by Sherine Jayawickrama
 
Steven Lawry’s five-part series on U.S. Philanthropy’s Shrinking Amibition has provided a lot of interesting food for thought.  His analysis and arguments have caused me to reflect on how this set of issues intersects with the experience of international NGOs fighting poverty and social injustice.  Three main reflections emerge.
 
First, Steven argues that foundations, although they are better equipped to catalyze important innovation by taking the risk of investing in untested ideas, are not doing so well enough.  He implies that this is because they are more focused on their own program goals and frameworks than the ideas and aspirations of their grantees who often have more grounded knowledge of the complex problems they seek to address.  It strikes me that this argument can be applied to many relationships within the development and social justice arena. 

To me, Steven’s point holds up a mirror to international NGOs as well, and cautions against the articulation of programmatic frameworks, organizational goals and performance metrics in a way that undermines flexibility and local knowledge.  As much as foundations can over-specify outcomes in relation to grantees, international NGOs can over-specify outcomes in relation to local NGOs with whom they partner – and local NGOs can do the same in relation to community groups with whom they work. This cascading effect happens because, at every level, organizations want to ensure accountability and effectiveness.  This is understandable and important.  The trick is to find the right balance, where shared accountability, enduring impact (which may not be synonymous with short-term impact) and empowered communities are possible.
 
Second, the search for impact in the short-term is not just a feature of foundations.  Many donors – from large multilateral and bilateral institutions to individual philanthropists – want to know, at a minimum, that their money is not being wasted.  Ideally, they want to know that their contribution is making a tangible difference in people’s lives.  In so many ways, foreign aid and private philanthropy are square pegs, and the problems they are trying to address are round holes.  Foreign aid and philanthropy typically flow along program or sector lines, and are organized around time-bound projects.  Underlying causes of poverty and social injustice, manifested in issues like hunger, disease, poor education, insecure livelihoods or bad sanitation, cannot be confined to sectors and are poorly addressed by projects. 

Increasingly, we are recognizing these problems can only be addressed by profound social change that might be assisted by donor-funded projects, but must be led by local constituencies and movements that find their voices and assert their rights – and by governments who govern responsibly and equitably.  Donors and international NGOs must be humble about their role in bringing about these changes – and be ready to work in ways that facilitate social change without unintentionally dictating terms or unwittingly encouraging a short-term mindset.
 
Finally, two important messages woven thought Steven’s series stood out. 

First, that setbacks and failures are par for the course when it comes to investing in ideas that could be truly game-changing. So the measurement systems we set up should not discourage responsible risk taking and learning from failure.  This is easier said than done.  Few grantees are willing to acknowledge failure (this is different from putting a very positive spin on a setback!) unless donors are deliberate about creating a climate in which very honest reflection is valued and embraced. 

Second, that investments in people and organizations might be more strategic than funding of projects and interventions.  Of course, this is not necessarily an “either or” proposition; it could very well be “both and”.  The tendency, however, is that both donors and international NGOs often focus more attention on project implementation than on building the capacity of people and organizations more broadly.