Proximate

On the sidelines of the Skoll World Forum, a group of foundation leaders, funder intermediaries, non-profits, social entrepreneurs and enterprises, and community actors connected to candidly discuss the future of global development. Given what is often an exclusive-space at Skoll, all seemed to welcome the chance to connect in small, 10-person circles in an open, manufacturing space.

We are at a moment when development infrastructure that has been built over decades is being dismantled in real time. Funding is funding pulled and withheld, institutions are hollowed out, and communities are absorbing the consequences of decisions that are often made far from their lives. The question of who leads and who decides how development infrastructure is remade and how resources are distributed carries high stakes.

Earlier this year, I wrote a version of this piece for my Brazilian colleagues. Today, I’m writing to you, members of the international philanthropic community who are interested, or already engaged, with Brazil.

At the end of March, the clouds in Nairobi finally parted for an evening of networking. Granting an energising in-person gathering of un-dampened leaders and unseen heroes of development who traveled from the far corners of the region; Nyamasheke, Rwanda; Zanzibar, Tanzania; Lodwar, Kenya; and Gulu, Uganda.

Located in the Kingsbridge Heights section of the Bronx, the 570,000 square-foot Kingsbridge Armory was said to be the largest armory in the world when first completed in 1917. Above its columnless, 180,000 square-foot main drill hall, the vaulted ceiling peaks at around 120 feet. Two 140-foot tall headhouse towers flank the main entrance on Kingsbridge Road, giving the building its castle-like appearance.

The Trump Administration and Puerto Rico's Governor Jenniffer González Colón canceled a $6 million grant to Abeyno Coop,the energy cooperative founded by the La Margarita Residents Association in Salinas. This impedes its ability to assist low and moderate-income residents in the South-West municipality whose health depends on working electricity.

For years, the Globeville Elyria-Swansea Coalition in Denver has had its eyes on a 2.68-acre former used car lot at 4965 Washington Street, on the southwest corner at the intersection with 50th Avenue.

John Coonrad is the co-founder of The Movement for Community Led Development (MCLD). Momentum for the Movement started during the transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals. Building on prior convenings and pilot programs funded by the World Bank and the UN, in 2014 a series of conferences around the world were convened to co-design the Movement for Community Led Development.

Marie-Rose Romain Murphy has described her efforts at shifting power in international aid and development as like “dragging an elephant.” Yet in spite of the extreme efforts required and the forces massed against it, Marie-Rose was able to catalyze local actors to form the Fondation Communautaire Haitienne (the Haiti Community Foundation).

Amina Evangelista Swanepoel is the co-founder and executive director of Roots of Health/Ugat ng Kalusugan, the only reproductive health organization on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. Roots of Health uses a rights-based approach to deliver free reproductive health services to remote communities, education for adolescents, young adults and families, and system strengthening support for local government partners.