Nonprofit and Foundations
Clara Desalvo, Master in Public Policy (she/her/hers)
Global Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager
FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund, New York, United States
Shama Dossa, Doctor of Philosophy
Feminist Manager Evaluation and Learning
Fenomenal Funds, United States
Boikanyo Modungwa, Master of Philosophy
Senior Insights and Learning Manager - Resourcing Resistance
Purposeful, United States
Location: Room 309/310
Abstract Information: Stories go beyond the documentation of findings. International development has used case studies as anecdotal evidence based on the assumption that activists, collectives, and movement grantee partners must provide "evidence" to support their work. This has worked to erase the voices of girls, women, indigenous people, LGBTQI+ (and other marginalized groups) from the history of social change. Despite the existence of a variety of alternative approaches and frameworks, a thorough understanding of what values the most remains on the periphery. Embracing the power of stories from a feminist and decolonizing perspective implies, first and foremost, understanding the intrinsic power embodied in the possibility of storytelling. What is worth telling? What is worth learning about? What data is valid to support a story? FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, Purposeful, and Fenomenal Funds are three different funders and organizations committed to sharing collective learning. They attempt to disrupt the oppressive structures, tools, and languages of learning and evaluation practitioners' and funders' practices. These are acts of resistance to a philanthropic ecosystem that doesn’t enable feminist movements to reclaim their knowledge. Through various approaches to sensemaking and analysis, from working with youth co-evaluators, using participatory action research methodologies, and qualitative data analysis in coding platforms we have used stories to inform our work and others in the funding ecosystem. Stories have intrinsic value for those who narrate them - and have the power to shift the discourse and practices of neocolonialism, enabling cultural conversations, and ultimately transforming our international development practices.
Relevance Statement: At FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, Purposeful, and Fenomenal Funds, we believe that patriarchal, imperialist, and colonial forces have long attempted to delegitimize indigenous epistemologies and elevate western modes of thinking, knowing, telling, and therefore being. In particular, within Development discourse, the principles and practice of mainstream Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning continue to legitimize these forms of story construction, production, and dissemination. Learning and Evaluation approaches can either reinforce or challenge harmful power dynamics. We as funders can make girls, children, young feminists, the LGBTQI+ community, indigenous people, and other marginalized populations that we serve feel that their voices are unimportant. This is because if they’re not literate or capable of eloquently communicating about their work, then they are not worthy of funding or renewal. If they don’t understand technical aspects of MEL like learning questions, and outcomes vs outputs, then they don’t have an understanding of change in their own contexts. For us as feminist Learning and Evaluation practitioners, stories are co-created meaning honest and real collaborative efforts for meaningful impact - not something to be consumed by funders to feel satisfied or a checkbox to demonstrate efficiency and sustainability. We want to share our concrete experiences and practical reflections among other organizations and as colleagues. We are constantly reshaping the ways of telling stories to uplift the communities we serve. These experiences reflect a feminist approach to MEL in practice and therefore transcend beyond the well-established theoretical understanding of feminist MEL, to the realities, and learnings of using this approach. Transnational feminist Learning and Evaluation practitioners need to creatively disrupt, politically question, and open-heartedly envision a brighter future around what is worth knowing and telling, what is worth learning and how is that learned and told.