Post by Ketakandriana Rafitoson, PhD

Happy to be back in Boston, 10 years after our summer school at The Fletcher School at Tufts University with the Center for Nonviolent Conflict Research, which shaped much of my work. Still sitting with yesterday's conversation at Harvard Kennedy School, where I had the privilege of moderating a panel on Decolonial Justice at the Women in Power Conference, coordinated by the brilliant Velika Y. Not just "another panel". It felt like one of those rare moments where different strands of a struggle suddenly connect and make more sense together. From the Arctic, Far East Russia, to the Navajo Nation, Liubov Sulyandziga and Heidi Todacheene reminded us that dispossession is present, structural, and often hidden behind the language of "consultation." The difference between being heard and being managed is not theoretical; it's lived, every day, through land, governance, and the constant negotiation of power. Enith Williams took us somewhere else: into finance, reparations, and what repair actually means, transforming systems that extract into systems that restore. And somewhere in that conversation, something crystallized for me, as it deeply resonated with the work I'm involved in. Because corruption and extractivism are often just different expressions of the same thing: power being used to benefit a few at the expense of many. We tend to treat them differently. We criminalise one. We normalise the other. But the outcomes can be strikingly similar. Decolonial justice forces us to sit with that contradiction, and to ask not just how we improve systems (from the workplace to global fora), but whom those systems were designed to serve in the first place. And ultimately, whether we're really willing to shift power itself. Different entry points, but the same quest for social justice, equity, and shared prosperity. Grateful for the speakers, the honesty, and everyone who pushed these questions forward. Proud to have represented Resource Justice Network and Transparency International in that space. Different approaches, titles, or hats, but carried with the same passion, same brain, same heart, fewer silos. Thanks for the opportunity Kanto Raveloson, and congrats again Hervet Randriamady, MS, PhD! It was great meeting the small Malagasy community out here Teddy Ramarotafika, Mananjo Jonahson, Ny Ony Razafindratandra, Nya Rafali and more. Now, off to the #SkollWF 🔥 #PeopleBeforeProfit