Contribution short abstract:

This paper explores how UK INGO efforts to address global inequality often sustain colonial, capitalist, and racist systems. It critiques performative decolonisation, highlights feminist insights on power, and advocates inclusive, practical steps towards reparative justice to transform development.

Contribution long abstract:

International NGOs in the UK’s development sector face increasing scrutiny for their role in perpetuating or dismantling global inequality. Safeguarding scandals since 2018, involving some of the sector’s largest organisations, have exposed a troubling gap between their stated missions and their attitudes and actions. In 2022, the UK Parliament’s International Development Committee reported that the sector remains rooted in colonial power dynamics and structurally racist practices. Despite a growing focus on decolonisation and locally-led development, limited data reveals persistent problems: in 2021, 68% of employees reported witnessing or experiencing racism (Bond 2021).

Many organisations espouse anti-racist policies and decolonisation strategies. However, such efforts risk being non-performative (Ahmed 2006) when the system continues to operate within imperialist, capitalist, and racist frameworks (Mohanty 2003). This context has spurred vital discussions on power, solidarity, and transformation. Postcolonial feminist scholarship emphasises the need to dismantle oppressive systems, including knowledge production and colonial legacies. Yet, research rarely addresses the practical implications of this shift on smaller INGOs.

Drawing on SWIDN’s ongoing engagement in industry efforts towards solidarity discourses, this paper explores how organisations in the UK can combat global inequality without reinforcing harmful colonial structures. It proposes a practice rooted in individual reflexivity, in challenging coloniality through new ways of knowing and being, and establishing models of practice that enable reparative justice, aiming to replace the violence of existing development systems with effective pathways for repair and renewal. This presentation will bring a range of voices from practitioner members of SWIDN and its leadership.