From a rectangle to a circle: It’s time to turn the turn tables on aid

I am the coordinator of the Do No Harm Humanitarian Development Initiative, a Nigerian NGO that trains civil society across the country about conflict sensitivity. I train, monitor, and mentor activities of over 80 organizations to ensure they implement activities using the principles of conflict sensitivity. For me, it has been an exciting experience, and it has given me great insight into the realities, challenges and opportunities experienced by these organizations. In my role, I get to see local civil society learning, adapting, and becoming stronger every day. For example, an organization I worked with in Adamawa adjusted their branding practice to reduce religious tensions after participating in Do No Harm training. This action of theirs brought about increased trust and confidence between the community member and conflicting parties as it helped the conflicting parties disengage from the conflict and together discuss their needs as it relates to their priorities.

BUILDING BRIDGES

However, from where I stand, I see that external organizations (e.g. international NGOs, national NGOs, and Government agencies) lack trust in local civil society. Many international groups are reluctant to give opportunities and funds to grassroots leaders and volunteers because their CVs do not show that they have been well-schooled. However, for the people in their communities, being well-schooled has nothing to do with their ability to do the real, hard work of building sustainable peace. Local civil society groups succeed because they are faced with reoccurring conflicts on a daily basis and often are able to successfully leverage their traditional modes of dispute resolution to settle them.

But because international groups do not trust their funds in the hands of ‘locals’, they are hesitant to give these organizations any real power or agency in projects. This not only denies local civil society the chance to make their voices heard in projects, but it also denies them the opportunity to explore and grow. Expectations around the management of funds is something that local civil society can learn, but it seems that listening and trusting are skills that international groups struggle to learn. These narratives can be changed, however, as the capacities of both groups can be adapted to fulfill what is expected of them.

IT’S TIME TO TURN TABLES

From where I stand, the tables need to be turned: INGO’s and donors who use a top-down approach to aid communities is simply no longer acceptable. Opportunities need to be given to community members to generate solutions to their problems, rather than outsiders creating the solutions they think people need.

Often, INGOs offer the idea of building community capacity, when communities already know what is needed in their own community. Peacebuilders and sponsoring organizations need to begin thinking outside the box in order to turn the “rectangular tables” into circular ones – that will allow for a more equitable relationship.

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