News

All the recordings for our LISTEN and CONNECT sessions from 2022

We were thrilled to be able to host another great conference in 2022 with over 200 people registering to attend across three days. We focused on platforming our members and wider community, as well as discussing some of the biggest topics in our sector today. We are grateful to UK Aid for funding the conference.

LISTEN 1: Effective and Equal Partnerships

Partnerships are the basis of our practice in international development, but when the development aid sector is purported to be systemically racist and structurally unequal, how can we engage in partnerships that aren’t?

Effective and equal partnerships are a critical step in achieving impact, delivering value for money and disrupting inequality in our sector. But historical partnerships between funding and implementing organisations can too easily uphold power imbalances that maintain coloniality and prevent locally led development. This session brings together perspectives from grassroots activism and national partners as well as SWIDN members working to transform their partnerships and champion localisation.

You can hear the panel presentations here. 

CONNECT 1: Beyond Language – Positive Changes to Decolonise our Practice

Our conference afternoon sessions are focused on highlighting innovation across our SWIDN community. They will be informally structured to enable learning and connection, with opportunities to engage with each other in smaller groups and to network.

This session will feature members of the SWIDN community sharing about their work to decolonise their practice beyond language. We’ll hear from key INGOs across the South West who are making changes to systems, structures and practice towards a fairer, more just ‘international development’ sector.

You can access this recording here.

LISTEN 2: From Development to Solidarity: A Shift Towards Justice?

The roots of development aid are firmly in colonialism and recent reports reflect the extent to which racism and prejudice still define the work of our sector. Many of us are grappling with being part of a system that upholds such harm and the roles of our organisations in tackling inequality. This session will consider the growing focus on global solidarity as a new era for development, bringing together experts from academic research and development experience

You can access this recording here. 

CONNECT 2: Impactful Funding: New Models, Greater Impact

Our conference afternoon sessions are focused on highlighting innovation across our SWIDN community. They will be informally structured to enable learning and connection, with opportunities to engage with each other in smaller groups and to network.

This SWIDN Community Innovation session will look at innovative funding models, including a focus on capturing impact and communicating this to donors, as well as models of funding that resource locally-led development.

You can access this recording here.

LISTEN 3: The Future of UK Aid

This year has seen a new international development strategy linking aid to trade, the continuation of widespread cuts to the UK Aid budget, and a change in leadership at both No. 10 and the top job in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. So what do these changes mean for UK-based INGOs? And after this time of turbulence, what can we hope for?

This session will include candid political analysis, long-term experience and practical advice on the likely challenges facing UK-based INGOs in the next year, together with advice for weathering the changing landscape ahead.

We were delighted to be joined in this session by the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Preet Gill MP. You can watch the recording here.

CONNECT 3: Relocating Knowledge: Collaborative Research and Best Practice

Our conference afternoon sessions are focused on highlighting innovation across our SWIDN community. They will be informally structured to enable learning and connection, with opportunities to engage with each other in smaller groups. This session explores how the location of knowledge formation impacts our sector, highlighting collaborative research projects between the South West and academics and researchers in low and middle income countries.

Originally posted on 24th October 2022