The world today faces unprecedented polycrises–environmental shocks, political instability, economic volatility–all converging in ways that demand resilient systems built upon human capacity and collective leadership. Yet historically, our global systems,…

Over recent years NGOs have worked hard to see more power and money concentrated in the hands of local organizations. We talked to four who have gone further than others,…

Anna Molero of People First Community Secretariat spoke with Catherine Edwards on March 7, 2023.

This book is about the graduates of Dream a Dream. It centres on moving, personal stories of young people and what it means to grow up with adversity and thrive.…

Our international rules-based order through which the world’s nations pursue global peace and development is crashing into the limits of its founding vision. What our predecessors built some eight decades…

Desde la historia de nuestros países tendríamos dificultades para relacionarnos. Nos separan el océano atlántico y la forma como se cuenta la historia de cada lado. En España, la conquista…

This WISE ALL-IN special publication bears witness to the critical role of leadership in promoting and enabling student and system-deep learning. The collection reveals the centrality of education leadership in…

Locally led development is a complex process that the development community, in the United States and around the world, has spent several decades trying to get right. Yet, despite all…

In this sixteenth interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Jamie Drummond and Kennedy Odede discuss shifts in power, process, and funding to uplift proximate leaders and value local knowledge and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has vividly demonstrated that thoughtful, data-driven, and accountable leadership has been a significant determinant of the trajectory of this emergency – locally, nationally, and globally. The current…

Growing up in Zimbabwe, “wakangwara semurungu,” a Shona phrase that means “wise white person,” was a typical compliment given if you did well in school or looked particularly chic —…

Can philanthropy deliver what is expected? Much has been written about the role philanthropy could play in resetting our fractured and extraordinarily polarised modern world. However, there are disagreements about…

Over the last few years, the Black Lives Matter Movement and #AIDToo scandals have ushered in a period of self-reflection in the humanitarian sector and elevated calls to “decolonize” its…

Two 5am starts followed by 16 hours of screen time. Yet by the end of the 2021 Humanitarian Leadership Conference, ‘energised’ was the word I used to sum up my…

The theme of this edition of Humanitarian Exchange is localisation and local humanitarian action. Five years ago this week, donors, United Nations (UN) agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the International Committee…

If the world is going to stop deliberate or unintentional misinformation and its insidious effects, we need to radically expand and accelerate our counterattacks, particularly human-centered solutions focused on improving…

In April 2021, more than 1000 delegates from across 80 countries came together at the Humanitarian Leadership Conference to determine where change is needed in the aid sector and what…

In November 2020, Peace Direct, Adeso, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security held a three-day online consultation with 158 activists, decisionmakers, academics, journalists and…

Africa is very rich in natural resources and has the youngest population of any continent. If we can make the most of this abundance, we can create shared prosperity on…

European School of Governance, position paper #25 by Louis Klein | Community-based learning ecosystems lie at the very heart of our understanding of the world, of its being and of…

This year one in every 33 people across the world will need humanitarian assistance. That is a rise of 40% from last year, according to the UN. More than half of the…

It is high time for international development actors to shift their approach from defining problems and identifying interventions towards developing the agency and leadership of people in developing contexts. Such…

Most people assume that inequality between the global South and the global North (the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Canada and Australia) has been declining over the past few decades.…

Just imagine, looking back to a time when COVID-19 brought us together. Leaders who united to overcome a health crisis also gained the courage to avert climate catastrophe. The unstoppable…

Wherever we have seen community resilience in the face of the public health, economic, and education crises of 2020, we find strong local leadership at work. However, rather than supporting…

“What would it look like if we decided to find and fund local organizations applying themselves to bringing value to their communities?” It was a sunny summer day in 2012,…

I was in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum, when I heard about the shooting of another black man, Jacob Blake, by US police. Close by is a mural of George Floyd, painted on a…

As events unfold in the US and across the world, colleagues in the aid sector are closely watching, and sharing their solidarity. After all they are allies and educators of…

What the world witnessed last week in America is not new. George Floyd, another African American man killed by police. Over one hundred uprisings in cities around the country to…

This letter is the product of a protracted, heated, angry and passionate discussion that took place on the #ShiftThePower WhatsApp group last week. Several people on the group had been…

Between our broken global economic model, rising inequality, and the erosion of democracy and human rights, we are living in a time of crisis. But there are, in times of…

As I begin my third year at the Ford Foundation’s helm, I am reminded of how privileged I am—and we all are—to serve this institution. For my colleagues and me,…