Shifting power through participatory applied learning and co-decision-making. Maya Hasan interviewed

In this week’s episode, Maya Hasan, founder of the Fearless Project, talks us through her Shifting Power Accelerator program. Maya approaches decolonisation from her personal experience as a ‘third culture’ individual straddling multiple identities and growing up and working across the Global South and Global North. These overlapping identities have facilitated her integration of an intersectional approach into all the work that she carries out. She introduces her training program, which takes on a participatory applied learning approach which adopts feedback into the design of the program. Through the training program, Maya attempts to challenge the hierarchical notion of a set of values or technical expertise being valued more than lived experience of a local community. Throughout the conversation, we discuss alternative funding mechanisms which put individuals from the communities being funded at the centre of decision-making panels for grants. We also delve into interpersonal relationships and how we can go about decolonizing emotions. Maya Hasan is the founder of Fearless Project, an online education start-up for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is also the facilitator of Shifting Power Accelerator, a experiential, cohort-based online course on decolonizing aid, empowering local leaders, and fostering equitable partnerships. In her 20-year career, Maya has worked across a number of roles in NGOs including partnerships, grants and research supporting civil society development in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, CAR, DRC, Myanmar, and South Sudan. Maya is Pakistani and American. She is a proud multicultural, non-binary woman, trauma survivor, and person with invisible disabilities. She speaks 10 languages and lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico. If you’re interested to find out more about Maya’s work, take a look here: - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mahrukhhasan/ - Twitter: twitter.com/mahrukhhasan?lang=en Recommended resources: Power - Fostering Equitable North-South Civil Society Partnerships: Voices from the South (By Rights CoLab, WASCI, and the RINGO Project): rightscolab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/RINGO-R… - Power Awareness Tool (By Partos and The Spindle through the Shift-The-Power Lab): www.partos.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Power-Awa… - Nine Roles that Intermediaries Can Play in International Cooperation (Peace Direct): www.peacedirect.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The… - Workshop on Community-Led Innovation using the Design Sprint Method:    • Workshop on Community-Led Innovation ...   Funding - Deciding Together: Shifting Power and Resources Through Participatory Grantmaking (By Candid fka GrantCraft and Foundation Center): learningforfunders.candid.org/wp-content/uploads/s… - From Promises to 10 Radical Actions (By Radical Flexibility Fund): radicalflexibility.org/10-radical-actions - Mapping a Sector's Global Reimagination: Pathways for Change in Philanthropy (By Vanessa Stevens for Alliance Magazine): www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/mapping-a-sectors-gl… Organisations - FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund: youngfeministfund.org/ - UHAI EASHRI: www.astraeafoundation.org/stories/uhai-east-africa…