Thanks for sharing this. Really appreciate the solution-focused lens on a system that clearly needs rethinking. I recognize and mainly agree with the points you raise.
For context, I’ve spent about six years working in an international NGO, primarily living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa. I’m currently with a small, EA-aligned organization that already seems to implement many of the practices you highlight.
One possible addition to your list (though I realize it may be less immediately “doable”) is a deeper engagement with decolonization in charity/NGO work, and greater awareness of white saviorism as a systemic issue.
Coming from a European background, and often working outside my own cultural context, I try to stay conscious of how my position and biases shape what I see as “effective” or “good.” For example, while I strongly value cost-effectiveness analysis, I also started realizing how it can operate through a “white gaze”: Western actors defining what counts as valid knowledge, success, or impact using our own metrics, potentially marginalizing local ways of knowing and prioritizing.
Reading “White Saviorism in International Development” helped me reflect on potential blind spots within the Effective Altruism movement itself. Ideas like Giving What We Can, to help others because being in the global top X% of earners, can sometimes unintentionally echo white-savior dynamics in how the motivation for giving is framed primarily from the perspective of Western privilege.
I’m not suggesting we abandon these concepts, but I do think they might benefit from more critical reflection. Intellectual humility requires us to acknowledge that we have blind spots that are, by definition, difficult for us to see.
For anyone interested in exploring this further, I can recommend:
White Saviorism in International Development: Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences, edited by Khan, Dickson, and Sondarjee
I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on how impact-driven approaches can better integrate self-awareness, and decolonial practice without losing their strengths around rigor and effectiveness.
Hi Nick,
Thanks for sharing this. Really appreciate the solution-focused lens on a system that clearly needs rethinking. I recognize and mainly agree with the points you raise.
For context, I’ve spent about six years working in an international NGO, primarily living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa. I’m currently with a small, EA-aligned organization that already seems to implement many of the practices you highlight.
One possible addition to your list (though I realize it may be less immediately “doable”) is a deeper engagement with decolonization in charity/NGO work, and greater awareness of white saviorism as a systemic issue.
Coming from a European background, and often working outside my own cultural context, I try to stay conscious of how my position and biases shape what I see as “effective” or “good.” For example, while I strongly value cost-effectiveness analysis, I also started realizing how it can operate through a “white gaze”: Western actors defining what counts as valid knowledge, success, or impact using our own metrics, potentially marginalizing local ways of knowing and prioritizing.
Reading “White Saviorism in International Development” helped me reflect on potential blind spots within the Effective Altruism movement itself. Ideas like Giving What We Can, to help others because being in the global top X% of earners, can sometimes unintentionally echo white-savior dynamics in how the motivation for giving is framed primarily from the perspective of Western privilege.
I’m not suggesting we abandon these concepts, but I do think they might benefit from more critical reflection. Intellectual humility requires us to acknowledge that we have blind spots that are, by definition, difficult for us to see.
For anyone interested in exploring this further, I can recommend:
White Saviorism in International Development: Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences, edited by Khan, Dickson, and Sondarjee
The film Blind Spots (https://villageone.vhx.tv/products/blind-spots)
I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on how impact-driven approaches can better integrate self-awareness, and decolonial practice without losing their strengths around rigor and effectiveness.