CARE CEO: Time to think again about how we talk about aid

The aid sector has fallen short in its duty to communicate effectively the value of development assistance, the chief executive of CARE USA told an audience of development professionals. Michelle Nunn, speaking at Devex Impact House during the high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly, said that the sector needed to examine the voice it used when discussing its work — to eliminate acronyms and complex vocabulary. To highlight this, she talked about a conversation with a member of the Trump government: “Somebody from the administration said to a group of us, ‘If you can’t explain what you’re doing to my mother and her Sunday school class, then you know, you have a problem,’” she said. “And I think we have to take that seriously, and I think we have an obligation to invite the American public in and to broaden the constituency of people who care about global development.” The aid sector has not done enough to show its positive impacts, according to Nunn. For the public to support humanitarian aid, she said, it was important they believed it was working. “I think most people think that we have actually increased the number of people that are living in poverty around the world over the last decades,” she said. “They don’t recognize that we’ve decreased maternal mortality, child mortality, that there have been a host of real, important points of progress.” However, Nunn said the challenge facing the sector today remained considerable. “I think it’s a pretty dispiriting moment when you look at the monumentality of the challenges that are before us,” she said. “We’re being asked to do more, more in terms of conflict, more in terms of climate change, more in terms of humanitarian need, and with less funding at this moment.” She said that international nongovernmental organizations have limited options to confront this new funding environment. “You have to find new sources of funding — you have to diversify,” she said. “Or you have to do things more cost-effectively. Or you have to collaborate and reinvent and use technology and innovation. … We’re going to have to do all of those things. And I think it’s going to take a very bold and creative set of collaborations to enable us to meet this moment.” CARE, like many other INGOs, has been seriously hit by aid cuts, losing 1,500 staff and cutting core operating costs by 30%, Nunn said. But she emphasized it is important not to accept the message emerging from the U.S. government. “We’ve adapted to the new realities from a resource perspective,” she said. “At the same time, we are not giving in to that reality. We’re advocating. We’re trying to build a constituency. I think we have to all find new ways of bringing our message to a broader audience and talking to people about why it's important to care for people around the world.”