As part of the weaving conversations held around the Pathways to Power Symposium, the GFCF was delighted to partner with Jennifer Lentfer of How Matters, who hosted a series of four online dialogues entitled Changing the narrative: Weaving #ShiftThePower throughout the #Globaldev sector. This dialogue series, featuring contributions from a range of communicators from around the world and attracting around 50 participants per dialogue, considered how organizations’ communications strategies, framing, and tactics can support collective efforts to #ShiftThePower in aid, global development, and international philanthropy. Charitable portrayals of “helping” often conjure up victimhood and passivity in order to validate the assistance being...

Southern organizations need to find ways to take power, rather than wait for it to be "shifted" to them. This piece originally appeared on Open Democracy. "Shifting power is not a theoretical exercise, it’s my life. It’s about my dignity.” Degan Ali, Executive Director, Adeso. For those in comfortable NGO positions in the North, imagine leading a Southern NGO serving your local community and beyond. You might help many thousands of people every year. You’ve won awards and accolades for your work; stood on platforms in conferences in London, New York and Geneva; and been asked to join numerous boards and profiled in...