Background and Disclaimer
The language we use has always mattered to SAS+. Language can reinforce or disrupt power imbalances. It is the framework in which we organize our work and the pathway in which we reimagine a more just and equitable future.
In the early days of our project (starting in 2017), we defined terms such as ‘local’ and ‘responsible transition’ that were used frequently in our work. We recognize that language changes – and we want to continue to learn and work to shift power in the language we use, and how it is used.
SAS+ is a consortium of three Northern INGOs, and therefore, there are potential issues with and barriers to us fully crafting liberatory language due to our lived experiences and biases. We acknowledge that even the terms and definitions below have their potential problems and limitations, however they are the terms we are working with to define our experience and our work.
Due to our limitations as well as the evolving nature of language, we continue to invite feedback from those of you who have found this page.
Terms
EXAMPLE
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- How it relates to transitions
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- Words we avoid related to it
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1. LOCAL ACTOR, PROXIMATE ACTOR
- ‘Local actor’ recognizes the diversity of people working in their communities or at the sub-national or national level. It encompasses individuals, communities, networks, and practitioners working in organizations, private entities and governments that set their own agendas, develop solutions, and lead to make those solutions a reality.
‘Proximate actor’¹ acknowledges the problematic nature of the term ‘local’ and describes actors who are most closely affected by the issues being discussed. Those closest to the work have the contextual knowledge and cultural competencies that international actors may not have.
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- SAS+ acknowledges the term ‘local’ has different connotations in different contexts and is a contested term, and we aim to use it sparingly. Instead, as often as possible, we try to name the specific country, language, ethnic group or nationality of the person being discussed.
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2. LOCAL ORGANIZATION, PROXIMATE ORGANIZATION
- ‘Local organization’ is used to refer to CSOs or NGOs in the ‘Global South’ or ‘Majority World’. This encompasses organizations that work at the community, sub-national and national level.‘Proximate organization’ is a preferred term to ‘local organization’ due to the problematization and lack of specificity of the word ‘local’.
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3. LOCALLY LED DEVELOPMENT
- Locally led development’ is an approach or process in which initiatives are owned and led by people in their own context. Locally led development is characterized as local practitioners operating at various levels in their context: community, sub-national, and national.
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- Donors and INGOs are increasingly committed to supporting locally led development and local actors continue to speak up on the power imbalances of the development sector and the need for greater accountability to local communities. However, examples of mutually agreed transition strategies, collaborative decision-making and transfers of power are rare. SAS+ aims to inform better policies and practices and to empower internal champions at INGOs and CSOs who advocate for and manage transitions.
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4. GLOBAL SOUTH, MAJORITY WORLD
- ‘Global South’ refers to both historically colonized countries as well as countries with internalized colonial mindsets. It is not always reflective of the hemispheric south (i.e. Australia isn’t considered the Global South though it is in the Southern hemisphere).³‘Majority world’ highlights the fact that the majority of the world’s population lives in the ‘Global South’.4
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- We avoid: Third world, developing countries
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5. GLOBAL NORTH, MINORITY WORLD
- ‘Global North’ refers to historically colonizer countries and countries with colonizer mindsets that lean wealthier and whiter due to their exploitative past.‘Minority world’ is used to refer to countries traditionally located in the ‘Global North’ where a minority of the world’s population resides.5We acknowledge current debates on the usefulness, or lack thereof, of these terms, which question whether another generalizing and binary framework (Majority World – Minority World) is productive for challenging global power relations. We also acknowledge that these terms are driven from the West and do not necessarily have global resonance.
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- We avoid: First world, developed countries
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6. RESPONSIBLE TRANSITION
- Responsible transition refers to a jointly led, planned and gradual process of transfer of technical and procedural ownership from an international to local level, while maintaining some form of relationship. Responsible transitions can happen at an organizational, programmatic or activity level. Responsible transitions focus on achieving a shared vision of transition that sets up local actors to sustain and grow their impact.
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- We avoid: Exit, which refers to the complete withdrawal of an international organization or program from a context without a transfer of ownership or a relationship maintained with the local entity.
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7. TRANSITION THINKING
- Transition thinking is relevant whether a direct transition is being planned or not. It is something anyone can do, regardless of role in order to live into the values of local leadership. It involves the intent to be led by local actors, organizations, and communities, to prioritize strong relationships, make joint decisions that are rooted in a shared vision for success, work in a spirit of complementarity, and critically think about the end of a program/partnership before it starts.
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8. MUTUAL CAPACITY STRENGTHENING, JOINT LEARNING
- ‘Mutual capacity strengthening’ or ‘joint learning’ is the “process of strengthening skills, knowledge and network contacts in which all actors, regardless of their country of origin, participate as equal partners.6”
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- Capacity strengthening during programmatic and organizational transitions should be considered a joint, mutually beneficial process – one that not only addresses a diversity of needs but also acknowledges the context and power dynamics surrounding a transition.7 In cases of responsible transitions, there is room for both the international and proximate partner to be transformed.
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- We avoid: Capacity building, capacity development
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9. DECOLONIZATION
- Historically, decolonization is the action or process of a state withdrawing from a former colony, leaving it independent. Processes of decolonization understand that colonization is more than just a physical project – it has cultural and psychological components which determine whose knowledge, voice, culture, language, society, education and more is privileged. Decolonization involves seeking restorative justice through cultural, psychological and economic freedom. Decolonization is the process of deconstructing colonial ideologies regarding the superiority and privilege of Western thought and approaches.⁸
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- SAS+ sees responsible transitions in alignment with decolonization efforts, where transitioning can support power shifting, but not without intention. We acknowledge that transformation of the system cannot take place without an acknowledgement of the way in which structural racism is both embedded in the system and how it has evolved from the earliest moments of international intervention.
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10. SHIFTING POWER
- ‘Shifting power’ or #ShiftThePower is used to emphasize the need for change from power being at the hands of donors and international agencies to people, organizations, and communities who are most proximate to the issues and who represent the majority world.⁹ It involves shifting mindsets, relationships, norms, paradigms, policies, money and more. Shifting power is about true and equitable partnerships that require the action of everybody for sustainable solutions within the development, peacebuilding and humanitarian sectors.
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- Transitions are not always synonymous with shifting power and can be carried out in ways that reinforce existing power imbalances, which is why SAS+ tools and resources integrate lessons learned around power shifting in transitions.
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11. LEARNING PARTNER
- As a learning partner, SAS+ tailors support to each partner’s individual needs. We do not provide “solutions” or “one size fits all ideas” to opportunities and challenges partners face in transitions, but rather we offer lessons, resources, and evidence of good practice to support partners in making informed, collaborative, and responsible decisions. We walk alongside partners in transition and learn alongside them, incorporating that learning into work with other partners.
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12. FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
- ‘Financial sustainability’ refers to the ability of development actors to generate and manage financial resources in a manner that ensures the long-term viability and effectiveness in achieving positive social impact. A development actor that is financially sustainable will be both financially resilient to both external and internal shocks, and it also has a minimum threshold of organizational longevity, i.e. can maintain active operations longer than other similarly sized organizations in the same geographic context. An organization that is financially sustainable tends to have revenue streams from multiple non-interdependent sources including a significant degree of locally-sourced funding.
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*Note on ‘localization’: Across the sector, many people use the term ‘localization’ to describe the process of shifting power and resources to local actors. We don’t.
‘Localization’ has grown in popularity since the Grand Bargain, which focused localization on (1) Engagement and leadership of local actors in humanitarian coordination; (2) Agreeing on minimum standards/arrangements to strengthen the sharing of capacity, and (3) Supporting efforts to increase and channel more direct funds to local NGOs.
But the term has been extensively criticized by Global South practitioners for a number of reasons. For example, the term implies that peacebuilding does not originate locally and is being redirected from somewhere. As per Peace Direct’s Localisation and Decolonisation paper: ‘to localize suggests transforming something that was imported (i.e. humanitarian intervention) into something that is more locally managed.’
Further, ‘the failure to define localization, along with what constitutes a ‘local’ organization, has created a perverse incentive for INGOs to reposition themselves and their country offices as ‘local’, thereby undermining the spirit of the localization agenda. Worse still, some Global South practitioners and actors fear that there may be a ‘gold rush’ of INGOs establishing themselves in-country and registering as a local entity in order to future proof their access to donor funding by claiming local ownership, while benefiting from the INGO brand, infrastructure, capacity, funding, and networks.’
Because the aims and narrative of ‘localization’ has been so undermined, we do not use this term. It does not reflect our attitude – that local practitioners know best how to create sustainable peace, not international organizations, that they should have ownership and a leadership role in initiatives in their context. We are also very aware that local practitioners have been facing resistance to that notion for a long time.
¹ https://www.rwjf.org/en/insights/blog/2024/05/how-philanthropy-can-help-position-leaders-with-lived-experience-for-success.html
² https://bond.org.uk/resources/becoming-locally-led-as-an-anti-racist-practice-a-guide/ and https://www.peacedirect.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PD-Policy-Position-Defining-local.pdf
³ https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2021/09/28/what-or-where-is-the-global-south-a-social-science-perspective/
4 https://sadafshallwani.net/2015/08/04/majority-world/
5 https://sadafshallwani.net/2015/08/04/majority-world/
6 https://fairgreenglobal.org/uploads/publications/fgg-mutual-capacity-development.pdf page 5
7 https://www.stoppingassuccess.org/resources/mutual-capacity-strengthening-guidelines-for-transitions-to-local-ownership/
⁸ https://bond.org.uk/resources/becoming-locally-led-as-an-anti-racist-practice-a-guide/ and https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/the-wrap/2022/08/11/Decolonising-aid-racial-justice-humanitarian-reform
⁹ https://globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/what-we-stand-for/shiftthepower/
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