Share Your Decolonising Story – Page 3 – Debating Development Research

05/12/202402/12/2025

Amidst Post-Colonial Continuities and Global Power Shifts: What Role for the IDOS Postgraduate Programme for Sustainability Cooperation?

By Simone Christ / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

How can international cooperation ensure social, political, and economic transformations to shape sustainable futures in the context of geopolitical tensions? One crucial approach is to equip young professionals with competencies needed to become transformative change makers. The recent overhaul of the IDOS postgraduate programme reflects also broader efforts to decolonise knowledge.

21/11/202402/12/2025

The Journey towards an Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Evaluation System

By Yulye Jessica Romo Ramos / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

Over the last couple of years, the evaluation sector has come under pressure to acknowledge the Euro-Western hegemony over knowledge, evaluation and learning practice[i]. Current structures, behaviours, mindsets and mental models have led to institutional and systemic racism and discrimination of non-white people and other minoritised groups[ii]. This perpetuates a system that places weak or no value in non-Euro-Western knowledge, values and voices and results in non-representative practitioners and evidence, which threatens the legitimacy of evaluation as such.

04/11/202409/12/2024

Reflecting on our Lens: Decolonising Imagery within International Development

By James Andrews / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

When selecting a photo to bring colour to the blog you’ve spent hours copy-editing, have you considered whether it disrupts the colonial gaze, or might it—perhaps inadvertently—reinforce these entrenched power structures? When arranging an interview for your lively development podcast, are you giving a platform to a Western academic who has conducted research ‘in the field,’ or would it be more impactful to interview someone who has spent their entire life living and working in that ‘field’? How do you create multimedia content that not only attracts donor funding but also remains sensitive to the unique circumstances of the individuals whose stories you aim to tell, while being aware of your own cultural, class and gender biases?