• How is a decolonised vocabulary in Development possible?

    Course Description

    How is a decolonised vocabulary in Development possible? - A dialogue on practical steps and strategies

    • "Have colonial attitudes been sustained in the language we use in development"?
    • "Does our use of knowledge and experts replicate colonial mindsets"?
    • "Are funding mechanisms still shaped along colonial lines"?

    These are some of the questions that we will address in this dialogue event.

    This online dialogue will be split up in three parts:

    A. PANEL#1: Why is decolonization and language relevant?

    Presentation from:

    • Wouter Oomen and Emiel Martens, directors of the Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication, on "actionable pathways towards a decolonised development sector".
    • Jimm Fomunjong from WACSI (West African Civil Society Institute)

    • Signe Atim Allimadi, Head of Global Unit at Save the Children Denmark

    B. DIALOGUE - breakoutgroups

    We will make breeak-rooms (10-15 minutes) to reflect on the panel presentations - and prepare questions or statements for debate.

    C. Panel #2: Possible action? 

    A second round of inputs from our panel on what are relevant possible actions. We will - among other issues - refelct on the usability of language-guides (see examples below). 

    Target group:  Open for both CISU members and their partners-organisations.

    Learning targets: Participants will get an overview on attempts to update the language used in international development, and get an opportunity to discuss way forward.

    OBS: This event has been inspired by the workshops CISU organised at the CISU folkhighschool weekend in October 2022. You can see more about the workshop and the discussions at thes learning site from the event: https://fabo.org/cisu/decolonisationdevelopment



    • Meet the panel



    • CISU moderator

      Søren Asboe Jørgensen, Advisor CISU

      Contact me via saj@cisu.dk if you have any comments in relation to this course.


  • Preparation before the course

    • 1. READ

      Partos part 3PARTOS 4-pager: 

      Read this 4-pager from PARTOS on Decolonisation of development. 

      This document will be used as reference by the presenters.


    • 2. Give your input: 

      We have prepared a forum for your input. You can either give a reply to one of the topics/words that we have already posted, or you can add you own topic/word for discussion. You find the forum at the end of this page - or click here

      Please note that some of the suggested topics/words are inspired by BONDs 'Language guide" which we have introduced below in 'Course material'. 

       FABO - OBS: You need to have a free log-in for Fabo to post replys or suggest new topics. See more on Fabo here... (in Danish) 

  • Course material

  • Good reasons to become a Fabo user

    • There are several advantages to creating a Fabo login:

      • It is free to sign up and you get access to a multitude of different courses, also on-demand. 
      • It gives you access to participate more directly on the course pages that allow for case descriptions, presentation of you and your organization, discussion forums etc.. 

      It is not a prerequisite to be a Fabo member to be able to visit CISU's course pages, but it allows you to participate with more features when you log in.


  • Give your input

    I the forum below you can comment on different topics and words. You can either:
    a. select a topic on the list, and give you reply to the topic by pressing 'reply' in the bottom right of the post.
    b. Add a new discussion topic. 

    Remember to that you need to register your free log-in at Fabo (see create login bottom in top right) if you want to make contributions.