Decolonising humanitarian partnerships: shifting mindsets and sharing power

Yet the conversations I’ve had with practitioners highlight how complex this work becomes once it meets real constraints, organisational structures, and established cultures. Good intentions are there, but the conditions needed for lasting change are not always in place.

Over the past four months, I’ve been speaking with a wide range of professionals working across the sector. These conversations have shown just how demanding this kind of change is once it moves from theory into day-to-day practice.

In this blog, I outline what practitioners told me about the challenges they face and offer two practical ways organisations might begin reshaping their mindset and building more balanced partnerships.

A consistent message from these interviews is that current approaches to decolonisation often fall short. Shifting more power to local actors is important, but without structural change, these individual steps are unlikely to create genuinely equitable partnerships.

This is why any meaningful change has to start with mindset. The values, assumptions, and worldviews that shape humanitarian practice – many of which stem from colonial legacies – need to be examined openly and critically.

Although the system is full of committed people, it remains heavily influenced by a white-saviour logic. Challenging this is not a simple task. It requires deliberate self-reflection and a commitment to placing humility and respect at the centre of an organisation’s identity and activities.

This means entering conversations with the intention to listen rather than lead, asking questions when something is unclear, and recognising the legitimacy of different cultural beliefs and knowledge systems.

Decolonisation is not a checklist. It is a long-term process that relies on consistent effort, prioritisation, and a willingness to learn, listen and adjust.

Once this mindset shift is underway, organisations also need to take concrete steps that bring their practices in line with their values. This includes reassessing how partnerships are formed, ensuring local actors have a meaningful role in decision-making, and actively working to rebalance influence.

Capacity-building and training for civil society actors is one way to strengthen more equal partnerships. It increases local agency and supports greater independence. For example, training a small group of local actors who can then train others helps ensure that skills and knowledge remain within local networks rather than being concentrated among international staff and actors.

Creating spaces for dialogue between international and local actors is another practical step. Workshops, meetings, and other forums can support mutual understanding – but only when both sides are genuinely prepared to listen. Humility matters here as much as it does in everyday interactions.

Finally, organisations need to guard against letting decolonisation become a buzzword. It should remain a sustained institutional commitment embedded at every level, not a diluted version of its original purpose.