Power, Proximity, and the Practice of Humility
The original Sidekick Manifesto said something a generation of young, Western do-gooders needed to hear: you are not the hero in the story of poverty’s end.
It traveled. It resonated. It found its way into classrooms. And breaking free of its targeted demographic, it was taped to the office doors of global nonprofits and shared at staff retreats.
A decade later, the question of our role is harder to answer.
Sidekick Manifesto II brings together eighteen practitioners from across the Majority and Minority World—economists and poets, NGO leaders and community development practitioners, insiders and outsiders.
Together they return to the original Manifesto’s three preambles and ten promises. Not to polish them, but to interrogate them, and decide: Keep, Reimagine, or Discard.
The result is a book that moves the conversation from humility toward something more demanding.
Solidarity. Proximity. Responsibility.
Sidekick Manifesto II is available for free as a PDF download.
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