What do an Indigenous community living along the Atlantic coast in Panama and one in the high, lush mountains in Nepal have in common? They have distinct cultures, they are surrounded by a radically different landscape, they don’t speak the same language. Yet, they share more than what you could think.
Last year, a couple of representatives from a community in Nepal and one in Panama had the opportunity to meet online. For over two hours, with the help of a translator, they shared their stories of resistance, the challenges they are facing, the strategies to resist against a development model that violates their rights, and their visions for a better future for themselves and their children. They realized they had quite a lot in common, and that learning from each other was incredibly useful to advance their own struggles.
Both communities are affected by electricity transmission lines that have been imposed in their lands without respecting their right to free, prior, and informed consent, and that have a destructive impact on their territories and their ways of life. Both projects are funded by international financial institutions: the European Investment Bank funded the project in Nepal, the World Bank the one in Panama. Both institutions, on paper, have committed to respect human rights and to only finance projects that advance sustainable development. On the ground, however, the reality looks dramatically different.
“They consider hydro and transmission lines as clean energy, but development banks only care about their own interests. Here, what we see are brutal attacks and human rights violations. And yet, they speak about sustainable development: this narrative is incredibly dangerous”, says an Indigenous Nepalese lawyer attending the learning exchange. His words are echoed by a community member from Panama, who shares about their efforts counteracting this narrative. He explains how they are documenting the violations linked to the transmission line and how they are engaging with the United Nations system to advocate for their rights.
This meeting between activists in Panama and in Nepal was one of the many learning exchanges organized by the Community Resource Exchange (CRE) in the past two years. The CRE is a pilot project created to facilitate collaborations and co-develop strategies with and among communities, defending their rights in the context of international investments and development activities. It is hosted by the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, a Global South-led network of over 100 social movements, civil society organizations, and grassroots groups working to ensure that development is for the people, and led by the people.
“Communities are the experts on their own development pathways”, says Carmina Obanil, International Coordinator of the CRE. “They are the only ones who know first-hand the consequences of so-called development projects, their own needs, and the best way to achieve the change they want. Each community employs context-specific strategies, but for all of them learning together is key. This is why at the Coalition we’ve been increasingly focusing on opening spaces where communities can exchange information, skills, tools, and resources.”
Collective learning processes can take different forms, from more targeted meetings (such as the learning exchange between the Panamanian and Nepalese communities) or larger ones. Last year, for example, the Coalition hosted a “learning circle” on how human rights defenders – facing threats and attacks for rising concerns or speaking out against harmful projects – can engage development banks and demand accountability.
“The collaborations and various conversations have opened up the world for our organization,” says Gerald Kankya, Executive Director of the Twerwaneho Listeners Club (TLC) in Uganda. “We have been fortunate to learn, feel and understand our struggles collectively. The collaborations have bonded us as a community of activists and continue to spiritually connect us, even without meeting in-person.”
Learning circles draw on a methodology practiced by several Indigenous communities. They are based on the idea that there is no right or wrong answer, and that – by bringing together people with shared goals and different perspectives – we can all develop a richer understanding of the situation and brainstorm about innovative solutions. The learning circles are facilitated so that all speakers have equal speaking time, and to ensure inclusivity and respect for different opinions. The key collective learnings are then documented and shared more widely.
“The greatest strengths of the communities affected by harmful development and business projects are within themselves. Once they are organized and get the necessary support, from other communities or from regional and international allies, the communities can bring even the most powerful forces to respect their rights and aspirations”, says Prabin Shakya, Indigenous lawyer and member of the Advisory Committee of the CRE.
In some cases, learning circles can also be set up as a fishbowl, where a smaller group of participants shares their experiences with a wider audience. The learning circle on development banks and reprisals, for example, brought together around 15 people. Six participants (including defenders directly affected by development projects and their allies) shared their experiences, around cases of reprisals taking place in Chile, Egypt, Uganda, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan. First in smaller groups and then all together, the participants discussed how they had pushed development banks to address reprisals, what had been the banks’ response, and which strategies had been more effective.
“As a community of defenders, we have collectively reflected upon our struggles, shared ideas and re-discovered our inherent strengths, and then used these learnings within our communities to shift the power. And shifting the power is key to building a fair and just world,” says Gerald, one of the defenders invited to speak on how he engaged with the World Bank and the African Development Bank to demand actions to stop reprisals.
Another format is the “learning lab”, which is focused on a specific set of practical skills (for example, how to use a communication tool or how to conduct financial research to find out who is financing a project). In this format, an external facilitator and/or specific participants share their expertise and provide practical examples. The others are also invited to share their expertise, ask questions and actively participate, and then after the session are given the space to test what they learned, adapt the lessons to their context, seek and give feedback.
For example, recently the Coalition convened a group of Indigenous and grassroots activists in Latin America for a 4-part learning lab on communications strategies. Over the course of several months, there were collective discussions on the concept of “narratives” and how activists can counteract negative narrative that portrays them as ‘anti-development’ or criminals; practical capacity-building sessions on how to develop a communications plan or prepara social media content; and an introductory session on how to assess and mitigate risks when planning any type of visibility action, from an online campaign to a march.
These sessions don’t offer only a space for cross-sharing and cross-learning, but also for self-reflection. A participant, who is one of the coordinators of a women-led organization struggling against a mega-dam in Colombia, said: “During this learning circle, I realized how many things we have done. Every day, we conduct so many different activities to advance our struggle, but we never have time to analyze what we do, systematize the learning, and take a look back at what we have achieved. We tend to focus on reacting to emergency situations, but this space has offered the opportunity to learn and to reflect on our communication strategy”.
Learning is crucial for our collective movements for economic and social justice to thrive. As one human rights defender from Indonesia said, after attending a learning circle focused on narrative strategies, “During this session, I learned that it is very important to support and communicate with organizations from other countries who have the same problems: these exchanges allow us to strengthen each other.”
Learning exchanges, circles or labs are spaces where communities can build collective power and solidarity. When communities and defenders share the same space, online or offline, they see how their struggles – while unique – they are also inextricably linked. In some cases, they can even decide to start working together in communities of action, becoming a force to contend with for the financial institutions, governments and transnational corporations that are violating their rights. By learning together, they start resisting together. And by resisting together, their struggle can only become stronger.