The Racial Equity Index is building a new set of tools to dismantle global development’s house.

There is a reckoning afoot in the global development sector. Social media has been flooded with testimonies from employees and consultants in the sector who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) bearing witness to the racist treatment they and their colleagues have received. Their words have exposed a sector rife with harmful practices, perpetuated by leaders lacking integrity, and upheld by wilfully obtuse institutional and systemic structures. Whilst these testimonies have received greater visibility because of this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, as BIPOC practitioners in the global development sector, we know from our lived experience that this is not a recent phenomenon. Racial inequity is embedded in the sector at all levels with deep roots in colonial and racist practice. And BIPOC staff continue to experience the physical, mental and emotional harm and trauma every day.

At the Racial Equity Index, we have come together to reimagine a different, more just and equitable global development sector, where systemic racism has been consigned to the trash. We are doing this through the development of the very first community-created Global Index that defines and measures racial equity in the sector.

One of our first steps on this journey is to launch a Global Mapping Survey, through which we are asking for your input as we identify and develop the key measures that will be used to build the collective definition/picture of what a socially just and racially equitable global development sector might look like. This work of collective building of the index means that we are particularly seeking responses from those most impacted and affected by systemic racism within the sector.

Our work won’t be complete without your support – so please take action, share this call with your friends and colleagues and help us build a new set of tools to dismantle racial inequity in the global development sector for good.

The Racial Equity Index is a voluntary collective of passionate and dedicated BIPOC global development practitioners advocating for racial equity to be integrated into global development practice and to increase accountability for racial justice and equity within global development, through the creation of an Index measuring racial equity in the sector. Our Global Mapping Survey is launched on 1 December 2020 and will remain open till 8 January 2021. Follow our work and words at Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium or www.theracialequityindex.org