From decolonisation to locally-led development: repoliticising the agenda
February 2024
GADN Members’ Meeting
In recent years, the initial bold ambition to ‘decolonise development’ has slowly morphed into calls for ‘locally-led development’. However, these are two very different concepts that are increasingly being used synonymously.
This GADN Members’ Meeting provided an opportunity to explore what locally-led development and decolonisation mean in practice with speakers Dr. Kamna Patel, UCL and Dr. Lata Narayanaswamy, University of Leeds. We examined why locally-led development is gaining traction politically and discussed why decolonial approaches are still needed in the international development sector.
Speakers:
Dr. Lata Narayanaswamy: Associate Professor in the Politics of Global Development at the University of Leeds, Trustee at the Gender and Development Network (GADN)
Dr. Kamna Patel: Associate Professor at Development Planning Unit at UCL
Sophie Efange: Head of Policy, Gender and Development Network (GADN)
Lata’s slides can be found here, Kamna’s slides here and Sophie’s slides here
GADN resources that were mentioned during the panel:
Decolonising Aid (June 2021)
What is the role of Northern organisations in global justice advocacy? (December 2022)
Reparations as a pathway to decolonisation (May 2023)