Is the development sector getting serious about equity and inclusion?

The role of chief diversity officer has become far more common in the development sector in the last five years. And it’s a sign the sector is trying to get serious about addressing some deep-rooted issues, according to some of the first people to hold the role. Five diversity leaders spoke to Devex Executive Vice President Kate Warren last week as part of the Leader Roundtable series for Devex Pro members. Three of them were the first in their organization to occupy the position. They highlighted a series of ideas for improving diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, in development organizations. 1. Create structural change One key issue was around ensuring that DEI initiatives weren’t just words, but instead created practical changes in what staff did every day. Bobby Jefferson, global head of diversity, equity, engagement and inclusion at DAI, a private implementer working extensively with the U.S. aid agency USAID, said it is important that DEI is involved in every department of the organization. DEI is not just about recruitment, he said. It must be cross-cutting, with roots in communications, data, and finance, and it must also be embedded in each new project. Meanwhile, Tracey France, chief diversity officer at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, talked about the need to “operationalize” DEI – to ensure that organizations did not just talk and think about equity, but actually build rules and structures which meant that staff behavior could change. “Diversity, equity, inclusion accessibility has to be baked into the bread,” she said. She said MCC has set clear principles around recruitment, training, accountability, and performance management, and emphasized particularly the importance of building an inclusive culture. She said DEI had been built into all performance targets across the organization. 2. Adapt to your own organization and its context Francesca Molinaro, diversity, inclusion and belonging lead at the Asian Development Bank, said that it is important not to export a U.S. model of DEI to global organizations. “We’ve already mentioned George Floyd a couple of times,” she said. “Having spent most of my career in the U.S. that resonated with me on a personal level, but when we think about how that translates across geographies, it didn’t necessarily have the same type of impact in Asia as it did elsewhere.” She said that racism and other forms of discrimination look different in different places. As a result, it is important to do diagnostic work — to speak to staff, to understand where the pain points are in each particular organization, and to devise a strategy that addresses the unique needs of that organization. 3. Leave no one behind Fadzi Whande, chief of the diversity, equity and inclusion section at the UN Refugee Agency, talked about how an effective DEI strategy addressed the many different types of prejudice faced by different people, and how easy it was for one strand or another to be neglected. “We’re talking about inclusion but we’re actually practicing exclusion,” she said. She also talked about the importance of including everyone, including groups sometimes ignored by DEI professionals because they are viewed as “privileged.” “The reality is they still need to be part of the conversation to create inclusion,” she said. “Any staff member should know when they approach us, they should feel that we’re there for them.” Whande also talked about how diversity and inclusion needed to be approached and measured differently. “Diversity is always easier to measure because it’s really about who’s around,” she said. “You have a target and you’re either meeting it or you’re not. When we’re talking about inclusion, we’re talking about attitude and behavior and that’s always tricky.” 4. Show you’re taking it seriously Molinaro highlighted issues with “performative” DEI activities — where organizations appoint new roles and announce new initiatives in order to appear to care, while not actually addressing issues. To fix this, it is important to get CEOs, board members, and senior leaders to engage in the process. Lena Bheeroo, engagement and equity manager at Bond, highlighted the case of Wellcome in the United Kingdom, which recently announced plans for a chief DEI officer at a salary of £211,000 (around $262,000) per annum — a record for the U.K. nonprofit sector. “It was very much a statement to the charity sector that that organization was taking this seriously,” she said. She said Wellcome had carried out an analysis the previous year which found issues with racism in its history. “They’ve come out and owned that and they’re doing something about it by employing someone senior who sits in the C-suite and reports to the CEO,” she said.