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Paper short abstract:

The paper emphasizes a decolonisation approach to address inequality and promote solidarity and antiracism within NGOs in development. It explores barriers and opportunities to decolonisation, and how NGOs in Africa can navigate these challenges in the local and globalised context.

Paper long abstract:

Africa is making impressive strides in different aspects of development albeit many countries facing a polycrisis of conflicts and forced displacements, bad governance and democratic deficits, bulging unemployment amidst limited economic opportunities, poor social service systems, inequality at different levels, and unequal relationships with their contemporaries in the North and recently China, India and Russia. NGOs as significant actors on the continent have been praised by some, for advancing development in many marginalised communities; and also criticised by others, for entrenching coloniality tendencies which keep African individuals and communities in an unequal position with the rest of the world. Decolonisation approach advanced by Southern scholars and recently, common in different discourses is a continuous liberating process that NGOs must utilise to advance solidarity and antiracism amongst individuals who work as volunteers and staff for the organisations, partners and networks across continents, targeted communities, host governments and donors. A decolonisation approach in development focuses on balancing hierarchical relationships among various stakeholders where all voices especially of the marginalised influence decisions, priorities and outcomes of the development process. Currently, most NGOs modus operandi in Africa largely focuses on interests of their funding partners who are mainly in the North, with little emphasis on the priorities and context of the communities in which they work. This paper will be based on a systematic literature review of NGO work in Africa highlighting their progress, barriers, and opportunities for advancing solidarity and antiracism through the liberating approach of decolonization.