People-centered Policy and Practice
This conference was co-sponsored by the Equitable Food Oriented Development Collaborative, Communities in Partnership, the Sanford School of Public Policy, and the World Food Policy Center. It was held on April 21, 2022 at Duke University. Facilitated panel discussions explored how to move from charitable interventions to a justice-based approach to food systems reform and community development. The central theme of each discussion is shifting power and working in support of (not on behalf of) community-rooted organizations working on the health and economic viability of historically marginalized communities.
What is Equitable Food Oriented Development?
Helpful Background
@EFOD Collaborative, 2022
This panel discussion looks at how research institutions interact with communities before, during and after conducting research. The goal of the discussion was to: 1) identify who benefits from the current system (how academics most often interact with communities in extractive ways), and how we might think differently about these models and who is doing this well. 2) discuss how think tanks could become more rooted in the communities they are serving; 3) describe whose thoughts/values/needs are being centered in think tanks; and 4) set the stage to uplift the community expertise and undo some of the damage when academic institutions co-opt work. Panelists give examples of how typical research practices are dehumanizing and extractive for communities, and make recommendations on how to change this dynamic.
Moderator:
- Dr. Jay Pearson, Duke University
Panelists:
- Aliyah Abdur-Rahman, Communities in Partnership
- Lorena Andrade, La Mujer Obrera
- Dr. Danielle Spurlock, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
In his keynote address, Dr. Henry McKoy discusses the need to give communities autonomous power to address their own needs. He documents the racial wealth gap in the U.S., introduces the concept of "poverteering" as it relates to entrepreneurial ownership and wealth, and trends for Black-owned businesses. He makes the case for entrepreneurial and economic equity in development as the necessary precursor to educational, health, and workforce equity.
Speaker:
Dr. Henry Clay McKoy, Jr.,Department of Energy, Director of the Office of State and Community Energy Programs
Panelists share examples of how some CDFIs do not serve the communities they are intended to serve, and what to do about it. The goal of the discussion was to explain how to change the CDFI operational narrative from one of risk to relationship, and to shift power and decision-making from a deficit model towards a reparative one. Dialogue focused on why and how funding often doesn’t get allocated towards collective wealth-building strategies for communities. Panelists make recommendations for how CDFIs can achieve greater equity in their work by shifting to relationship-based decision making. Speakers discuss strategies of several innovative CDFIs who are having deep impact.
Moderator:
- Trisha Chakrabarti, EFOD Collaborative, Daisa Enterprises
Panelists:
- Nicole Anand, Inclusive Action for the City
- Mariela Cedeño, EFOD Collaborative, Manzanita Capital Collective
- Lenwood V. Long, Sr., African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs
- Camryn Smith, Communities in Partnership
In this discussion, speakers describe how current philanthropic community engagement strategies fail to achieve the desired impact, and why. Panelists provide specific examples, both positive and negative, and make specific recommendations for how to shift philanthropy towards concepts such as democratically-controlled funds, reparative funding, and incorporating more relational loans and grants into funding programs.
Moderator:
- Jennifer Zuckerman, Duke World Food Policy Center
Panelists:
- Stacey Barbas, Kresge Foundation
- Jesalyn Keziah, University of North Carolina American Indian Center
- Virginia Clarke, Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders
- Olivia Watkins, Black Farmer Fund
Video, transcript, key takeaways
Co-hosts
