Posted on 27 June 2022
In February 2021 the UK parliament’s International Development Committee launched an inquiry into the philosophy and culture of aid. A report was initiated off the back of calls for decision making power and resources to be shifted from aid donors and large INGOs “towards the countries and communities where programmes are delivered”. And “aid institutions need to face up to racist and paternalistic attitudes, as well as addressing challenges with diversity, equity and inclusion in staffing.”
The report entitled ‘Racism in the aid sector’, summarises that: “Racism manifests in the very structure of international aid; the sector still reflects the power relationships of colonialism. It shows up in the terminology that aid actors use to describe the people they work with, and in fundraising campaigns which reinforce stereotypes of people in low- and middle- income countries as helpless and in need of saving.”
Read blog in response, by Sunit Bagree from Open Democracy: International aid is racist – academics must help decolonise it