Reflections on practice

Abstract

International NGOs occupy a key role in the international development sector; with roots in the Global North where they contribute to public opinion as to what development is, and the Global South, where they deliver a range of development interventions including service delivery, rights-based advocacy and campaigning. In this article, Kate Newman and Kate Carroll reflect on their personal journeys with issues of participation, power analysis and development debates and use their learning to critically explore how Christian Aid (Newman) and ActionAid (Carroll) have responded to arts-based participatory practice. Drawing on two concrete experiences, the authors identify the complexity and nuance needed when considering participatory arts, arguing that while there are clear benefits for those directly involved in a participatory arts process, the link between a local process and wider systemic change, of the sort both organisations seek, is not straightforward. The chapter concludes by arguing that there is a need for realism: to recognise that no single approach is a silver bullet but that the imagined realities and disruptive power of the arts can contribute to the work of INGOs if they are able to let go of the controls and open themselves up to radical visions of development.