At the RINGO Learning Festival in 2022, RINGO Lab members Venitia Govender and Pascal Richard (the Idea Carriers) shared key learnings from developing and testing the innovation: For the people, By the people: An Alternative Solidarity Model.
How might we re-imagine a new approach and organisational model for international civil society solidarity and action?
How might we enable and mainstream a justice and solidarity-based approach that changes how INGOs think/measure their success and shifts power to local activists and CSOs?
The idea behind this prototype is to turn our partnership equation upside-down by creating an alternative, inclusive and virtual solidarity platform that will be determined by the terms of engagement and views of local activists. The prototyping team* considered how to create a mechanism that puts the needs of the demand side at the centre, in order to get international support that is useful and relevant to help advance the objectives of what is happening on the ground. Such a platform would be owned and driven by local activists, and requests a target audience of donors/INGOs/supporters to respond to ‘reverse calls for proposals’, which lays out the kind of support identified by members of that platform. The platform would give local actors a common coordination space and provide a united voice to articulate their needs for support. This model could become the standard bearer for INGO and local relationships in the future.
*The original prototyping team developed this idea in Swaziland, a country where civic space is rapidly closing. Unfortunately, due to the volatile environment, we halted work on the prototype in 2023 due to safety concerns of the local activists. A new prototyping team formed in 2024 and are now testing a further iteration of this innovation in different contexts — see Reverse Call for Proposals for more information.
Watch the recording of the Innovative Edge session: