The science of delivery, the art of transformation… and everything in between
If you have been working in development for a while, it is difficult not to feel jaded. The malaise of the sector has been dissected from every angle. Periodical calls for structural change and a “new normal” in international aid sound increasingly hollow. Like a crumbling fresco, the decline of the post-war development industry is revealing the underdrawings of a project mired by colonialism and technological solutionism.
Has the development sector the capacity, and, perhaps more importantly, the will to renew itself? And how do we ask this question in a meaningful way, in the midst of a global pandemic?
These were the questions that guided us as we drew up the program for Istanbul Innovation Days, UNDP’s corporate R&D event. After all, as Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, reminded us in her opening dialogue with Sudanese activist Alaa Salah, “it is not enough to throw rocks at the castle. We need to be the architects of a new future”. Projects that she initiated through her Black Future Lab, such as the Black Census project and the Black to the Future Policy Institute, are examples of such an emerging infrastructure that turns imagination into real world change.
It would be impossible to summarise the richness of over 30 conversations and experiences covered by the 8-week journey. They ranged from Beirut Urban Lab questioning the financial infrastructure driving the city reconstruction after the blast to a performance by space artist Nahum challenging our use of language, from Societal Platforms’ efforts to develop non-extractive technology platforms in India to Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr remarkable experience of winning an election by promising to raise property taxes.
Rather, I will focus here on 3 key takes from the event:
1. The biggest innovation for development? Ceding power
Now, unfortunately this is neither particularly new nor does it make for nearly as sexy a headline as “drones for vaccine delivery” or “scaling up social enterprises”. And it’s hard to imagine a donor or development organisation going for a “Ceding Power” innovation challenge any time soon. But the message came across consistently throughout the event. At this juncture, the development sector will credibly show that it is capable of renewal if it shows that it can relinquish power. In other words, the ultimate innovation challenge is institutional: the willingness to question who takes decisions and whose knowledge matters. Not necessarily technology prowess nor delivery at scale. The experience of the Africa Visionary Fund, as shared by its co-CEO Katie Bunten-Wamaru, is a case in point. As they moved forward with their vision to cut out intermediaries and traditional donors to provide unrestricted funds directly to African-led organisations, they were challenged by their own recipients to change their decision making process to reflect a genuine devolution. Herein of course lies the conundrum. Historically, bureaucracies have not proven to be particularly willing, to put it mildly, to relinquish power. As Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO of Oxfam, remarked “Money and physical resources can travel fast from the North to the South. Power, however, doesn’t”. Has the development sector the appetite to change the status quo? When it comes to UNDP, Kate Raworth of Doughnut Economics fame had telegraphic advice: “1. Go find the changemakers. They are everywhere, and they know their context better than you; 2. be mindful of power unbalances when it comes to funding them. You have to let go.”
2. Of Trojan mices and societal change
IID 2021 was, among others, a showcase of different approaches to bring about societal change. Amongst this breadth of experiences what stood out for me were examples of tactics reminiscent of the “Trojan mice”: relentlessly pursuing perhaps a non-obvious entry point into a system to eventually radically question its underlying logic. Natsai Audrey Chieza’s story is emblematic in this respect. The founder of Faber Futures, she succeeded in designing conditions for bacteria to produce natural pigments that can replace highly toxic chemicals in the textile industry. Most people would have rested on their laurels upon such an achievement. Instead, she used this as a starting point to engage on an ever more radical quest: what is the point of substituting a chemical with a natural substance, she is asking, if the overall logic of textile manufacturing and the fashion industry is still driven by overconsumption? How is this helping the planet? Likewise, and in a very different context, Pyrou Chung is using indigenous data sovereignty as an entry point to trigger a structural transformation in land ownership and peacebuilding. Do we have what it takes to pursue this powerful combination of pragmatism, commitment to change- here and now — with a long term vision of change, or are we more likely to be swayed by the pursuit of the latest innovation fad? Mayor Aky Sawyerr threw the gauntlet at us: “Development organisations, always remember. I was not elected to show to my citizens what change could look like, no matter how brilliant it might sound. I was elected to improve their lives, now”.
3. Being comfortable with discomfort
IID opened with a discussion featuring “artifacts from the future of development” as a way to help us imagine different, and at times contrasting, trajectories for the sector. In style, Nanjra Sambuli captured perfectly the spirit of the experience: “we need to learn to be comfortable with discomfort”. Throughout the event, we saw easy dichotomies that often capture the headlines of development news being challenged: North vs South, informal vs. formal, public vs. private sector, quantitative vs. qualitative, etc. The renewal of the development enterprise will depend on all of us being able to let go of “used futures” — mental models that are now obsolete and provide a sense of false comfort with the simplicity of their black and white categorization. It was really interesting in this respect to hear from Hannah Ryder, CEO of Development Reimagined, about their experience challenging the dominant narrative of Chinese aid in Africa or their efforts in radically reframing African debt as an opportunity. Likewise, Blockchain Chicken Farm author Xiaowei Wang took us through her journey of rural China to uncover how we got the rural urban divide all wrong. Time to upgrade our mental frames and refrain from the rush to “provide solutions” and hold instead the space to explore complexity and its contradictions.
Overall if there is one sentence that captured the imagination of many IID participants is Danny Sriskandarajah’s remark that “we thought development was about the science of delivery. We found out it’s about the art of transformation”. Though some pointed out that this in itself might be another false dichotomy, it lays out quite well the challenge ahead at this particular juncture of our innovation journey. Providing an institution with the will and capacity for renewal starts, at the very least, with asking a different set of questions, many of which are uncomfortable. It’s an art, and there is no mobile app for that.
This article has been cross-posted from UNDP’s website
