Paper short abstract:

We would bring a provocation to the workshop: if we propose 'localisation' as the way forwards, then social justice can never be achieved. We outline a framing of solidarity that can underpin more just approaches to shifting power to local organisations and how One World Together is achieving this.

Paper long abstract:

We start our pitch with a provocation to the workshop: unless we can ‘build in’ solidarity into processes of localisation, social justice will never materialise from these processes. Localisation as conceptualised and currently playing out in the sector is predominantly Northern-led and unfit for purpose when it comes to achieving social justice. Viewed from Leicester’s (2020) Three Horizons framework, ‘innovations’ to shift power can primarily be seen as ‘sustaining’ innovations (that uphold the current status quo) or ‘disruptive’ innovations that may shake things up a bit but can’t dismantle existing inequalities between NGOs across the North and South. Recent research highlights that inequalities underpinning the aid system are rarely being addressed at the roots, to the detriment of Southern civil society (Banks et al 2024). We’ll explore how academic research led to us launching One World Together, a new social enterprise that goes further than many current localisation efforts to transform the system rather than seeking change within the existing aid system, building a new funding system based on trust, solidarity and equity that connects a new generation of supporters of global development with community organisations around the world to learn, connect and share. In discussing One World Together we’ll outline a three-fold framework of solidarity that can instead provide a more solid foundation to a socially just and community-centred system global development.