Our Mission
Our mission is to extend spaces for discussion, awaken people's critical faculties, help influence decision-making in non-Western countries and contribute to an inclusive and equitable world order through knowledge-sharing, advocacy and research
Our History
The founding of this initiative occurred when personal stories and experiences of the founding members, Nana, Naïkema Nassirou, and Ruby collided. The four came from different parts of the non-Western world and happened to meet at the University of Ottawa in Canada’s capital. The roots of this initiative date back to when Nana, Naïkema and Nassirou were in a Master-level class taught by Ruby in September 2023. During the class, students were grappling with what was being taught regarding how countries, Western and non-Western ended up where they currently are. Subsequent discussions led to an understanding of the importance of analyzing the internal and external factors that influence a country's trajectory and the consequences of this on the country's development. This realization led to the spark that started several discussions on how better to understand the realities in various non-Western countries and how to avoid falling into simple explanatory traps that lead to the denigration of certain societies. In turn, this spark and these discussions led to the desire to expand this conversational space in order to reach and include more people, especially people who do not have access to this information, are not exposed to it, and/or are in societies that tend to understand issues in ways that seem to focus solely or mostly on internal actions.
