Repairing International Development Conference

"#CivilSociety is not a stakeholder to be consulted at the end of a process. We are architects of what comes next." Amb. @WilCarew (Head of the @AU_ECOSOCC Secretariat) 📍Accra, #Ghana 🇬🇭 | 30 June 2026 | @RepairIntlDev on Amplifying Indigenous Development Initiatives from the Global Majority

Why are plans for communities often made without communities?! 📍Accra, #Ghana 🇬🇭 | 30 June 2026 Yesterday in Accra, @AU_ECOSOCC Head of Secretariat Ambassador @WilCarew delivered the keynote at the @RepairIntlDev on Amplifying Indigenous Development Initiatives from the Global Majority. He highlighted that communities continue to build working solutions in #farming, care systems, local #trade, and community response to crises. These approaches remain widely used, but rarely move into official #development decision-making. He also addressed the barriers that limit participation, from funding structures to conditions that determine who gets to sit in global development spaces. Read selected quotes from his address! #RIDConference #RepairingDevelopment #GlobalMajority #CivilSociety #Diaspora #Agenda2063 #TheVoiceOfTheAfricanCitizenry

Development has never lacked ideas. It has lacked the willingness to trust the people who already have them. Speaking today at the @RepairIntlDev on Amplifying Indigenous Development Initiatives from the Global Majority in Accra, #Ghana 🇬🇭, @AU_ECOSOCC Head of Secretariat Ambassador @WilCarew challenged long-standing assumptions about international development. For too long, #development has been designed using standards and priorities set elsewhere, while communities with lived experience have been expected to fit into systems they did not create. Ambassador Carew argued that #Africa and the Global Majority do not have a shortage of knowledge, expertise, or solutions. What has too often been missing is the platform and institutional commitment to put those solutions at the center of decision-making. As the @_AfricanUnion's citizen and civil society organ, ECOSOCC believes governance is stronger when organized citizens are part of the conversation from the beginning, not consulted after decisions have already been made. Ambassador Carew also warned that efforts to decolonize development cannot succeed if indigenous voices continue to face barriers to participation through visa restrictions, economic exclusion, or unequal control over global agendas. He concluded by inviting eligible #CivilSociety Organizations in the #Diaspora to apply for one of the 20 Diaspora seats in the 5th ECOSOCC Permanent General Assembly, giving them an opportunity to contribute directly to policy discussions within the African Union: connect.ecosocc.au.int. #RIDConference #RepairingDevelopment #GlobalMajority #CivilSociety #Agenda2063 #TheVoiceOfTheAfricanCitizenry