Transcriber: Ailyn Benitez Reviewer: Pranjal Singh Hello. Hello, hello. I'm so honored to be back where I graduated from.
So when I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about today, I realized I could not talk about it without reflecting on my own personal journey from my childhood to now. So when I was five years old, this was when I first experienced racism? Yes.
At the age of five, I was born in Finland because my parents moved there after fleeing the Somali civil war in the nineties. My dad used to take us to school and outside of our block of flats, used to sit a homeless man and he used to call us racial slurs. One of the ones I remember was monkeys.
I asked my dad one day. I said to him,Why’s he calling us monkeys? Because I didn’t understand.
And this was when my dad explained to us it was because we were black. In my adult age. Now that I think about that, I realize that it's such a sad thing that my dad had to remind me and also tell me about the fact that I will be treated differently just because of the way that I look.
When I was 15. This is when I joined a youth led charity that fights against gender inequality At this time, this is what I discovered, that I had family members who had undergone female genital mutilation, an act that is a violation of millions of women and girls rights across the world. Since then, I've been delivering peer to peer education and also trying to raise awareness of what FGM is across the country and hopefully influencing policy so that more girls don't go through this.
One thing I realized about that time is that it's so important to educate young people, but also the importance of young people as educators. When I was 18, this is what I consulted a former prime minister on their counter-extremism strategy because it was further stigmatizing communities across the nation. With this, I realized how important it was, how important young people's expertise was, especially since the Prime Minister's asking, What do I think?
When I was 24, this is what I spoke. At a Black Lives Matter protest here in Bristol in light of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the police. These experiences that I had reminded me of how important young people are in the cause to make the world a better place, but also how they don't have that many resources to make that change.
This sets the scene for my talk today, which will be about why we need to shift power away from traditional funders to young people. We need to radically overhaul what the funding system looks like. Now the funding system is the funding organizations that fund charities and organizations.
Now, I want you all to envision a society where young people are valued for their current worth and not their future value. Imagine communities where young people routinely make decisions of consequence to schools, to environment, to their neighborhoods, to address issues such as race and violence. Decisions in aid of the greater good.
This is a reality, but one that exists in pockets of opportunities for small number of youth. I don't think that's enough. Nor do I think it's the norm.
But what I do think is that it could be. Young people are constantly tackling global issues across the world. We see this with climate change.
We see this with sexual violence. We see this when they spearheaded protests in their communities. Even here in June 2020, it was young people that put together the Black Lives Matter protests that saw 10,000 people attended and a statue toppled.
And we all know that became a hot topic. Young people are also coming up with youth led organizations, create change in their communities and also and also put pressure on their governments to create change and address these global issues. Youth civil societies change in the world.
But only last year, 71% of youth led organizations said that they experienced a decrease in funding. And this is why I say we need to have young people at the forefront of design and funding looks like and also deciding who gets funding. And further to this, I think that we need to look at young people as experts, because not only are they the experts of their reality, they are the experts of their future.
Now the funding sector is kind of moving in the right direction when it comes to interacting with gospel organizations and also young people. But it's still not progressive enough. Traditionally, who gets funding, what causes get funded, and what charities is decided by grantmaking organizations?
The process of grantmaking has shown that there's still a gap in knowing what communities need, where resources should be focused, and who should get funded. Research also shows that the funding sector does not actually represent the communities that it seeks to serve. Now there is a large proportion of representation in the funding sector being women, especially in leadership positions.
But this, again, does not extend to ethnic diversity. The charity campaign hashtag charity. So why in 2019 further highlighted the lack of diversity in the sector?
And put those in power under pressure, and rightly so. These issues contribute to the disconnect between the funding sector, young people and the organisation. And it means that a large number of voices are still messed up from the decision making process.
Grassroots organizations have also said that the process of seeking funding is burdensome. Because of how many hurdles the funding sector put them through. They asked them a large number of questions.
Under the assumption that gross organisations cannot be trusted and that they should provide loads of evidence of their work, bureaucratic process are exhausting. GROSS organisations are underfunded and staff are overworked. The demanding nature of the funding sector adds another layer.
And who does this affect the most? Youth led organizations and young people. Because larger charities, they can hire leadership teams and fundraising staff, which means that they have a bit more capacity to engage with these long and tedious processes.
But young people don't. And again, that means the system doesn't work for them and they miss out. And there is a bit of a move towards trust based philanthropy, which means that the funding sector trusts, community organisations and grassroot groups to actually do the work that they set out to do and eases the burdens that they face.
But again, they're missing out young people from that conversation and they're not shifting power to them to decide what funding looks like and the design of it, which means, again, it's marginalizing young people away from the sector. Young people are also missing from leadership positions. And it's a bit of an issue because young people are leaders in their communities and their causes.
And when I say this, I don't mean on a consultant level and I don't mean young people being tokenistic puppets for organisations to say, oh yes, we're working with them. I mean, young people actually deciding who gets funding, what kind of funding and what issues and priorities should be given focus. That's the radical thing to do.
Young people have been sidelined for way too long and it has to change. Otherwise, the future is not going to look that bright for them. So why are young people the solution?
That question isn't just for the UK funding sector. It's for the whole international development community too, and it's something that they grapple with. I believe that young people have specialist knowledge and they have strong community ties, which means that their insights and their recommendations are highly valuable.
A study by Arrested Development showed that young people in Uganda were well versed on what climate change was and what their communities needed to solve it. This shows that this issue isn't just a UK context or a European context. This is a global issue of young people not being included in the funding process.
Young people can also help with analyzing the impact that funding organizations are having. Are they helping communities actually build capacity and thrive? Or are they just helping them survive?
I believe that they're helping them survive. And this is an issue because so many grassroot organizations are already on the brink of closing down. Because they don't have funding, because they don't have resources.
And we saw this during the pandemic because a lot of organizations are not exist anymore. In this space. I've also found that young people benefit more from being part of the beginning of the process rather than at the end of it or as consultants.
Young people that I work with across Europe have said that by being part of the design, decision making and allocation of funds, they've been able to learn how to help their own communities, their own organisations secure funding, and also how to write good proposals and make the whole process much more accessible for them. Young people also recognize. That funding organizations are actually hesitant to shift power to them to make these decisions.
Not because they don't think that young people are not experts, but because they think it takes too much time to radically change the way that they work. Now, grassroots organizations don't have the time or the capacity to apply for large funds, which means that they miss out. The what they're doing is relevant is holding their communities together, and it's important for the future.
Yet. They just don’t have the resources, the time or the capacity to actually apply for these large funds that are very much complex. And with young people making their own youth led organizations, they face this obstacle to.
And this is why I say we need to include them in the decision making process and the funding sector, not only to improve it. But to also actually know what parameters that they're working in whilst they try and dismantle it. Young people have also called for a simplistic approach to how applications are made.
Applications should be accessible. It should be designed with trust rather than a Kashmir attitude, which a lot of them are. A lot of funding organizations, intentionally or unintentionally, are gatekeepers.
And this stops a large number of organizations and grassroot groups are applying or even getting funded again, even though their work is important. Young people also need to have investment. Resources and training to be able to input and make decisions on what the funding future looks like.
Funding can be tedious. It can be boring, but it doesn't have to be. It can be fun.
It can be creative. It can be transformative in ways it has not been before. But I believe in order for that to happen, we need to invest in young people.
And the funding sector needs to shift power to young people. But what does that look like? Firstly, shifting away from predefined impacts to young people reviewing, analysing, monitoring, and evaluating change.
Secondly, putting pressure on the funding sector, especially those funding organisations that you donate to as well. A lot of them are saying that they're helping communities, especially young people. But are they actually?
How are they engaging young people? A lot of them will say the shift of power to young people. But again, all they actually are.
What does that look like? Third, we need to start viewing young people as experts. For too long, the funders organizations have been using them as consultants or just getting advice from them here and there.
So they know that their insights and their lived experiences are valuable, but they're still not bringing them in from the beginning of the process to the end and allowing them to input into the resources that they will be accessing. And lastly, I want you all to think about your own paths, your own journeys and your own experiences. And how can this contribute to a better future?
Because for every young person that cares, they deserve to have their voices heard and they deserve to input into the future. The funding sector needs a radical overhaul and quickly. But in some requirements, such as asking for large amounts of evidence, organizational activity and other requirements need to go.
And I will leave you with this. If you are young enough to understand the experiences that you go through and be on the front lines to advocate for change, then you are knowledgeable enough to have a seat at the table and lead the funded space. Thank you.
