The fourth in INTRAC’s series of discussion and learning themes is decolonising consultancy. Beginning in September 2023, INTRAC has opened a series of blogs and organised an online event to address this important topic. Decolonisation has been one of the watchwords for civil society in recent years – and this series explores what it means in the context of the commissioning and practice of consultancy. It is organised around a number of key questions: what does decolonising consultancy mean in practice? What needs to change and how can this happen? What roles do different actors need to play – be they consultancies in the global South, international consultancies, or donors?
An ongoing series of blogs is examining these questions from a number of different perspectives:
- The introductory blog is titled “Decolonising consultancy: framing the discussion” and was written by Kate Newman and Paul Knipe
- Guest authors Zdena Middernacht, Andres Narros Lluch, and Wouter de Iongh from Organisation Development Support contributed the blog, “Decolonising monitoring and evaluation: from control to learning”
- In response to an article published by The Guardian, Kate Newman wrote the blog “Not all consultancy is equal”
On 21 September, 2023, INTRAC organised the fourth in our series of webinars which began in 2022. Titled “decolonising consultancy”, it brought together five varied and knowledgeable speakers – all of them experienced civil society practitioners. Each of them spoke about their understanding of what it means to decolonise consultancy, and then took part in a Q&A. Over 220 participants from around the world joined in the discussion. The full event recording is below, and a concise written event summary is also available.
In addition to the full event recording, short videos are available with the complete short talks by each speaker:
- Nancy Kankam Kusi (WACSI): the decolonising advisory platform [Video]
- Rob Lloyd (Itad): what decolonising consultancy means to Itad [Video]
- Elena Gillis (Adeso): the Adeso approach to decolonising consultancy [Video]
- Alaa Shaheen (Beit Al Karma): a perspective from the MENA region [Video]
- Sam Valéry (Comic Relief): the role of Comic Relief in decolonising consultancy [Video]
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