Amitabh Behar keynote at the Wikimedia Summit 2024: transcript

Key points

• Behar praises Wikimedia for keeping knowledge public amid a post-truth world, AI anxieties and growing big tech power.
• Oxfam's inequality report says the top five billionaires doubled their wealth since 2020 while five billion people became poorer.
• He uses Gandhi's change of dress as a symbol of internal transformation turning an elite movement into a mass movement.
• Oxfam is trying to decolonize itself through structures, culture, resources and knowledge or narratives; he says it has done well on structures and culture but failed on resources.
• He urges Wikimedia to ask early where money comes from and where it goes, and to see funds as owned by the South.
• He quotes a colleague that international NGOs can die peacefully, die ugly or transform, and hopes Wikimedia chooses transformation.

Chapters

1. 0:00Saluting Wikimedia as custodians of public knowledge
2. 2:49Oxfam's inequality report from Davos
3. 6:06Gandhi and the case for internal transformation
4. 9:19What Oxfam is and its colonial roots
5. 11:17Democratizing structures and culture
6. 13:18Why resources and money are a failure so far
7. 15:55Narratives and knowledge from the South
8. 19:00Change, three options and closing wishes

Full transcript

0:00Greetings from Oxfam, and I'll later talk about Oxfam because I'm not sure the only person that I was speaking to did not know Oxfam. So I must introduce Oxfam, so it's my responsibility. I'll do that later. But I wanted to start by saluting all of you. Certainly, I bring solidarities from the work we do, but a big salute for two specific things.

0:31And the second one is also, in some ways, an encouragement and a nudge. First, I think we just heard the Minister. I think what you're doing is absolutely remarkable, being custodians of public knowledge. knowledge, and I underscore public in a time when privatization of pretty much everything, including land, water, forest, everything, is really the primary trend.

1:07You're standing strong, ensuring that knowledge remains public. So a big, big, big salute to you. Second, you're doing this. In a particularly difficult time. And we kind of heard references to that. And I'll be very brief on this, but, you know, this itself is a full conversation. And I would say you're doing it in three key particular moments. One, in this post-truth world, where you really, you know, facts are being fabricated, and you are trying to bring in legitimate, credible knowledge to the people. So that's remarkable. The second, we talked of AI, and I'm sure a group like this would have healthy skepticism for AI, both with the possibilities it provides, certainly. There are huge possibilities, but huge anxieties

2:10also, what it could do to knowledge. And the third, at this juncture, when you are essentially seeing the big tech companies take over power in all possible ways, you stand strong and at all, in ensuring that even knowledge Does not get further privatized. So a big, big salute to you. And at this juncture, the journey that you're doing is pretty much linked to that of how do you ensure knowledge is going to be democratized and remain democratic.

2:49So I see these, what Francesca was saying, the three days of engaging with your internal questions. You know, it's important at times that you don't have the gaze only external. You turn your gaze inside and you're grappling with, I think, really, really fundamental questions for how do you organize yourself. But that's going to be critical for how do you really show up in the world. So, let me now take you to Oxfam. I'm still not going to talk about Oxfam, I'll do that a little later, but let me take you to the Oxfam world. But I'll do that via Davos, the World Economic Forum. I'm sure many of you know that we do the annual inequality report at Davos. And we get fantastic traction pretty much every media house.

3:47The cover story is our inequality data that we bring out at the World Economic Forum. So I wanted to talk about this year's report, just two, three facts. This is to build the context that I want to build. This year's report highlights, and I've been doing this report now for six years, but every time I present the report, I feel angry, and to be honest frustrated also. So let me give you what our report is saying. We are saying we are entering a decade of division. Just in the last three years since 2020 the top five billionaires have doubled their wealth. Top five have doubled their wealth whereas five billion people, that's 60% of the global population has become poorer.

4:43That's the inequality that we are looking at. Eighty percent of all the profits made have gone to the shareholders across all the profits made, while majority of the workers around the world are not being able to even meet the cost of inflation. They're just not being able to keep up with inflation, their wages. So that's the level of inequality. And just one more from our report.

5:17The valuation of the top 10 companies, top 10 corporates, is more than the combined GDP of Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean. That's the kind of inequality we are living with. So, when you're living with this kind of inequality, as I said, I feel frustrated, it, but I also think that we need to constantly challenge this inequality, because it goes fundamentally against the principles with which, at least I think, the modern world has been built, the normative framework of essentially looking at freedom, equality, justice and fraternity.

6:06It fundamentally goes against that. So, as Oxfam, we are constantly trying to build power and constantly thinking, how do we do it better? And one of the things that we have learned is that we need to be way more credible. Our voice needs to be more authentic. And that cannot happen. If we just look at the external world, we need to have the gaze internally, ask tough questions of ourselves. So I'm going to share some thoughts around that. But, you know, just to ensure that it's not just an Oxfam and Wikimedia conversation, I wanted to start about this journey of internal transformation from a fairly small reference to the Indian National Movement and I'm sure people here do know that Indian National Movement is seen as one of the most powerful people's organizing against what was then

7:10the most powerful colonial power and you know I just want to kind of it because it's in terms of the optics it's very strong and the leader of this movement as as you know was Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi and it's interesting as if you look at his pictures till the 1920s and and late 20s he's in a a three-piece suit with a tie and and really three-piece suit have a look at his pictures and there's a particular moment he decided That that's not what he was going to wear, and he dropped it, and he would then, even when he was in the UK, etc., he was just wearing what we call a dhoti, a lion cloth. That's it.

8:04And the transformation that also did, this was just a symbol, but the transformation that happened from the national movement being an elite, largely the feudal elements of India negotiating some power with the imperial power, moved to becoming a mass movement. The character got completely transformed. And in the 40s, 30s and 40s, it was quite remarkable to see the mobilization that they were able to do.

8:38So the internal transformation I see as critical for being able to deliver what we need to do. So as I said, Oxfam is on a similar journey. We keep saying that our goal is to build a just and equal future. That's our stated vision. But if we don't embody that in the Oxfam movement, what we call as the Movement for Equality, or we call ourselves a Confederation, then our credibility is going to be really, really limited.

9:19So let me also, now just quickly tell you, Oxfam is an international not-for-profit organization. organization. We work in more than 80 countries. We have been around for 82 years, and we work on humanitarian development and advocacy research and campaigning. So we work on pretty much the entire spectrum. It is one of the largest international not-for-profits. But let me also say that we are a product of a particular moment, which was the post-colonial moment where you saw the advent, Oxfam was one of the first to become an international NGO, which I still think was largely replication of the colonial model.

10:11And it was still the white man's burden. Trying to go to Africa and Asia, Latin America, to make change happen. It was not really rooted, and I'm saying this for all INGOs, not rooted in a framework of solidarity. So that's something that we are trying to address, we are trying to change. We are very clear that power is central to all this, and we need to democratize power.

10:41power, and that's what I think you're doing. So the external world of ensuring that knowledge remains democratic on the one hand needs to be, I would say, coupled with an internal journey of democratizing power inside. So, you know, and to do this, I'll talk of the four things that we do, structures, culture, resources, and knowledge slash narratives.

11:17So these are four areas in which Oxfam has tried to make a difference, to decolonize ourselves, to democratize how we have power distributed internally. So, and I'm going to be very, very candid with you because I really see my role as a peer, as a comrade who's sharing his own journey so that hopefully you get some nudges and encouragement for your journey. So I would say in terms of structure, we've done a reasonably good job. Oxfam, Great Britain, from where it started at Oxford 82 years ago, it's a large organization.

11:57It itself is like 400 million euros plus, but now we have 21 Oxfam affiliates, which are independent Oxfams in different countries, who hold now Oxfam together. Our journey is to try and ensure that we have more and more affiliates, particularly in the south. And we are going ahead with it, lots of hiccups but we are working on it and we have democratized. So when I talk of structures you also need to democratize processes. So what we've been able to do I would say to a significant extent is to democratize our structure which ensures representation, voice, a space for participation.

12:45To people from across the world, particularly the South, where they didn't have a voice. So I think, as in internally, we are still constantly asking the question that, is this substantive participation? But I think in terms of structures, when I look around, I think we've done a good job. Similarly, in terms of culture, culture of the organization, I think it's very, very critical. And we have been able to make fairly significant changes, and we work with feminist principles.

13:18So we try and embody that. It's a tough journey. It's a journey, I think, which will never stop. We keep trying to improve ourselves, but there are mechanisms, processes, which are rooted in our culture, of ensuring that we include everyone. the marginalized voices get a space to talk so so in terms of the the core ethos of how we work has in many ways got transformed this is something I don't say to my Oxfam colleagues I keep begging them to do much more but but I do think that we've been able to do that the third and these are areas on which you are working and I've seen the Charter fantastic piece of work so I hope you kind of you know take this further. In terms of resources I would say that We have failed. We have really not been successful. And how do we democratize resources is a big question.

14:21And, you know, my lens would be, if you don't fundamentally ask the question, the money raised by us – Oxfam raises a huge amount of money around the world, largely in the north – if we keep seeing that money from the lens of that organization which has raised it, it's their money. i think we're going to be faltering it has to be fundamentally changed this is the money people give us to make a change in the world so let's at best you know see ourselves as custodians do the hygiene bit of statutory requirements because once money comes in they're going to be obviously legal institutional requirements but if we don't fundamentally see this money as owned by the South, by the people who actually are at the forefront of building that just and equal society that I talked of, I think we'll not be able to really decentralize power,

15:23democratize power. And money is huge power. So I would urge you to get into that question. Where is the money coming from? Where is it going? Early on. Don't wait for three more years, five more years that let's first get our structures right. Get into the heart of it. There would be agreements, disagreements, but I really hope you can democratize money as well. And the fourth, which is the most difficult one, is the question of narratives, knowledge.

15:55And I'm somebody who comes from the South. I'm deeply passionate about it. So let me just tell you a couple of stories, not stories, as in how I've experienced knowledge building. Good researchers would come to India. That's where I've always lived my life. and they would talk to us and take it back to an IDS Sussex, nothing against IDS, I love IDS Sussex, and they would talk to four people like us and say we've created a theory. So we are data points, we are case stories, but it's just bringing them together, they convert it into a theory.

16:42So, you know, that's how knowledge is created. Where is it created? At best, our experiences end up becoming information and data points. That needs to fundamentally change. And you're all people who work on knowledge. So, you know, this question of how it gets articulated, when do people start seeing it as something which can guide us, which is wisdom, is going to be constantly challenged. And I'll give you one very concrete example, I was very involved with the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

17:16And one of the fights that I had with my own comrades from the North, and we worked very closely, but they would always talk of decent work. And I assume it would resonate here, but I would say decent work is not enough. I come from a country where 92% of the people work in the informal sector. You can't stop with just talking of decent work. It is about your right to livelihood.

17:46It is about ownership of natural resources on which most of the people are still dependent for their livelihood. So, you know, just the framing of how a north-centric framing is going to be very different from a southern framing. And I do think, to bring it back to Oxfam, our theories of change are still rooted. In a colonial, North-centric worldview. As in, whatever we say, but we feel excited when our stories come on BBC and Guardian, and when I get invited by the World Bank President.

18:22It's not about really building people's power. So that struggle is on. How do we change our theory of change? And that's something, again, it's a long-term challenge for you also, particularly with the onslaughts that the minister talked of and I initially referenced. So let me just end by saying that you really don't have an option. The civil society space, and I'm a student of politics, I'm saying that with constant reading of the civil society space.

19:00it's changing dramatically. Democracy, the character of democracy is changing with the change of the political economy. Change is something that you really, really need to embrace. And in that change, how do you ensure that you're building an organization which ensures protection of public? Which remains democratic, which remains locally rooted, are going to be the big challenge.

19:30There's going to be resistance, but I really hope that you can do that. So one of my colleagues wrote an article, let me end with that, and he said more about INGOs. I don't know if you see yourself as an INGO or not, but he wrote something which I thought was really sharp. He said international NGOs like Oxfam, Amnesty, Save the Children, so that everybody understands the beast that I'm talking about, have three options today.

20:04Either we die peacefully, or we die ugly, or we transform. So those are the three options. It's really for all of us to decide what's the option that we pick. My best wishes, when I see the Charter, I do have lots of hope that you have chosen the transformation path. So my best wishes for it, and I am here to assist in any possible way as a peer.

20:36Thank you.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Keynote Amitabh Behar V2- Wikimedia Summit 2024.webm by Kwertz (2024-06-10), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. The transcript, summary and chapters on this page are shared under the same licence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.