Degan Ali is the Executive Director of Adeso, a humanitarian and development organization that is changing the way people think about and deliver aid in Africa. She has been leading the decolonization development movement and was the architect of the Grand Bargain commitment of 25% of funding to go directly to local organizations. She also co-founded the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR), a Global South civil society network trying to transform the current humanitarian and development system.
Since 2020, Ms. Ali founded a consultancy firm, DA Global, and has worked with organizations like Sesame Workshop, International Refugee Council, British Red Cross and Save the Children on issues around Decolonizing Aid and how to transform organizational strategies to be aligned with anti-colonial and anti-racist principles. Her methodology and perspectives on International Aid and African development have been featured in the New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Devex and the New Humanitarian.