The Global Mapping Survey Methodology
Updated: 11 November 2021
Introduction
Established in June 2020, The Racial Equity Index (REIndex) is a global group of BIPOC people who currently work in or have spent part of their career working in international development. This volunteer group gathered to explore the lack of and need for an index to measure organizational commitment and accountability to racial equity and provide a barometer for the international development sector.
As a first step towards creating a Racial Equity Index to hold the global development sector to account, the Racial Equity Index decided to reach out to organizations and individuals working in the global development sector to identify key indicators that should be included in the Racial Equity Index Global Mapping Survey. This methodology describes the process that went into the development of the mapping survey, dissemination of the survey, and anticipated next steps.
Main Steps in Building the Global Mapping Survey
With transparency and collaboration as core values for the Racial Equity Index, the Working Group began developing a global mapping survey to crowdsource key indicators to measure racial equity within global development organizations and institutions. The survey also asked respondents if they had themselves experienced and/or witnessed racism in the global development sector along with several key demographic questions to get a sense of the survey respondents’ background including, self-identified racial identity, gender identity, age group, current country of residence, capacity in which they are working and/or participating in the global development sector, and tenure in the sector.
The Racial Equity Index Working Group drew from our own experiences to identify 11 key indicators within an organization’s structure, policies, and processes that can affect racial equity internally and through its external programs and practices. With the support from six peer reviewers, the overall survey and each of the 11 indicators and their respective definitions went through several iterations to ensure clarity, comprehensiveness, and neutrality.
The Racial Equity Index working group analysed the survey data in two stages. First, the responses to all questions except the free response questions on experiencing and racism were, analysed to provide descriptives on our survey respondents (ie: what identities they hold, where they come from, etc.) and aggregate frequency counts for our 11 indicators. During the second phase of analysis, we dug into the qualitative data.
For the short answer responses shared by survey respondents, the Racial Equity Index working group performed an initial read to identify key themes. The group then drafted a codebook based on these themes. We found that many of the themes fell into the 11 indicators we had already identified. Thus, under each indicator, the working group identified 2-5 sub-themes, or sub-codes, outlining how racial inequity plays out under each larger indicator.
After we created the codebook, each member of the survey group read and sub-coded a section of the short answer responses. We then re-assigned sections so another member of the team was able to re-read and validate the sub-codes for a different set of short answer responses.
Upon completion of the coding process, the Racial Equity Index working group came together to discuss the sub-codes and additional themes and observations that they saw throughout the responses. The group identified an additional five (5) themes from the qualitative data that further add to our analysis.
The report outlines the quantitative and qualitative analyses, weaving together a complex story of racism and racial inequity within the global development sector and its impacts on the people who work within it.
Next Steps for Building the Racial Equity Index
Indicator Definitions and Glossary of Terms
The following indicators and definitions were developed by the Racial Equity Index for use for our Global Mapping Survey. We will use these indicators and their definitions to inform our work as we move forward in building the index for racial equity.
MISSION
This indicator refers to how an organization prioritizes racial equity within its mission and values.
PROGRAMMING
This indicator refers to how an organization engages impacted populations in programming from strategy and design to implementation through monitoring and evaluation.
FUND ALLOCATIONS & GRANTMAKING PRINCIPLES
This indicator refers to how organizations - specifically funders (foundations, philanthropists, individual donors) determine how to allocate funding and if their funding criteria centres principles of racial equity from a grantmaking perspective.
SOURCES OF FUNDING
This applies to organizations receiving funding. Key ethical and equitable principles, criteria and mechanisms governing resource mobilisation are in place and enforced that respect transparency, doing no harm, confidentiality, being fair and socially responsible.
EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS/ RELATIONSHIPS
An indicator to reflect on how organizations formulate partnerships and the criteria for choosing partnerships, whether or not the partners align with values of equity while also taking into account building relationships between partners that recognises the different power dynamics between geographies and size of organizations.
COMMUNICATIONS
An equitable process by which information is exchanged, especially between the organizations and the communities they work with, and how narratives and images are being developed, created, and presented.
WORKPLACE CULTURE
The culture of an organization refers to the enabling environment that fosters inclusive and equitable spaces or catalyzes harm and the intentionality with which the organizational structure has been designed to incorporate values and commitments to equity from a development perspective to decolonization from a development/aid perspective.
LEADERSHIP
This indicator refers to the makeup of an organization’s leadership team - whether or not leadership at all levels (from management to senior leadership to the executive board) is representative and inclusive of the groups and communities that the organization works with.
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
This indicator refers to whether the organization has systems and processes that are focused on equitable hiring practices, strategies and measurable goals for strengthening diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and procedures in place to protect employees from workplace retaliation (i.e. safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures).
SALARY
This applies to salaried employees. This indicator is defined as a transparent system of payments and process for employee advancement from organizations to employees, both in-country and in head office, in exchange for their work, which includes an acknowledgment of the pay gap across gender, race, nationality, geography, etc and the willingness to work towards a more equitable salary structure.
COMPENSATION
This indicator refers to an organization’s transparency and equity within its compensation structure and processes for consultants and contractors that prioritizes experience and expertise and takes into account the costs of basic benefits (such as healthcare - which the consultant or contractor will have to pay for through the compensation offered) and the type of contracts needed for the specific project or work being requested.
Glossary of Terms
For the purpose of the survey, this is what we used as the definitions for certain terms.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
Global Development is a sector that comprises international development organisations, charities, and non-governmental organisations including funders and for-profit institutions.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Refers to just relations between individuals, groups, and society where all people of all groups have equal access to wealth, well-being, health, privileges and opportunities regardless of their legal, political, geographical or economic circumstances.
RACISM
Belief, practices and upholding of a social, cultural, political and economic system that reproduces a racial hierarchy which benefits white people and oppresses Black, Brown and Indigenous people.
RACIAL EQUITY
Racial equity refers to both the process and the outcome that results from fair and just inclusivity of people of all races, taking into deliberate consideration all the historical and current inequities experienced by individual racial groups.
WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE
A political, economic and cultural system where those racialised as white overwhelmingly control power and material resources, where conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread and beliefs of white dominance and non-white subordination are re-enacted regularly across a broad array of social settings.