Devex jobs: Career advice from a USAID environmental officer

When Anne Dix was a teenager living in Guatemala, she attended a presentation by an environmental officer on the work that the U.S. Agency for International Development was doing to promote forest products in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. At that moment, she said, she was “hooked” and decided this was her dream job. Dix, who has a Ph.D. in ecology, has now been with USAID for 22 years and managed environmental programs in Central America, the Amazon region, and West Africa. She is currently based in Washington as senior adviser at the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation but is soon heading to Botswana to serve as a country representative. The day-to-day of an environmental officer differs depending on the place but can involve collaborating with local nonprofits and governments to set up protection systems or develop policies and regulations, working with government agencies during forest fire outbreaks, or spending time with communities to understand natural resource conflicts. A highlight of Dix’s career was her involvement with a program in Central America, starting in the inception stage, that trained practitioners to use satellite imagery data and make it public as a tool for decision-makers. As Dix moved on to other posts, she advocated for this program — and 20 years later, it’s a global tool for everything from hurricane response to managing fires and addressing rising sea levels. Speaking with Devex, Dix discussed the skills and career advice that have helped her succeed. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What is the job of an environmental officer with a development agency? There is a whole pool of different jobs. We manage environment programs at large. These range from biodiversity and conservation of natural and green areas around the world, to climate change programs that promote adaptations, to best practices so that countries can adapt to rising sea levels or increased flooding or drought. We also engage in clean energy programs that are helping bring power to underserved communities. In some cases, our clean energy programs are the reason that hospitals are able to keep their doors open. We [also] address illegal wildlife trafficking and promote better practices in forestry. And finally, we manage water and sanitation programs in places [where people lack] adequate access to sanitation. “Learn to work with different types of people, learn to communicate what you do, advocate for the less fortunate, practice at home what you preach abroad, and try to understand why people make the choices that they do.” --— Anne Dix, environmental officer, U.S. Agency for International Development We work very closely with our colleagues in global health — on things such as how wildlife trafficking leads to the rise of pandemics — or in agriculture, where we work with colleagues on more efficient ways to use scarce water resources for irrigation. Then in democracy and governance programs, we might be asked to engage around the development of better regulation for mining in places such as Niger and the Amazon. In addition to the program management, we also wear a second hat, which is that we oversee environmental compliance at whatever post we're at. We will very often become engaged in the environmental review of all the other development programs that are being carried out by the agency and advising our colleagues of how to better mitigate the impact and create better results. What are some of the big challenges of the job? Foreign service officers, and development practitioners in general, might encounter challenges that you don't find in your day-to-day living in the U.S. We live very far away from our families, in countries where access to education and health care is far more limited. In fact, some of my colleagues have died in the line of duty. ... Sometimes these are unfortunate circumstances, such as an earthquake in Haiti, or sometimes because our work takes us to dangerous journeys. More recently, of course, our foreign service cadre and our colleagues overseas and in the U.S. have been greatly impacted by the … [COVID-19] pandemic. … I am humbled by my colleagues' commitment and passion to our mission. [In dealing with these challenges] there are two things I've had to learn: that I cannot care for others if I don't take care of myself first and that there are things that I simply cannot control and these are just things that you have to accept. What skill sets have you found to be most valuable or really focused on to help you progress in your career? The passion for my job, and my ability to network and bring others together to solve complex problems, has seen me through my years as an environment officer. Being flexible and being able to hear different points of view, especially in trying to understand why people act in certain ways, has also been important. And of course, at [USAID] ... being able to write and communicate effectively, and being always willing to learn something new, is important. Being patient — especially when the bureaucracy of things can be overwhelming — has been a critical skill, as has learning what critical steps to focus my efforts on to achieve success. How do you see the impact of your work? One of the things that you learn very quickly is that you might not immediately see the impact of what you're doing. But if you've been around as long as I have, always look back over your shoulder to see [for example] what happened to that process that I started and managed in [a specific country]. All of a sudden, you can really put together an impressive picture of the difference that the programs we do around the world are having. In West Africa, for example, [where] I managed a water program … one of the things that struck me was the conversations that I had with local farmers who, in the course of their lifetime, have seen a dramatic change in the scarcity and availability of water for them to do agriculture and water their cows. Our programs were there to provide them with access to clean water and also sanitation. We [brought in] the private sector in different ways, from identifying metal workers who could be taught how to service well pumps to building a coalition with water providers so that they could expand their network into underserved communities. ... We were able to walk away from those projects where we had basically come in to provide access to water in a place … and also collaterally provide access to sanitation, [but] we were also able to ensure that the work we did, and the infrastructure that we provided, was maintained and it's still being used today. How have you seen your role or scope of work change in recent years? Early [in your] career you're more hands-on and technical, and you are doing things a lot more directly. I got to do environmental impact assessments, work with the ministry of the environment in reviewing environmental impact assessments, lead program design and work with country teams developing regulations for water quality and for protected areas, conducted all kinds of studies and assessments. Now what I do is I lead interdisciplinary teams of people addressing larger transnational issues, and I don't only work on environmental issues. We [also] have new tools or old tools that we work with in different ways. For example, we have tried more and more to bring the private sector into the work that we do every day. We've learned that conservation, and protected areas, isn't just about setting up a park and keeping everybody out; it's about engaging with the local communities, it's about going beyond government to manage these areas. In fact, this sometimes — just like in the U.S. — leads to profit-sharing arrangements that benefit both the private sector but also those who are trying to protect the integrity of the area that we're working in. What advice would you have for others who are interested in this type of work? Learn to work with different types of people, learn to communicate what you do, advocate for the less fortunate, practice at home what you preach abroad, and try to understand why people make the choices that they do. Don't solve problems for others; develop their sense of agency. Know what your standards are, but be flexible when better outcomes can be achieved by modifying your intended course of action. More practically, at least for the foreign service, I would say don't try to join right out of school. Get some years of service, either with an underserved community in the U.S. or overseas. I think it's foundational for anybody who is trying to understand where people are coming from and what it's like to work on the ground. If you can, also seek opportunities to work with local NGOs and other organizations so once you become a project manager, you better understand how they do their work or what is in their realm of possibility. Experience with local academic institutions and governments [can also be helpful] to understand how decisions are made. What’s some of the most helpful career advice you’ve been given? [When I joined the agency], the environment coordinator [at the time] told me to remember what I believed in and to remain true to my values, no matter what others might want or ask me to do. That has served me in good stead many, many times. [Another piece of advice] was from a deputy mission director in El Salvador, and he told me to always remember that your strongest asset is your biggest failure. I've learned to watch out for that in myself because I always like to try to fix things. And finally, learn to focus on what matters, as sometimes you are going to be burdened with the problems in the day-to-day and it can seem like if you're suffering a slow death by a thousand cuts trying to get things done. But you need to always find ways to rise beyond it and to move things in the direction that will achieve results.