Anti-oppression work

Anti oppression work 

Where injustice and oppression exist in the world, they always create inequality and poverty. As an organisation committed to ending poverty, and one working in a sector that still grapples with damaging practices and narratives of development, including that of the ‘white saviour’, RESULTS UK is committed and motivated to do more and better.

We know we are not perfect and recognise that we should be doing better, taking a deeper and more explicit look at how we address oppression and privilege in all their forms. Without this, we will be unable to truly deliver on our mission to ‘empower individuals to exercise their personal and political power for change’ and we will never achieve our goal of ending global poverty.

At RESULTS UK, we will do our part to bring about a ‘new normal’ where people from diverse communities feel safe, empowered and included. This is not something extra ‘on top’ of our mission: it is central to it.

This is a public commitment. We will listen, learn, and we will act.

Changes we’re making:

Committing to improve diversity and inclusion

• We have established an Inclusivity Working Group of staff that aims to ensure RESULTS UK is as inclusive as it can be, both as an organisation and as an employer. The work is ongoing but has involved an analysis of the way biases can impact who is hired and the experience of existing staff, with recommendations for further actions we plan to implement. 

• RESULTS UK has also been a Disability Confident employer since 2019 which is encouraging us to consider how to better recruit and support and disabled staff members.

• Our previous Executive Director, Aaron Oxley has committed to the eight ACEVO principles aiming to address the diversity deficit in charity leadership, following their 2018 report that found only 9% of the voluntary sector workforce is from a BAME background, and less are in leadership positions.

• RESULTS UK is a supporting partner of the Advocacy Team’s Opening Doors programme, a bespoke training programme designed to support people who come from backgrounds that are under-represented in the international development sector to make that first crucial leap into paid career opportunities.

• We have striven for greater representation on our Board of Trustees from women and people of colour, and established a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion sub-group.

Embedding justice in our policy, parliamentary and grassroots advocacy

• RESULTS UK submitted evidence to the International Development Committee’s inquiry on the Philosophy of Aid and subsequently, we submitted evidence to its sub-enquiry on the Impact of Racism in the Aid Sector. The IDC’s report into the Impact of Racism was recently published and included mention of our submission. You can read a summary of the report in our blog. The report, which highlights that “Racism manifests in the very structure of international aid; the sector still reflects the power relationships of colonialism”, is a call to action for many of us. We have been taking the report seriously and are trying to understand and act on some of the findings and recommendations.

• We’re taking steps as part of a longer journey towards fostering a culture of inclusion with the RESULTS grassroots network. In May 2021, we held a training for our grassroots network of advocates, in partnership with JMB Consulting on the importance of anti-racism in our campaigns and in volunteering spaces. In August 2022, we dedicated a monthly action to encouraging grassroots advocates to listen, learn and act on racism, anti-oppression and their advocacy. 

• We’ve used our National Conference over the last 3 years as a space to explore anti-oppression and our advocacy with our grassroots network and other attendees. Catch up on some of these sessions here: Examining power and privilege in international development; ‘Taking a stance on the language we use: why the way we talk about poverty and injustice matters’; ‘Development stereotypes and how to break them’. 

• We recognise that terminology commonly used by RESULTS UK and others working in international development can perpetuate unequal power relations and racist stereotypes. For an overview of some of the issues with narratives within the sector, read our blog about the negative impact of pity communications here. We have recently begun work on an internal anti-racist narrative change project, which builds on an ‘elements of change’ process carried out with Natalie Lartey, Advocate & Anti-Racist Practitioner and consultant at Wood and Water. We’ll be slowly, and carefully, moving towards anti-racist narrative change.

Amplifying voices

• To mark Black History Month, RESULTS UK organises a series of public events that help our organisations and our audience learn from experts on social justice. These have included:  A celebration of South London black history and activism; Black History Month - In conversation with Degan Ali and A Celebration of Black Leaders in International Development. We also featured the brilliant contributions of black advocates working in international development in our Making History Now blog.

• RESULTS UK is committed to creating opportunities that amplify the voices of the people we work to support - those living in countries affected by poverty and with personal experience of the issues we are working on. For World TB Day 2021, we collaborated with Zambian organisation CITAM Plus on #TBHope, which asks people with lived experience of tuberculosis why everyone should care about ending TB for good, and what their #TBhope is in 2021. At the end of 2021, we held a virtual delegation for Parliamentarians in collaboration with KANCO, Kenya and Results Canada. The delegation was a way for UK parliamentarians to meet with TB patients and advocates, healthcare workers and Kenyan MPs to discuss what more needs to be done to bring the TB epidemic to an end, and centred the voices of those with lived experience of TB.

Nurturing global partnerships

• Our mandate and legitimacy to address global poverty and injustice requires collaborations with Southern-led advocacy organisations rooted in their communities. Working with partners involves recognising their leadership,ceding power, listening and building more equitable systems that center their expertise, which is an ongoing journey. 

• One of the ways we strive to do this is as a partner of ACTION, a global partnership of advocacy organizations working to influence policy and mobilise resources to fight diseases of poverty and achieve equitable access to health. ACTION partners work across 13 countries and five continents around the world, and each is a locally rooted, powerful partner who leads not only within their own country but stand as equals alongside other ACTION Partners in delivering joined up, global advocacy.

• From 2019-21, community-based organisations in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania and pan-Africa partner WACI Health partnered on joint youth leadership advocacy programmes, which we were proud to coordinate. The organisations led on the recruitment and nurturing of 25 Youth Leaders for Health, young people who bring their own enthusiasm and the voice of their communities to health advocacy, reaching decision-makers across Africa and beyond. Find out more in the evaluation or 'Appreciative Inquiry' of the programme.

• RESULTS co-led submissions for two International Development Committee (IDC) enquiries and one call for evidence by the UK Government as co-chair of the UK Sustainability and Transitions Working Group. This involved working collaboratively with partners on in-depth analysis and robust recommendations, despite limited access to the Government’s current transition policy positions. This resulted in the Working Group giving oral evidence to the IDC. Other channels of advocacy included letters to Ministers, who in their response recognised our submissions and agreed with our recommendations.