How might we disrupt colonial/traditional perceptions of capacity, knowledge and expertise, rather than perpetuating the narrative of the north doing capacity building ‘to’ southern civil society?
This RINGO innovation seeks to address a key barrier to shifting power and creating a more equitable global civil society: language and inclusive communication. It acknowledges that without meaningful language change, systems change is likely to remain superficial, if at all. The use of neo-colonial, sexist, racist, bigoted words and terms, and a reliance on dominant languages, creates and maintains power imbalances in international development. The prototyping team is using AI technology to test whether we can shift power in two ways: abolish problematic language; and enable people to use their own local language when communicating with funders and INGOs.