What does it really take to shift power from the inside?

In Voices of Transformation, Imtinen Abidi, PLACE’s Program Manager of the Governance & Policy Making Hub, reflects on exclusion, representation, and what real inclusion demands.

Her story reminds us that presence is not enough. Transformation means questioning who systems are built for, who gets to shape them, and how we create space for others to develop their own voice.

Voice of Transformation, Imtinen Abidi

I learned about power long before I learned about policy. Not in theory, but in lived experience: in my family’s history, and in my own place within systems that never felt neutral. 

My parents left Tunisia at the beginning of the 90’s at a time when the space to express political ideas was not only limited but dangerous. Their political engagement came with consequences, and leaving became a necessity. But exile is never neutral… it reshapes how you see the world and how the world also sees you.

Being born and raised in France, I inherited that history alongside another reality: one shaped by colonial legacies that still structure how bodies, identities, and voices are perceived and treated. I learned early that belonging is not simply about being present. It is about how you are read, categorized, and sometimes reduced. 

Being racialised because of the hijab during my high school years became a social and political marker. A way for teachers and the high school principal to define me and often limit me.I still remember that during my high school graduation ceremony, I was excluded despite having the right to be there, and I had to wait outside the school,  an experience that left a lasting mark on me. I became aware of how quickly people assign meaning, how difference is politicized, and how certain identities are made hyper-visible while their voices are simultaneously questioned or dismissed. 

This is the lens I carry into my work today as a governance and policy-making hub program manager. On paper, my role is to coordinate initiatives, stakeholders, manage processes, and contribute to policy-making work. But in practice, I operate at the intersection of systems and lived realities where decisions are shaped but not always experienced equally. 

I work in spaces where people with a migration background and young people are invited to engage with governance processes, to contribute to policy discussions, and yet, I am constantly aware that inclusion on its own does not guarantee influence. 

In civic spaces, especially, representation is often celebrated as an endpoint. But I have come to believe that it is only a starting point. The real question is: how is power built, shared and exercised? Who is able not just to be present, but to influence outcomes? And through what mechanisms? 

This is also where critical thinking becomes essential. To engage with policy-making without questioning its frameworks is to risk reinforcing the very inequalities it seeks to address. It is necessary to name what does not work, to resist the pressure to accept institutional process as neutral, and to remain attentive to what is excluded. 

Working within governance has taught me that transformation requires strategy: change does not happen simply because something is unjust. It requires understanding how decisions are made, where influences lie, how coalitions are built, and how to navigate institutions without losing clarity of purpose. 

For me, leadership is not about amplifying the most visible voices. It is about creating the conditions for others to develop their own and to do so in ways that do not require them to conform to existing norms of legitimacy. In that sense, my work often feels like building bridges, but also like building coalitions. 

Because in policy-making, power rarely shifts through individual presence alone. It shifts collectively, through alliances, shared understanding, and the ability to connect different experiences into a common direction. It is not only about managing processes but holding spaces where power dynamics can be questioned and shifted. It is about ensuring that engagement is not performative but meaningful. That participation is not reduced to presence, but connected to influence. 

This work is often visible. It does not always appear in reports or indicators. It lives in small moments: a conversation that creates trust, a follow-up that allows someone to speak next time, a shift in how a space is experienced. 

Looking ahead, I want to contribute to building governance spaces that are not only inclusive in appearance but transformative in practice. Where legitimacy is not predefined but expanded. Where power is not simply redistributed symbolically, but rethought collectively. 

Because for me, transformation is not only about improving systems, it is about changing who they are built for and who gets to shape them.