Decolonizing Data and Recovering the Person in Christian Relief and Development Organizations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to prompt Western Christian organizations—funded and led by people whose histories are intertwined with colonialism—to examine the impact of their “gaze” on people in the Majority World.  Today, because of the vast scale of the Christian humanitarian and relief industry, Christ-centered development assistance must avoid perpetuating entrenched asymmetries of power and authoritative knowledge production between the Global North and Global South. To safeguard the rights of those living in poverty requires a conscious effort to decolonize Christian development data collection by recognizing the dangerous potential for Western Christian organizations to impose inequitable measures of data extraction and acquisition on the Global South.