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DECOLONIZING PROJECT DESIGN

A practical guide to redefining power and participation.

EBOOK INCLUDES:
  • 16 chapters

  • 28 worksheets/templates

  • Bibliography
  • Reflection prompts
  • Practice guidance
  • Approx reading time: 2 hours 
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DO YOU NEED THIS GUIDE?

Check the boxes that apply to your current or recent projects:

☐ Project goals were shaped mainly by donor priorities.
☐ Community members were consulted only after design decisions were made.
☐ Local partners acted as subcontractors rather than decision-makers.
☐ Data was collected in communities but not shared back in accessible ways.
☐ Budgets left little room for local leadership or overheads.

If you ticked one or more, this guide is for you.
EBOOK overview
In the fast-changing world of international development, the call to “decolonize” isn’t just a trend, it’s a responsibility.

Decolonizing Project Design is a practical, thought-provoking guide for practitioners and project managers who want to move beyond compliance-driven templates and toward approaches that are rooted in equity, collaboration, and shared learning.

This ebook combines critical reflection with hands-on application. You’ll find frameworks, templates, and worksheets to help you design programs that prioritize local leadership, strengthen relationships, and balance accountability with flexibility.

You’ll learn how to navigate common tensions—between donor demands and community ownership, between efficiency and inclusion, between “best practices” and local wisdom. Each chapter invites you to pause, reflect, and rebuild your approach from the ground up.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

This matters now more than ever. As the NGO sector faces increasing scrutiny for perpetuating unequal power dynamics, project managers are uniquely positioned to lead the shift—to co-create rather than impose, to listen rather than prescribe, and to make design processes as transformative as their intended outcomes. By integrating decolonial principles into your daily work, you become part of a wider movement reimagining how change is created—and who gets to define it. If you’ve ever wondered whether your project truly reflects the voices of those it aims to serve, this ebook will help you move from good intentions to informed, equitable action.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

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