Paper short abstract:

How have solidarity-grassroots based political ecology movements boosted, challenged and overcome the 'business-as-usual' approach of development aid in times of neoliberal, populist and 'Sustainable Development Goals' aid discourse? Usage of factor "C": community, cooperation, courage & Christ.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, I gather a mosaic of three successful leadership stories coming from aid streams directed to shift environmental and sustainable development policies towards fairer and more sustainable natural resource governance. Specifically, I focus on how different kinds of leadership in 'fragile states' have flourished to challenge injustice and the dictatorship of indicators, logical frameworks and top-down 'evaluation-itis' typical of projects in dominant development streams. What can we learn from the way challenges in political ecology goals in fragile states in Central America (eg. Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras) have been faced from a women and youth-led, solidarity-based factor "C" perspective: (Community, Cooperation, Courage and Christ) amidst the rise of neoliberal and populists discourses and the modus operandi of mainstream international development NGOs and the Sustainable Development Goals? The presentation emphasizes a power-relations approach to the case studies illustrating how aid streams collide, block and/or boost sustainable development outcomes. The examples provide cautionary signs to the aid-industry self-absorbed on the current tyranny of indicators 'measuring progress better' while ignoring how power relations use notions of 'failure' and 'success' that leave people and nature behind.