Skip to content
Internet Society Foundation
  • About
    • Board of Trustees
    • Our Projects
    • Our Team
    • 2024 Impact Report
    • 2025 Action Plan
    • Press Center
  • Funding Areas
    • Beyond the Net
    • BOLT
    • Chapter Admin Funding
    • Connecting the Unconnected
    • Encryption Day
    • Internet Governance Forum Events
    • Research
    • Resiliency
    • SCILLS
    • Sustainable Peering Infrastructure Funding Program
    • Sustainable Technical Communities
  • Resources
    • Grantee Eligibility & Compliance Guidance
    • Application Review Process
    • Alignment Requirements
    • Grant Management & Reporting Expectations
    • Grant Application and Project Implementation Guidance
    • Grant Partner Communications Toolkit
    • How to use Fluxx
    • Logo guidelines
  • News & Stories
    • News
    • Impact stories
    • The Bcc podcast
  • Careers
  • The Internet Society
  • Subscribe
  • Languages:ENESFR
FacebookTwitterLinkedinInstagramRssEmail
This content is available in the following languages
The Internet Society English is the current languageEspañolFrançais
  • Subscribe
    Internet Society Foundation
    • About
      • Board of Trustees
      • Our Projects
      • Our Team
      • 2024 Impact Report
      • 2025 Action Plan
      • Press Center
    • Funding Areas
      • Beyond the Net
      • BOLT
      • Chapter Admin Funding
      • Connecting the Unconnected
      • Encryption Day
      • Internet Governance Forum Events
      • Research
      • Resiliency
      • SCILLS
      • Sustainable Peering Infrastructure Funding Program
      • Sustainable Technical Communities
    • Resources
      • Grantee Eligibility & Compliance Guidance
      • Application Review Process
      • Alignment Requirements
      • Grant Management & Reporting Expectations
      • Grant Application and Project Implementation Guidance
      • Grant Partner Communications Toolkit
      • How to use Fluxx
      • Logo guidelines
    • News & Stories
      • News
      • Impact stories
      • The Bcc podcast
    • Careers
    • The Internet Society
    • Subscribe
    • Languages:ENESFR
    18 October 2021

    Musings of a MEL Enthusiast: The Power of Language

    By Suzane Muhereza

    Like many organizations are doing at this time of year, our Internet Society Foundation (Foundation) team is currently planning our 2022 priorities. In doing so, we got into a conversation on clarifying and naming our beneficiary communities. In the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) office, I am thinking about how we will define and measure our impact, so the use of language is critical for me to develop adequate metrics that tell the full story of our giving. We defaulted to use words like “Global South” and “emerging economies”, until we realized we support communities and individuals in the “Global North” that have limited access to Internet connectivity such as in this project, or in which the benefits of having Internet access are not fully realized, as we saw in this project.

    As a MEL practitioner trained and working in the Global North, I take comfort in the objectivity of certain MEL approaches, and an iterative process of learning and adaptation to make these decisions. I know we can rely on globally accepted terminology from the United Nations and other similar organizations to identify said communities and track how our funding impacts those communities over time. 

    As a black African woman, living in Africa which is part of the Global South, my worldview boils down to the simple question: How do we move money, skills, knowledge and power from places of capitalist plenty to places in which individuals and communities are historically and politically marginalized and underserved; wherever in the hemisphere they might be. In my mind, we want to be more deliberate in channeling our funding to communities and individuals in locally and globally marginalized places and spaces.

    These conversations can get uncomfortable because sometimes the act of naming a thing in a specific way highlights power dynamics. We are a global Foundation based in the US, trying to clarify how to provide funding from a position of plenty to spaces and places of “assumed” scarcity. How do we, a small team, decide which people and communities are in need of this funding while being responsible stewards of our funds? I am proud of our team for taking a step back to be more deliberate about how the Foundation engages in the funder space.

    Here are a few questions I am mulling over as we navigate our 2022 action planning exercise, that you might help me think through:

    • What have you noticed about the language you use to identify and name the communities you care about?
    • Whom does certain language and terminology include and exclude?
    • In what ways does this naming allow you to tell the story of your work?
    • In what ways does this naming limit or expand the type of impact or social return you hope to see?
    Are you working in the grantmaking space? Whether you’re on the programs side, in MEL, or anywhere in-between, I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can reach me at [email protected].

    Posted in Foundation News

    18 October 2021

    Recent Posts

    • International Girls in ICT Day: Internet Society Foundation grants support digital equality
    • Celebrating Earth Day 2025: Innovations from the Internet Society Foundation’s Research Grant Program 
    • 2024 Impact Report: How $16.2M in grants powered change in 111 countries
    • Meet the new grantees improving peering and interconnection around the globe   
    • Announcing a new group of grant partners to promote Internet resiliency in disaster response 

    Categories

    • Africa
    • Asia-Pacific
    • Beyond the Net
    • BOLT
    • Community Capacity
    • Disaster Relief and Recovery
    • Europe
    • Foundation News
    • IGF
    • Innovation
    • Latin America and Caribbean
    • Middle-East
    • North America
    • Podcast
    • Program Areas
    • Regions
    • Research
    • Resiliency
    • SCILLS
    • Sustainable Peering Infrastructure
    • Sustainable Technical Communities

    The Internet is for Everyone

    The Internet Society Foundation supports the vision of the Internet Society and its work for an open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet for everyone.

    isoc_foundation_logo@2x

    1551 Emancipation Highway #1506
    Fredericksburg, VA 22401

    1-703-439-2120

    [email protected]

    LinkedIn ISOC Foundation on Facebook ISOC Foundation on Instagram ISOC Foundation on YouTube ISOC Foundation on Twitter ISOC Foundation RSS feed
    Guidestar Platinum seal of transparency 2020

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    Get the latest news and announcements from our projects. Unsubscribe at any time. We won't use your details for anything else.

    Please enter your name.
    Please enter a valid email address.
    Subscribe!

    Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email for further instructions.

    Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

    © 2025 Internet Society Foundation | Privacy Policy | Terms of use | Engagement Code of Conduct | Our Governance | DMCA Policy | Sitemap

    Scroll To Top