Take Or Give

Take or Give is starting a new mini-series called ‘Country Myths’, where we will debunk the most common falsehoods we encounter in foreign aid and international development about specific countries, primarily across the Global South. We begin with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

And we are delighted to welcome our first guest in this new mini series: Arlette Nyembo, a Congolese consultant working in the international development sector and expert in governance related issues with a focus on private sector development, public financial management, education and health, both in the DRC and in other countries across the Global South.

In this episode, Arlette identifies and systematically busts the myths she encounters most often in her work and life, telling a far more nuanced story than the one we hear about in the news, which seems to focus exclusively on conflict and more recently Ebola. She eloquently explains why myths and the way a country like the DRC is perceived can be extremely harmful to its people, before taking us through her own experiences of how these myths play out in the foreign aid and international development sector. 

You will leave this episode with a much more nuanced and compelling story of the DRC to share with everyone you know - and almost certainly a desire to download Congolese Rumba music. 

This podcast is brought to you by Lorriann Robinson, founder and director of ⁠⁠The Advocacy Team⁠⁠, and Alex Martins, founder of ⁠⁠VersaVoice Creations⁠⁠. 

Get in touch via Instagram ⁠@TakeorGivePod⁠ or by email at [email protected].

Recommended resources 

Congolese musicians to follow:

• Franco Luambo

• Rochereau Tabu Ley

• Mbilia Belle

• Papa Wemba

• Koffi Olomidé

• Fally Ipupa 

All very good for Congolese Rumba and more recent rhythms. 

Books and a report that Arlette recommends:

• Congo: The Epic History of a People by David Van Reybrouck (comprehensive and well-written).

• King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (particularly good for looking back into the colonial period).

• Congo Masquerade by Theodore Trefon (a more academic but good and very well written book to understand the intricacies of the governance issues, including the manipulations of donors, amongst other issues).

• Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Country Climate and Development Report 2023, by the World Bank 

We know, from our listeners and our own experience, that pretty much everyone loves a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) episode in a podcast series. 

Which is why in this final episode of Series 2, your co-hosts bravely tackle some of the questions we receive most often about the aid and development sector, including: 

1. Are development and humanitarian aid the same thing? 

2. Why should the UK and other countries give aid when there is suffering at home? 

3. So are you against all aid spending? 

4. What are some of the good things that ‘aid’ could achieve, if it were transformed? 

5. What worries you the most right now? 

6. What gives you the most hope? 

This podcast is brought to you by Lorriann Robinson, founder and director of ⁠⁠The Advocacy Team⁠⁠, and Alex Martins, founder of ⁠⁠VersaVoice Creations⁠⁠. 

We’d love to do more FAQ episodes in the future, so please get in touch via Instagram ⁠@TakeorGivePod⁠ or by email at [email protected] with any questions you would like us to answer on the show, big or small. 

Sources: 

• Our World in Data: What is Foreign aid? 

• What foreign assistance myths and facts reveal about how aid really works, Concern Worldwide

• UNICEF, Under-five mortality rates have fallen by 60% since 1990

Palestine offers a window into how modern philanthropy operates. This episode takes a deep dive into how funder control and decision-making directly impacts the struggle for Palestinian liberation.  Laura Vergara and  Soheir Asaad, from Funders4Palestine, expose how philanthropy acts as a shield for corporate wealth, and how the "Raise the Bar" framework offers a path to dismantle it.

We cover:

• How philanthropy has been deployed in Palestine: moving from a global picture of how philanthropy operates to examine the specific tactics used to undermine Palestinian movement-building and liberation struggles.

• The "Raise the Bar" Roadmap: How we can bypass the established models of philanthropy and return wealth and decision making to communities. 

Resources shared by our guests: 

• See all of the resources shared as part of Episode 4. 

• Gilded Giving 2026: Philanthropy Under Oligarchy

• Investing in Life: Philanthropy’s Role in Divesting from Systems of Violence

• Funders4Palestine news and resources

• The White Front, Rawa 

• We Were Never Meant for Each Other, Rawa

• Philanthropy, Raise the Bar! Fund with Liberatory Practices as Your Compass

Glossary

Intermediary Funds:  Financial entities, pass-through vehicles, or grant-making organisations that sit between the primary source of capital (donors, foundations, or governments) and the ultimate recipients or projects. They collect, manage, and redistribute capital, often adding oversight, due diligence, portfolio management, or re-granting capabilities.

Oslo Accords: A pair of landmark agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1993 (Oslo I) and 1995 (Oslo II). Brokered in Norway and signed in Washington, D.C., they established the Palestinian Authority (PA) to provide limited self-governance over parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, creating a temporary framework intended to lead to a permanent peace treaty.

Endowments: Dedicated funds established by non-profits, universities, religious institutions, or charities, where the core capital (principal) is invested and kept intact permanently or over a long period. The organisation spends the generated investment returns rather than the initial principal to fund ongoing operations, research, or long-term programs.

BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions): A Palestinian-led global movement founded in 2005 that calls for economic, cultural, and political pressure on Israel. Its stated goals are to press Israel to comply with international law regarding Palestinian rights, end the occupation of Palestinian territories, ensure full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and respect the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

This podcast is brought to you by Lorriann Robinson, founder and director of ⁠⁠The Advocacy Team⁠⁠, and Alex Martins, founder of ⁠⁠VersaVoice Creations⁠⁠. 

Get in touch via Instagram ⁠@TakeorGivePod⁠ or by email at [email protected] with any questions or feedback.

Who really benefits from modern philanthropy? Join us for a deep dive into the history, politics,  structures and illusions of global philanthropy with guest speakers from Funders4Palestine as we explore the myth: philanthropists always want to solve the world’s biggest problems. 

We cover:

• Roots of the Sector: How modern grant-making evolved from 17th-century England into "Colonialism 2.0."

• Philanthropy in Palestine: How philanthropy combined with foreign aid can suppress liberation movements and promote dependency.

• The 95/5 Split: Why 95% of foundation wealth remains locked in endowments—sometimes invested in arms manufacturing —while only 5% is distributed to causes. 

• Moving Toward Mutual Aid: Considering the practical steps to dismantle conditional grant-making and move towards dignity and true solidarity.

Resources shared by our guests: 

• Funders4Palestine

• Towards a New Philanthropy

• Raise the Bar Philanthropy Tool

• Philanthropy and Repression, Not the Exception, The system

• Aid is Political, The New Humanitarian 

• Funding Palestinian Freedom

• Divest Genocide

• Rawa Gaza Initiatives 

• The Revolution will not be Funded

Glossary

Intermediary Funds:  Financial entities, pass-through vehicles, or grant-making organisations that sit between the primary source of capital (donors, foundations, or governments) and the ultimate recipients or projects. They collect, manage, and redistribute capital, often adding oversight, due diligence, portfolio management, or re-granting capabilities.

Oslo Accords: A pair of landmark agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1993 (Oslo I) and 1995 (Oslo II). Brokered in Norway and signed in Washington, D.C., they established the Palestinian Authority (PA) to provide limited self-governance over parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, creating a temporary framework intended to lead to a permanent peace treaty.Endowments: Dedicated funds established by non-profits, universities, religious institutions, or charities, where the core capital (principal) is invested and kept intact permanently or over a long period. The organisation spends the generated investment returns rather than the initial principal to fund ongoing operations, research, or long-term programs.

BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions): A Palestinian-led global movement founded in 2005 that calls for economic, cultural, and political pressure on Israel. Its stated goals are to press Israel to comply with international law regarding Palestinian rights, end the occupation of Palestinian territories, ensure full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and respect the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

This podcast is brought to you by Lorriann Robinson, founder and director of ⁠⁠The Advocacy Team⁠⁠, and Alex Martins, founder of ⁠⁠VersaVoice Creations⁠⁠. 

Get in touch via Instagram ⁠@TakeorGivePod⁠ or by email at [email protected].

We tackle our first myth of Series 2, and this is a big one:‘Poverty porn is a necessary evil.’ We are joined by Ayesha Farah, the Shifting the Power Senior Communications and Advocacy Manager at Comic Relief, who takes us through some new research that proves once and for all that storytelling about the Global South (or Global Majority) should no longer focus on pity and misery at the expense of dignity and shifting power.

This podcast is brought to you by Lorriann Robinson, founderand director of ⁠⁠The Advocacy Team⁠⁠, and Alex Martins, founder of ⁠⁠VersaVoice Creations⁠⁠. 

Get in touch via Instagram ⁠@TakeorGivePod⁠ or by email at [email protected].

Sources:

• What do the British public really think about shifting the power?
• Africa could be losing up to $4.2 billion annually in interest payments on its loans primarily due to stereotypical narratives that dominate global media coverage of the continent.
• Trevor Noah – the UNICEF fly

In this episode, we give you a countdown of our three least favourite buzzwords (the ones that make us, and many others, cringe) - and three terms we like a whole lot more. Listen to discover the full list - and give us your opinions in the comments below!

This podcast is brought to you by Lorriann Robinson, founder and director of ⁠The Advocacy Team⁠, and Alex Martins, founder of ⁠VersaVoice Creations⁠. 

Get in touch via Instagram @TakeorGivePod or by email at [email protected] .

Sources:

• Michael Manley talking about the Third World

Join us for the first episode of Series 2 of Take or Give, where once again we give you a quickfire download of some of the main stories dominating the headlines on aid and development - and a few that are flying under the radar.

This podcast is brought to you by Lorriann Robinson, founder and director of The Advocacy Team, and Alex Martins, founder of VersaVoice Creations. 

Get in touch via Instagram @TakeorGivePod or by email at [email protected] .

Sources mentioned: 

• What the latest OECD numbers tell us about the future of aid
• Critical raw minerals
• U.S. Geological survey releases list of 2022 list of critical minerals
• US and Ukraine sign long-awaited natural resources deal
• Zambia blasts the US over a $2 billion health deal in exchange for critical minerals
• Campaigners oppose Reform call to end Welsh Government international relations spending
• Call to Action on Locally Led Development

This is our final episode of Series 1. We’ve taken listeners on a journey by looking back and talking about what reparations for slavery - rather than foreign aid - could look like. We’ve also looked at the present, and how money and power are still concentrated in the hands of the few. And we’ve looked ahead, to what the development could look like if it were truly transformed. This episode summarises everything we’ve learned and gives our take on the most pressing issues that the aid and development sector is likely to face in the coming months and years. 

Sources mentioned: 

• Marco Rubio address
  
• 
  Kenyan court suspends US health aid deal over data privacy concerns - BBC News

In this episode, we debunk our third and final myth of series 1: that the development sector is ‘woke’ (meaning that it has a core focus on tackling racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and other forms of discrimination). We give you an overview of an inquiry into racism in the aid sector conducted by a committee in the UK Parliament, and invite Sarah Champion MP, the chair of this committee, to share her perspectives and what the committee found.  

Sources mentioned: 

• The Equity Index 

• Racism in the aid sector - International Development Committee 

We’re now onto our second myth about aid and development, which is perhaps the most common one that we hear: foreign aid money goes directly to the people that need it the most. If you thought this was the case, you are definitely not alone. But the reality is quite different, with only very small amounts of funding going directly to organisations in the Global South - despite commitments from donor countries to the contrary. To help us unpack this myth, we welcome our second guest, Eshban Kwesiga of the Global Fund for Community Foundations, to give his perspectives on why aid money is in fact given mostly to organisations from countries in the West/ Global North, and what could be done differently.  

Sources mentioned: 

• Statistics on International Development: final UK ODA spend 2024 - GOV.UK 
• Falling short? Humanitarian funding and reform - Development Initiatives
• Too Southern To Be Funded: The Funding Bias Against the Global South
• 
  More than half of aid spent on procurement still goes to rich countries' firms - almost two decades after commitment to end 'tied aid' - Eurodad