Intersectionality and Global NGOs
by Asheesh Advani, CEO, JA Worldwide
Intersectionality recognizes that social identities such as race, class, gender, sexuality, age, and disability do not exist in isolation but, instead, are constantly connecting and overlapping. These intersections enable each of us to recognize both how different and how alike our lived experiences are; for example, a young Kenyan woman living in poverty may have a far different lived experience than an older white American man of means, but she may find plenty of commonality with a young Paraguayan or young Ugandan women with comparable economic circumstances. But intersectionality is interested in more than shared experiences and identity; it also examines the social structures that perpetuate inequality, especially around race, gender, and class.
Last week, at the Yale Philanthropy Conference (YPC 2020), I had the privilege of discussing how philanthropic organizations and our missions will reflect the growing intersection of interests and identities in the future, and how we can prepare. Is there, perhaps, a broader definition of intersectionality that builds on the current definition and expands it to include country borders, languages, religious practices and expectations, cultural norms, refugee status, and political systems? At YPC 2020, Greg Ratliff led Angelica Durrell and me in a discussion about how intersectionality impacts the work of nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. Currently at the Rockefeller Foundation, Greg is one of the pioneers of program-related investments, which he first introduced at the MacArthur Foundation as a means of directing the investment dollars (not just the philanthropic dollars) of the foundation to serve its program goals. Angela is the Founder and Executive Director of INTEMPO, an intercultural nonprofit that makes classical music relevant and accessible to young people.
This expansion of intersectionality is of special interest to me. Last year, JA served more than 12 million young people in over 100 countries, preparing them for employment and entrepreneurship by pairing them with mentors who help build their skill sets and, ultimately, change their mindsets to one of empowerment, aspiration, and self-efficacy. One element of our theory of change highlights the importance of role models and learning experiences that connect young people to mentors and volunteers who can help youth to envision their future. For example, several JA programs are designed to bring young people into contact with adult role models who come from similar backgrounds as they do, rather than just stereotypical entrepreneurs (like Richard Branson) or business successes (like Bill Gates). For a 12-year-old girl in Nairobi, learning about Richard Branson’s success as an entrepreneur may do more to discourage her pursuit of an entrepreneurial career than to encourage it. However, I have often seen how connecting youth to role models from similar backgrounds and even similar high schools is a motivating force for self-confidence and self-belief. JA strives to find entrepreneurs and business executives who have similar social identities as the youth we serve. However, we have an additional opportunity to consider intersectionality in identifying these mentors, particularly in an increasingly global world in which nationalism is on the rise. For example, remote mentoring programs using technology can enable a young Kenyan woman to be connected to someone with her lived experience who may now have a job in Johannesburg, London, or San Francisco.
Our panel discussion at YPC 2020 discussed how we can leverage the interests in local donors and national donors — which are sometimes narrowly focused on specific programs or specific populations — to address the pressing social issues that impact everyone and every population, especially climate change and inequality. At JA Worldwide, we manage relationships with global donors and foundations who often also have national and local offices of their own. Every level of the relationship has priorities and goals, sometimes established by the global headquarters and sometimes established at the local level or national level.
Intersectionality recognizes that that the interests of one entity in one place might intersect the interests of another entity in another place, and that it is our obligation to connect these dots in an effort not to waste resources or lose the opportunity to use philanthropic capital to address social issues that both populations have in common (such as climate change and inequality). This is exactly what we do at JA Worldwide, scanning the landscape for local, national, and global partnerships that can bring scale to solutions.
