Feminist Development Policy: Knowledge as Power (2/5)

A Pathway Towards Feminist Global Collaboration

In the second instalment of our five-episode series on feminist development policy we discuss four aspects of Knowledge as Power that we believe need to be addressed in order to achieve more Feminist Global Collaboration: the different knowledge paradigms we value, the knowledge we exclude by prioritizing some over others, the phenomenon of knowledge extraction and reflecting on the knowledge held by who is actually doing development, and to what end.
The hierarchical flow of developmental knowledge highlights the problem of whose knowledge is recognized, but also what kind. We must remember that there is power in deciding which type of data is collected, how it’s analysed and what it is used for – and also in the knowledge we choose to ignore. As our guests this episode show, all of this is reflected in the power dynamics that continue to perpetuate inequalities in the development sector.

A podcast with:
• Desiree Acholla, Social Impact Consultant (Inararibonye Advisors), and founder of decolonizedevelopment.org
• Ayisha Siddiqa, human and environmental rights advocate active with the youth-led coalition Polluter’s Out
• Elvira Pablo, lawyer, activist and Policy Member Engagement Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean at Girls Not Brides
• Samie Blasingame, Host and environmental justice activist, researcher and facilitator

This series was initiated by an emerging network of practitioners aiming to re-think development policy from a feminist perspective; FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders, a feminist non-profit initiative to advance gender equity in the in civil society sector; and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Audio production by Grettch.

Download the transcript here. 

Shownotes:
1. Analyse Power: www.powercube.net/analyse-power/

2. Aram Ziai. Development Discourse and Global History, From colonialism to the sustainable development goals: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-
mono/10.4324/9781315753782/development-discourse-global-history-aram-ziai?refId=0b89cdd4-ab1d-4be2-8c6d-1f603ffddcda&context=ubx

3. Claudia Horn and Isadora Cardoso. COP26 Was a Flop, but the Climate Justice Movement Is Still Growing:
jacobin.com/2021/11/cop26-clima…ement-latin-america

4. www.decolonizedevelopment.org

5. Grada Kilomba. Plantation Memories, Epsiodes of Everday Racism.

6. Keya Khandaker and Lata Narayanaswamy. The unbearable whiteness of international development:
www.globalstudies.ugent.be/the-unbeara…elopment/2/

7. Miriam Lang, Lyda Fernando, Nick Buxton. Beyond Development: Alternative Visions from Latin America:
www.tni.org/files/download/beyo…opment_complete.pdf

8. Professor Sylvia Tamale. Re-Routing Knowledge Production in Africa: In Search of Our Roots.
Start from 6:30min: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L5fbQH5mR0

9. Tim Kornprobst et al. Postcolonialism & Post-Development: Practical Perspectives for Development Cooperation:
www.researchgate.net/publication/34…nt_Cooperation

10. White Dominance and Inclusion: Spectrums of Organizational Characteristics. This work is adapted largely from the works of Tema Okun, Kenneth Jones, and Partners for Collaborative Change found at Changeelemental.org:
changeelemental.org/resources/kicki…premacy-culture