Moments of Shared Learning are Essential
I started working in the charity sector in 2003.
During the next 10 to 15 years finding funding was never easy but it was there. At the end of last year, after a short break, we moved back into the charity sector.
Good timing? No! To say the climate for charitable funding is bleak - is probably an understatement.
The challenge we are having to find small grants is put in context when you look and see what is going on with international development.
A recent news article featuring Mozasam Malik, Director of Save the Children UK, highlighted how UK cuts to development funding has the potential to impact the lives of 60 million people [1]. The worry and concern such cuts are creating has dominated the conversations I have had with those who work in the sector.
These conversations all highlight the immediate and devastating impact of what appears to be a wide ranging reduction in funding, most significant being the US decisions to cut US AID - 5200 of the 6200 programmes worldwide have been terminated [2].
Limiting and restricting the livelihood of organisations not only has consequences for people’s jobs but it also creates risks.
Risks surrounding the loss of knowledge and experiences that are used to generate solutions to the intense local and global challenges that communities face. Notably this is before we get anywhere near the critical impacts on the everyday lives of individuals themselves.
The approach from the organisations I have spoken with details the role they play in creating ‘opportunities’ - moments of coming together - in which community members are equipped to collaborate with others to seek a response to local needs or challenges.
Losing these ‘learning’ moments will have implications. It will prevent the building up of capabilities that allow communities to critically assess the issues they face and then to co-design relevant solutions.
The challenges that ‘we’ are responding to are not simple. They are complex - it needs moments of shared learning to address and respond to these wicked problems.
During a period of accelerated change now is not the time to limit or cut the resources that enable knowledge exchange and capability building. It has to be seen as an essential part of any governments desire to contribute to a safe, just and more sustainable world.
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