Development executives weigh work at the local and institutional levels

This article is part of The Future of Global Development, a series for Devex Executive Members that explores what development leaders think of the industry’s top issues. Development professionals often want to stay close to the main beneficiaries of their work — a preference that holds true even as they climb up the ranks. But among many executives, there’s an awareness that effective development work happens at both the local and institutional levels. The 2014 Development Influencers Survey, which polled senior development executives earlier this year, found that the highest proportion of respondents, 47 percent, said their best development work happens at the national, regional or global level. Roughly the same amount, 44 percent, said it happens at the individual or village level. Respondents from nongovernmental organizations and social enterprises tended to believe their best work is done among individuals or communities. Respondents based in developing countries were also more likely to believe their best work happens locally. NGO and social enterprise executives interviewed by Devex about these findings both confirm and challenge the results. The survey finding that social enterprise executives, more than any other group, believe their best work is done with individuals may be due to the nature of social enterprise work, noted Vincent Rapisura, president and CEO of Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. Rapisura has been involved in social entrepreneurship, microfinance and financial literacy in 24 countries and believes “social enterprises look at the individual or household level, since they typically have them as their primary stakeholders.” Community work to complement institutional work NGO executives interviewed about the survey findings think the line between micro and macro levels may not be so clear-cut. Nassreena Sampaco-Baddiri, country director of Innovations for Poverty Action Philippines, an organization that designs anti-poverty solutions by conducting randomized evaluations, thinks IPA’s work is crucial at both the grass-roots and the global level. “I feel we do the best work both at the community level, where we work on the ground to understand how interventions work and why, and at the institutional level, where we translate evidence that we gather into practical recommendations,” she told Devex. “For me, there is fulfillment in knowing that evidence on innovative solutions can lead decision-makers to implement effective poverty reduction programs that can change the lives of many around the world.” David Sutherland, chair of the board of International Care Ministries, a Hong Kong-based organization that serves the ultra-poor in the Philippines, thinks it’s natural for NGO executives to feel that they do their most important work at the community level. “Presumably, they think that their best work is done when they are directly working on helping the poor, and not when they are in New York or Europe trying to convince their bosses or their funders about the wisdom of their strategies,” he told Devex. “If we don’t keep the big picture in sight and measure our results at a global level, then we will not have accomplished enough no matter how good a program may appear in a village or two.” --— Jason Clay, senior vice president of World Wide Fund for Nature’s food and markets division But like Sampaco-Baddiri, Sutherland believes the desire to work directly with communities should complement the equally important need to work at the institutional level. “It is tempting to stay in the ivory tower and think that I know best for the people in the field,” Sutherland noted, but he said that he still needs to visit the communities and talk to the villagers from time to time to see and understand how ICM’s programs are being implemented. “The bottom line is that I need to be in the field on a regular basis, but I should spend most of my time with donors and strategists to do what local people can’t do.” Impact and influence, not preference The question of where development executives do their best work shouldn’t be an issue of preference, according to Sutherland, but a matter of where they can make the most impact. “In ICM, I personally would like to be in the field as much as possible. But my highest and best use to help the poor is to keep the program operating efficiently and effectively and to ensure that the funding is reliable,” he said. “Often I need to spend time with funders to keep things moving along productively, even though I would rather be elsewhere.” Jason Clay, senior vice president of World Wide Fund for Nature’s food and markets division, has a slightly different take. The question of where development executives think they do their best work, he said, concerns the areas where they can most easily see an impact — a perspective that can be myopic since, as he told Devex, “we simply cannot afford to approach development one village at a time.” Not only is engaging one village at a time too slow, doing so does not address long-term threats or larger, structural issues, Clay noted. Climate change, for instance, is the biggest threat to smallholder farmers. “How do you address that one village at a time?” he asked, adding that WWF has found that it often takes significant time and resources — 20 years or more and tens of millions of dollars — to achieve meaningful results from the time the organization identifies an issue and starts actual work on the ground. “If we don’t keep the big picture in sight and measure our results at a global level, then we will not have accomplished enough, no matter how good a program may appear in a village or two,” he said. Do you do your best work at the individual, community or institutional level? Join the conversation by leaving a comment below or tweet us at #futuredev. What do nearly 1,000 senior-level executives from NGOs, donor agencies, corporations and the public sector think about the future of global development? View our complete series — featuring exclusive insights and interviews with top executives — to find out.