RINGO Agenda for Change

RINGO is guid­ed by a clear Agen­da for Change, devel­oped over the past four years, which will be ampli­fied for buy-in from all stake­hold­ers in the devel­op­ment space.

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We are con­sol­i­dat­ing all the learn­ings from both Phase I of the project, where the RINGO Social Lab under­took an exten­sive inquiry process and devel­oped pro­to­types to chal­lenge some of the major struc­tur­al bar­ri­ers to change in the sec­tor and demon­strate new ways of work­ing, and Phase II, where we have focused our efforts on influ­enc­ing change across civ­il soci­ety. The cul­mi­na­tion of these learn­ings shape what we are call­ing an “Agen­da for Change.” This serves as a strate­gic frame­work for trans­form­ing inter­na­tion­al NGOs and the broad­er devel­op­ment aid land­scape, reflect­ing our com­mit­ment to reshap­ing glob­al civ­il soci­ety through the imple­men­ta­tion of spe­cif­ic, impact­ful reforms. This agen­da is cru­cial as it direct­ly address­es sys­temic imbal­ances with­in devel­op­ment aid. The Agen­da for Change posi­tions us to con­front cur­rent chal­lenges head-on and build a more equi­table and effec­tive glob­al devel­op­ment sys­tem.

The RINGO Agenda for Change

Prin­ci­ples:

1. The inter­na­tion­al devel­op­ment sys­tem we cur­rent­ly oper­ate with­in is deeply root­ed in colo­nial lega­cies, per­pet­u­at­ing inequities, struc­tur­al racism, and flawed approach­es that dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly dis­ad­van­tage the glob­al major­i­ty. Rebal­anc­ing pow­er is essen­tial for cre­at­ing a more equi­table and effec­tive sys­tem; there­fore, deci­sion-mak­ing pow­er must shift to enable agency and ade­quate resources for the his­tor­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized glob­al major­i­ty.
2. Resourc­ing devel­op­ment must val­ue con­tri­bu­tions beyond mon­ey and rec­og­nize the input of all part­ners. Local organ­i­sa­tions have vary­ing capac­i­ties, and their resources and resource­ful­ness should be pri­or­i­tized and val­ued in part­ner­ships.
3. Trans­form­ing the ethos of part­ner­ships requires a foun­da­tion­al shift towards val­ues such as trust and respect. These prin­ci­ples are crit­i­cal to mov­ing away from patro­n­is­ing, hier­ar­chi­cal dynam­ics toward par­tic­i­pa­to­ry and equi­table col­lab­o­ra­tions. Build­ing trust takes time and requires a will­ing­ness to lis­ten, learn, and adapt based on the pri­or­i­ties of local com­mu­ni­ties.
4. Lead­er­ship in devel­op­ment must embody and align with the val­ues and prin­ci­ples of shift­ing pow­er. Lead­ers play a crit­i­cal role in mod­el­ling the behav­iours and prac­tices nec­es­sary for equi­table part­ner­ships. This means chal­leng­ing entrenched sys­tems, advo­cat­ing for sys­temic change, and cre­at­ing spaces for mar­gin­alised voic­es to lead.
5. No sin­gle organ­i­sa­tion, insti­tu­tion, or indi­vid­ual can dis­man­tle the deeply unfair struc­tures of the cur­rent devel­op­ment sys­tem alone. True trans­for­ma­tion requires col­lab­o­ra­tion across silos, sec­tors, and geo­gra­phies, work­ing togeth­er in sol­i­dar­i­ty. This means embrac­ing shared goals, fos­ter­ing part­ner­ships that tran­scend tra­di­tion­al bound­aries, and cre­at­ing col­lec­tive strate­gies to address sys­temic inequities.

RINGO Areas of Action

1. Address unfair and dis­pro­por­tion­ate assump­tions about the ‘risk’ of fund­ing local­ly. The RINGO ‘risk’ pro­to­type is one way to reshape and rene­go­ti­ate risk.
2. Our pri­ma­ry account­abil­i­ty should be to the com­mu­ni­ties we serve, not to donors. The PALM mod­el, led by the Pledge For Change demon­strates a more par­tic­i­pa­tive approach to account­abil­i­ty.
3. Com­mu­ni­ties should not just be involved in pro­gram­ming and fund­ing deci­sions, they should lead these wher­ev­er pos­si­ble. The RINGO ‘Reverse Call for Pro­pos­als’ pro­vides a mod­el approach to put com­mu­ni­ties in the driver’s seat; the RINGO toolk­it on par­tic­i­pa­to­ry grant­mak­ing also helps to fur­ther this idea.
4. Donors should pri­ori­tise fund­ing local­ly, keep­ing ambi­tions high­light­ed by the Too South­ern to be Fund­ed report, and com­mit­ments laid out in the Donor state­ment on local­ly-led devel­op­ment.
5. The dom­i­nance of Eng­lish in inter­na­tion­al devel­op­ment, along with lan­guage that per­pet­u­ates pow­er imbal­ances, must be addressed. The RINGO Lan­guage pro­to­type was one attempt to use tech­nol­o­gy to do this.
6. Local organ­i­sa­tions and com­mu­ni­ties must shift their mind­set to recog­nise and har­ness their pow­er and agency to devel­op resources and build sus­tain­able infra­struc­ture. Invest­ments should focus on reduc­ing depen­den­cy and fos­ter­ing resilience and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. To achieve last­ing devel­op­ment, more voic­es from diverse regions must join these con­ver­sa­tions, mak­ing it essen­tial to deep­en region­al and cross-region­al engage­ments for tru­ly inclu­sive and con­text-dri­ven solu­tions.