Moving to the South
apply to Voice and cascade down to grantee partners coupled with the pandemic meant that the Voice teams had to continuously reflect on how best to accommo- date the needs of the grantee partners while meeting accountability requirements. This meant listening to recommendations on COVID-19 responses, incorporat- ing wellbeing into programming and budgeting, and being mindful in communications. Through all this, we continue to be buoyed by a common sense of purpose and the realization that these steps in inculcating care as a core value in grant-making are necessary to #ShiftThePower. We are also thrilled to share that the mid-term review recommendation of greater represenation of right- sholders in the Voice advisory board has now been fully realised. In October 2021, Rinaldi Ridwan, Co- founder and Vice-Chair, Indonesian Adolescent Health Association joined Nidhi Goyal, Bart Romijn, Christine Kandie, Caroline Kouassiaman and Dumiso Gatsha, completing the advisory board. We are grateful to have such powerful activists and development practitoners guiding the work of Voice.
A lookback on Voice in 2021 would not be complete without acknowledging the leadership transition in Voice and the purpose with which Marinke van Riet moved on from her position as the Programme Manager of Voice. She locates her conviction of ‘moving leadership to the South’ squarely in the context of discussions around decolonising aid and localising development. Representation matters. This provides inspiration not only for Voice’s ways of work- ing now but also as it continues evolving for the future. Marinke’s departure from the team came at the heels of a long process of decentralisation that has resulted in a stronger presence of team members in the countries and regions where Voice works. These transitions, both within the coordination and country teams, in an already tumultuous and precarious context have required extraordinary tenacity, grace and compassion from current and incoming team members. Above and beyond these changes in their own compo- sition, the Voice teams grappled with an ever-changing context that presented diverse challenges to the work of grantee partners, particularly smaller, rightsholder led organizations and groups. Funding restrictions that
Building transformative partnerships Since its inception, Voice has been intentional in seeking to listen and learn from its grantee partners. In keeping with this ethos, Voice in February 2021, commissioned the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), to carry out a confidential survey with its grant- ee partners to understand what we are doing well and what we could be doing better. 257 grantee partners (a 69% response rate!) made time to engage in this exercise at an especially challenging and constraining time and provided feedback documented in this report prepared by CEP. We were inspired to learn that grantee partners see Voice as having a positive impact on the work of the grantee partners themselves, their fields and their communities. The sense of solidarity and connection forged by our Linking & Learning efforts were also well received by grantees. Voice’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in its work and its commitment to com- batting racism is also clearly seen and appreciated by our grantee partners. More importantly, Voice will take action to address the areas of improvement our grant- ee partners have identified. These include- the quality of interactions between the Voice team and grantee partners, the stringency, intensiveness and formality of some Voice processes, and the perceived pressure on grantee partners to change their organisational pri- orities during proposal development. We are humbled
A young refugee woman from the Greater Wakiso area in Central Uganda participates in a practical skill building session on fashion design
to receive this feedback, which is particularly telling in the context of the long-due but ongoing sector-wide discussions on localising, decentralising and decol- onizing aid. While we are keen to contribute to the systemic change that the #ShiftThePower movement is demanding, we are equally committed to taking immediate, tangible actions that demonstrate our intention to be a feminist, trust-based, and inclusive grant-making facility. Since September 2021, Voice has been taking steps to ensure socialisation of the survey report within Voice, within Oxfam and Hivos, in addi- tion to disseminating the report to grantee partners. Voice has also begun an internal reflection on how to translate the recommendations received into concrete changes to our ways of working. One such reflection is taking place on the issue of terminology and a shift in our framing to viewing grantees as partners. This change comes from a collective understanding of the power of language and the way in which terminology itself can empower or disempower. We seek to signal our intention to build transformative partnerships with groups whose work Voice is resourcing and move away from transactional ways of working while recognising the funding relationship and the power dynamics it creates. The measures outlined in the response are some steps we are taking to ensure that this change in terminology is practically embodied further in our grant-making and ways of working.
During celebration of International Day of the elderly, the youth join hands with the elderly in Cambodia to amplify the voices of the elderly
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