Charity leaders urged to recognise their ‘power and privilege’ when tackling racism

International aid charity chief executives are being urged “to recognise your positionality, power and privilege” to ensure they are effectively tackling racism in their organisation.

Other questions charity leaders need to ask is how diverse their senior management team is and are they able to “hear from more diverse perspectives”.

Charity leaders are also urged to ensure they have an anti-racism action plan in place and question how well they feel “comfortable talking about race and racism”.

The checklist for charity leaders has emerged in an online toolkit from aid sector group Bond to support organisations to tackle racism.

Charity leaders are also urged in the guide to put in place a standing item on meetings with senior management teams to discuss actions on anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion.

They also need to assess what skills they need as they look to embed anti-racism across the organisation and ask themselves “what’s one small thing you can do to become an advocate”.

There is no place for half-hearted, sporadic or disconnected antiracist initiatives. Show #AntiracistLeadership by taking action that is well-planned, sustainable and accountable.

Read our Anti-racism and Decolonising Framework: https://t.co/Zjuu75frVu pic.twitter.com/1diCY9IOvH
— Bond (@bondngo) February 28, 2023

This latest toolkit follows a previous guide released in 2022 which focused on urging aid charities to “decolonise” their local operations to combat racism.

This urges organisations to become locally led and empower communities as a way of tackling ideologies of “superiority and privilege of Western thought and approaches”.

Concerns of lack of equality in the aid sector have been raised several times in recent years. Last year MPs said that racism was “particularly pertinent” in aid organisations, due to its roots in colonialism.

Meanwhile, according to the NCVO’s UK Civil Society Almanac for 2022 the charity sector is “less ethnically diverse than the private and public sectors” and action to improve diversity has stalled in recent years.

“The issue of tackling and dismantling racism is a priority in our sector and within our organisations,” said Bond equity and engagement manager Lena Bheeroo.

“This work must not solely sit with HR teams or with the CEO of an organisation. This framework was created by people of colour from across the sector and is designed to be used by all individuals working in development organisations and can be used to start a conversation about how to become actively anti-racism."