{"id":5197,"date":"2023-07-31T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T19:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redecomua.org.br\/?p=5197"},"modified":"2023-08-12T18:38:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T21:38:23","slug":"reflections-on-rooting-collective-care-in-systems-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/reflections-on-rooting-collective-care-in-systems-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on rooting collective care in systems change"},"content":{"rendered":"

I ended 2022 with a health scare and I have spent the majority of 2023 so far preoccupied with the notion of collective care and solidarity in movement building. As part of my exploration, I have been reading Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto<\/em> by Tricia Hersey where she argues that rest should be a form of radical political resistance and that \u201cTo uplift rest from a community care ethic is to interrupt the dominant culture while giving power back to the people where it belongs.\u201d While Hersey's message is specifically targeted to black communities in the United States and rejects society's hustle-grind culture, it resonates with me on the need for a cultural mindset shift in the philanthropic and international development fields, and why rest is important in the fight for liberation and larger systems-change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Hersey, I believe that promoting collective care for activists \u2013 who drive much needed change \u2013 is essential for the sustainability and success of movement solidarity. From my work at the GFCF, working with partners from Palestine to Brazil, Uganda to Burkina Faso, the notion of care \u2013 seeing people as the biggest asset \u2013 is central to driving change. The work of re-imagining and achieving a new development system requires resources and energies that go beyond money and mere professional commitment. Activists who experience burnout and exhaustion will be less effective at developing innovative solutions that can sustain social movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few months, I've been having conversations with colleagues in Africa about the notion of self-care and solidarity in the context of re-imagining the current aid system. In these conversations there has been a general agreement that \u201cYes, self-care is important\u201d, alongside a quiet acknowledgment that \u201cWe don't do self-care very well as a sector.\u201d In a blog<\/a> by 2022 #ShiftThePower Fellow<\/a> Eme Iniekung of GivingTuesday<\/a> and Elizaphan Ogechi of the Nguzo Africa Community Foundation<\/a>, they succinctly summarize the issue by stating: \u201cWe [the philanthropic sector] are often trying to do so many things until we forget our own selves<\/em>s." Similar sentiments were echoed among participants at a recent meeting that the GFCF co-hosted with partners[1]<\/a> on #ShiftThePower and community philanthropy that I attended in Kathmandu, Nepal in June 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Participants at the #ShiftThePower regional meeting held in Kathmandu on 1 June 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, where do we go from here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the meeting in Nepal, Hari Sharma, Executive Director of Purak Asia<\/a> and formerly a political advisor to the first president of Nepal, suggested that one way to start centering collective care as a political concept is to promote more intergenerational dialogues between activists of social movements. He explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happens when, for those of us who have been in the system for decades \u2013 who started social movements from personal convictions as volunteers and then got 'professionalized' along the way, who have been founders of small and big organizations \u2013 are so fatigued that can we no longer generate new ideas? <\/em>There's a sort of death that happens on many levels, and no one is talking about this. For me, self-care is really self-regeneration and what happens to these organizations when leaders leave. Generally, when leaders leave, they feel deserted in a way, all their years of hard work ending just like that. Where do they go to get a sense of themselves after having given their all? We need to think about not only bringing in and supporting new activists to community work, but also how we take care of those who need to exit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way forward is to consider how to apply lessons from the work of feminist movements and funds, which have been thinking deeply about the notion of care \u2013 self-care, collective care and movement solidarity \u2013 and how it can be more effectively placed at the heart of a systems<\/u> change schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To effectively embrace care, we also need dedicated networks of support. Being able to resource, replenish and nourish our movements should, in my view, be a central pillar of reimagining an effective future system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There's undoubtedly much more to explore on this topic. In thinking about how we can continue to have these conversations more broadly and strategically, and how we can create spaces for learning and experimentation with new ideas about collective care, I would like to invite others to further explore these questions (among many others) with the GFCF in the lead up to, and at, the #ShiftThePower Global Summit<\/a> in Bogot\u00e1 in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By: Ese Emerhi<\/a>, GFCF Global Network Weaver<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0Accountability Lab Nepal<\/a>,\u00a0NEAR Network<\/a>,\u00a0PeaceDirect<\/a>,\u00a0Purak Asia<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tewa,<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally posted at: https:\/\/globalfundcommunityfoundations.org\/blog\/reflections-on-rooting-collective-care-in-systems-change\/ <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I ended 2022 with a health scare and I have spent the majority of 2023 so far preoccupied with the notion of collective care and solidarity in movement building. As part of my exploration, I have been reading Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey where she argues that rest should be a form of radical political resistance and that \u201cTo uplift rest from a community care ethic is to interrupt the dominant culture while giving power back to the people where it belongs.\u201d While Hersey's message is specifically targeted to black communities in the United States and rejects society's hustle-grind culture, it resonates with me on the need for a cultural mindset shift in the philanthropic and international development fields, and why rest is important in the fight for liberation and larger systems-change.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,101,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-englishversion","category-fortalecimento-institucional","category-gfcf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}