Share your Development Story

 

International development practitioners are saying that development programs and projects are more effective when they are adaptive, politically smart, and locally led.  There’s much online literature on this, written by researchers, donors, and implementors (international NGOs or INGOs) - for each other.  In these articles, as Duncan Green’s students have pointed out, the thinking has been “relentlessly Northern”. 

In looking at these practices as approaches to international development, one important point has been overlooked: that being adaptive and politically smart are effective strategies for local leaders and organizations, regardless of whether they are supported by international donors or not.

Many local social actors have always been adaptive and politically smart.  That’s how they’ve survived until now, through changes in political administration, economic conditions, and other changing environmental factors.  

In the Philippines, the conditions around NGOs and CSOs have changed much over the years - in the late 1960s and early 70s, many risked being tagged as leftists; after 1986, NGOs and CSOs joined the mainstream; the community took a beating with the Napoles cases, and lost support from foreign partners. 

Amid these changes, the NGOs organized themselves into umbrella organizations and set up standards for financial management and governance.  Some are now sustaining themselves by providing services for a fee (instead of depending on international aid).  Many have learned to participate in government programs and local special bodies.  While some organizations died out, those who managed to adapt are still operating and serving now.

Some organizations have adapted by adding policy reform to their regular activities.  One such NGO is Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE).  Atty Ona Caritos said that in the past, “policy reform” meant sitting in public hearings when invited by Congress.  Since then, they learned to identify and pursue policy reform in an adaptive and politically-smart way.  Today they have at least two policy wins.  One is about public school teachers’ involvement in poll duties; another is creating an office within the Commission on Elections to look after PWDs’ needs. 

Still, many other NGOs and CSOs are not used to adaptive and political work.  Some still don’t like to work with the government, or with personalities in government.  Others are not yet familiar with the processes and operations required for adaptive work.  And others just haven’t heard yet about how and why the adaptive approach is a better way of doing things.

This is why it’s necessary to have more write-ups about local leaders’ and organizations’ experiences with adaptive and politically-smart approaches - regardless of whether these experiences involved donor support or not.  These stories are necessary for the exchange of information, knowledge, and experiences within the NGO-CSO community.  

Most of the literature, available online, is about donor-funded projects; stories of indigenous experiences are difficult to find.  We need to encourage local leaders and organizations to share their experiences and insights with others and cross-pollinate and build the local body of knowledge on adaptive development work. If you have such an experience, share it!