Decolonizing IT governance in international non-governmental organisations: An Ubuntu approach

Abstract

IT has an enormous potential to democratise, equalise and decolonize development aid; however, the right IT governance is needed to actualize this potential. Such governance must align with the general efforts in development work to decolonize and eradicate adverse power imbalances. Power imbalances are at play when donors from the Global North finance and thereby set the development agenda for the Global South without concern for the actual needs. IT use in development aid is an important tool in decolonisation struggles, but corresponding structures also risk cementing problematic power distributions. As such, guidelines are needed on how to set up and decolonize IT governance structures. Using insights from a case study of a large international development aid NGO and building on the African emancipation philosophy Ubuntu, we propose five organising principles for a decolonized IT governance. These organising principles serve as guidelines to set up decolonized and emancipating IT governance structures and extend current IT governance theories.