Paper: Being glocal in the aid industry: unveiling coloniality in new trends

Paper details

Paper authors Carla Vitantonio
In panel on Collaboration and Partnership: Strengthening Civil Space through Coordination Mechanisms
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting In-Person / Online

Abstract

The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) took place in 2016. Since then, glocal is the buzzword both in humanitarian response and in international development cooperation. According to many, acting glocal (as local as possible, as global as needed) is a possible response to the long debate on coloniality in aid, and the key for a new generation of international practices, more aware, more equal, more balanced. But recent practices show how also glocalization can be steeped into coloniality: who is deciding what is possible and what is needed? How is the idea of glocal really giving space to agency from the so-called Global South? And which voices, among the many that are composing the Global South, are being heard? Aren’t we, actors and policy makers from the Global North, practicing coloniality of power while assuming that the Global South moves uniformly, regardless of the vastity of the realities it is composed of? This contribution will be articulated into 3 phases: framing the debate on coloniality and the aid sector (both development and humanitarian response), shortly explaining the state of the art and main trends and provide some inputs for reflections.

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