Praxis Week 2025 Keynote by Karol Balfe
By Billy Goodwin
Karol Balfe, CEO of ActionAid Ireland, opened Praxis Week 2025 with a powerful message: to build a just global future, we must confront the systems that create injustice and put care, solidarity, and participation at the centre.
From Charity to Feminist Federation
ActionAid has transformed from a traditional charity into a feminist, justice-led global federation, now operating in 71 countries. This shift moves power to the Global South and centres the voices of those historically excluded from development decisions.
Naming Structural Injustice
Balfe linked today’s crises [debt, climate breakdown, and geopolitical violence] showing how they reinforce each other.
- Gaza’s suffering, she argued, is part of a wider pattern of global power inequality rooted in colonialism and imperialism.
- ActionAid’s Who Owes Who report estimates the Global North owes the South $107 trillion, reversing the usual “debt” narrative.
- She criticised the IMF for policies that deepen austerity, especially harming women, and called for grant-based climate finance instead of loans.
Ireland’s Contradictions
While praising Ireland’s untied aid and human rights focus, Balfe noted its role as a hub for fossil fuel finance and weak corporate regulation, thus showing how policy and practice can pull in opposite directions.
Participation and Radical Hope
Balfe urged moving beyond reliance on the state to building resilient, community-led, care-based economies. She called for courage to replace neoliberal capitalism with feminist economies, redistributive justice, and transnational solidarity.
Dialogue and Reflection
The Q&A contributions from Nuala Finnegan, Edward Lahiff, and Stephen Thornhill [among others] explored China’s global role, the neoliberal university model, and diverse approaches to development. Participants agreed: change needs both rigorous analysis and bold imagination.
Closing Message
Balfe’s keynote set the tone for a week of learning and action: “We must name the system … neoliberalism is not serving people or planet. We need to imagine an economy where care, not profit, is at the centre.”
Praxis Week 2025, Keynote by Karol Balfe (B Goodwin, 2025).
Bill Goodwin: PhD researcher in sociology, digital media, and critical discourse.
Dr. Gertrude Cotter: Lecturer in Global Citizenship Education at UCC and academic coordinator of the Praxis Project.
