Development Entrepreneurs

A fter three workshops on Development Entrepreneurship (held in Quezon City, Davao, and Cebu City), we have gathered plenty of feedback from participants, and so there's much to think about. There are practical ideas for improving the workshop, like spending more time for introductions and small-group work, samples of filled-up Tools, guide questions for writing the Theory of Change, etc. Our participants included development professionals, some funders, and members of the academe.  There's been much discussion about how funders can support the DE approach given their traditional desire for certainty, which they try to enforce with deliverables and timetables.  This reflects the dialogue that's going on with the global development community, as all actors find their footing with adaptive development strategies. Two questions from participants that resonate with me are a) will the DE approach still be useful if policy is not the problem?, and b) can the DE a...

D evelopment Entrepreneurship has been called a “different” approach to reform.   What makes it different?   For me there are three core aspects of the DE approach that stand out from traditional development thinking. The first is about the way reform objectives are selected.  The DE approach picks reform objectives that are technically sound and politically acceptable.  When the most technically sound reform is not politically acceptable, Development Entrepreneurs do not insist on it.  Instead, they are willing to lower their sights, go for the second-best (or third-best, and so on) technical option that is politically feasible. Second, the DE approach is to work with a team of reformers that have certain characteristics. All team members must have grit.  There has to be a high level of trust among teammates.  Within the team, there is a leader, a technical expert, a political operator, and an insider - although one member may perform m...