On race, equity and aid

Development assistance and development as ideology has long been criticized, first, for being guided by the same exploitative and often violent quest for maintaining asymmetrical power relationships inherent in the colonial project, but second, for being deeply imbued with the same structural racism and racist ideologies that underpinned it. This chapter takes a look at ongoing conversations within the international development sector about how to address legacies of racism that continue to condition practices and perceptions. It begins with an exploration of the different ways in which race as ideology was constructed and leveraged to sustain the colonial project and how it has subsequently informed the construction of development as ideology and practice, ever since. The chapter then explores the different ways questions of race and anti-racism are informing debates about ‘decolonizing’ the sector. The chapter concludes with a discussion of possible ways forward.