider humanitarian aid sector. Following the commencement of the global outcry for racial justice and end to police brutality in May 2020, personnel founded an employee-led group to provide a dedicated space to unpack coloniality and racism while organising for change within the organisation and beyond. At its peak, the employee resource group boasted 500+ people in its network. In October 2020, members issued a document of demands, highlighting over 50 actions that the organisation could take to become an entity dedicated to decoloniality and anti-racism. A key action proposed was the recruitment and promotion of intersectional refugee and IDP leaders to the highest ranks of leadership.

Top leadership responded to efforts to address coloniality and racism in the organisation with derision, retaliation, stonewalling, employing high-cost lawyers to conduct secretive reviews of staff allegations, and ultimately little change to its practices or leadership composition. After 2+ years of internal staff organising and promises to listen and respond to personnel concerns, diversity amongst top leadership looks virtually the same with no meaningful inclusion of intersectionally representative refugee/IDP leadership. In fact, coloniality has become more deeply entrenched. One emerging tactic to maintain the status quo and avoid accountability is that top leaders no longer include photos of themselves on the organisation’s website.

As a result of the performative nature of DEI, anti-racism and decoloniality efforts at our organisation, many marginalised and impacted personnel, including current and former refugee and IDP clients, expressed deep fear of speaking out against colonialism. This serves as the underlying reason why contributing authors of this piece chose to remain anonymous. Retaliation is normalised for personnel raising concerns about abuse of power. Oftentimes, the internal complaints mechanisms deter personnel from reporting cases of abuse by making the process opaque and denying a basic survivor-centred commitment of transparency by failing to share findings with the individual who reported the abuse or with staff-at-large. As such, there is a deep lack of trust in and fear of leadership amongst personnel who experience abuses of power within the organisation.

Despite these challenges, personnel have organised to bring about internal and sector-wide changes. These actions range from speaking out publicly about the organisation’s culture of white supremacy to connecting with like-minded individuals across the sector to strategise towards a decolonial future.

Imagining a new system of engagement to address coloniality and empower affected communities

To embrace a decolonial future, it is necessary to reimagine what the possibilities for our futures could be. Rather than passively absorb messages around a singular march towards colonially defined modernity, decoloniality provides us with a framework to lean into our radical imaginations and conjure alternate ways of projecting our future(s). Once we have this vision, we are charged to do the work to bring about lasting change. Within the context of the humanitarian aid industry, taking the first steps to build towards a decolonial future would require clear actions focused on transitioning power from INGOs to impacted communities, including to those organisations led by refugees and IDPs. Below, we offer some reflections on how this process could unfold.

• Appoint a head of organisation who is a member of the impacted communities that the organisation is mandated to serve and a strong advocate for the empowerment of marginalised communities and decoloniality.
• Set a minimum standard that at least 50% of top leadership executives and the board of advisors represent impacted communities.
• Champion a strategy to transfer power to local refugee-/IDP-led organisations and use the organisation’s international platform, position and authority to advocate for decolonised practices, ultimately working such INGOs out of existence.
• Conduct an independent decolonial review of the organisation’s history, present, possibilities for the future, programming (including evaluations), operations, pay scale, human resources, financing, fundraising, public relations, partnerships and culture.
• Develop a practice of leadership and middle management centring marginalised and most-impacted voices. This includes holding space for them to speak and wield power, listening to them, and prioritising their views in any decision-making process.
• Decentre INGOs as the key intermediary in humanitarian relief and, through a lens of decoloniality, transfer power to local/most impacted organisations, such as those led by IDPs and refugees.
• Continually unpack, address and investigate the organisation’s relationship to and benefits from coloniality.
• Explore how to transition from an aid-focused orientation of operations to a reparative system of justice and community care.
• Work with local experts in places of operation to apply a decolonial assessment of programming and evaluatory practices.

These offerings are not prescriptive but instead reflect our desire to further contribute to building a decolonial future. Our experiences to date have shown that there is deep and sustained resistance to accountability, justice, and any disassociation from white supremacy culture and values. However, we are encouraged by the continued work of people across the sector who are striving to bring about lasting change. Decoloniality gives us a blueprint to unpack the coloniality within us and to work to decentre white supremacy in service of a broader, multi-layered, and more robust lens through which to understand and reshape our world.

We invite you to join us in these efforts and use your voice and platform to recalibrate our sector towards an orientation of care, justice, localised power, true representation and accountability. The articles in this edition explore one aspect of this recalibration of power in the humanitarian sector; refugee-/IDP-led organisations committed to unpacking coloniality and striving for more robust frameworks from which to operate have the potential to transform approaches to humanitarian responses in refugee contexts and beyond.

If you would like to learn more about decoloniality as a practice and efforts undertaken throughout the humanitarian aid sector, please see the suggested reading and video list below.

Suggested reading:

• White saviorism in international development by Themrise Khan, Kanakulya Dickson and Maïka Sondarjee (2023)
• Time to decolonise aid by Peace Direct (2021)
• Decolonizing the humanitarian nonprofit sector: why governing boards are key by Rose Worden and Patrick Saez (2021)
• ‘Flipping the narrative: the roots of the refugee protection system are colonial and racist’ by Sana Mustafa (2023)
• ‘How to write about Africa’ by Binyavanga Wainaina (2019)

Suggested videos:

• Critical Conversations – Walter Mignolo On “Decoloniality” (2021)
• Dr. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni Lecture on Decoloniality and the Cognitive Empire at the Hormuud Lecture (2019)

Serwah Asante (she/her) is a human soul trying to navigate this existence with as much grace, love, alignment, and healing as possible. She is also a consultant working with other marginalised voices to centre decoloniality, DEI, healing, and anti-racism in the programming, operations, and culture of international and multilateral organisations. To connect further, please feel free to reach out at info@deiandbeyond.com or at www.linkedin.com/in/serwah-asante/.