Devex Executive Review - Winter 2015 by Devex

Devex Executive Review Winter 2015

On Ebola's frontlines: A brush with celebrity Devex's Richard Jones reports from Guinea on the Ebola crisis

Also in this issue:

The good news for development leaders in 2015

What 1,000 of your peers think about the future of global development 5 tips for a successful staff mobility policy

Exclusive to Devex Executive Members

Quotables The Development Executive Review is exclusive to Devex Executive Members — global development leaders who are innovating and shaping the business of development and working hard toward a singular mission: to make the world a better place.

“Fear of change is one of our greatest obstacles to ensuring there is enough food to feed 9 billion.”

To become an Executive Member, go to devex.com/executive.

- Julie Borlaug, associate director of external affairs at the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture

About Devex Devex is the media platform for the global development community. As a social enterprise, we connect and inform development, health, humanitarian and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence and funding & career opportunities so you can do more good for more people.

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- Christos Stylianides, European commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management

“A single voice is as good as anybody else's voice.” - Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Program

"The Ebola epidemic is an eye-opener and invites us to learn lessons for the future, because other epidemics may hit us again." - Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank

The good news for development leaders in 2015 Raj Kumar, president & editor-in-chief of Devex When we think about industries undergoing a transformation, driverless cars, solar power or online media might come to mind. But today, it’s not just transportation, energy and publishing that are in the crosshairs of rapid change. Foreign aid is set to shift due to a massive influx of funding — tens of billions of dollars over the next decade, according to international development executives Devex surveyed recently. With global development readying for change this year, our expanded coverage for development, sustainability, health and humanitarian executives is connecting industry leaders to the information that matters most. Devex Executive Membership is the essential tool for development insiders who need the latest breaking news, in-depth analysis and extensive access to reference databases to make good on their organizations’ missions, and I encourage you to take a moment to consider it. We explored what the inflow of new funding means for our industry in “The Future of Global Development,” a series for Devex Executive Members that was published last fall. The

series, which you can read more about in this publication, drew from the findings of a Devex survey of nearly 1,000 development executives, 70 percent of whom said they thought the industry would fundamentally transform over the coming 10 years. According to our research, development leaders can expect new sources of funding over the next decade that will likely move our currently $200 billion industry toward a status quo that’s more diverse, results-driven and competitive. Emerging economies, corporations like Pfizer and Coca-Cola, private foundations funded by newly minted billionaires and online crowdfunding platforms have the potential to upend what was once a slow-moving and traditional field. This new funding isn’t just changing the scope of global development efforts. It’s transforming how the industry operates. Competition among charities and nongovernmental organizations is making the development market more responsive and data-driven, as aid executives believe their efforts will be judged more and more on their ability to show effectiveness. With this in mind, organizations are increasingly publicizing the results of randomized controlled trials and other methods to measure the impact of development work.

Executives told Devex that the agencies that have historically dominated overseas aid will see their spending plateau from current record highs, as new funding sources emerge. Corporations are bringing their global reach and deep pockets to development, whether it’s PepsiCo growing chickpeas in Ethiopia for its hummus brands or Starbucks sourcing coffee from Rwanda. Impact investing is predicted to grow dramatically over the next decade, crowdfunding and other lending platforms are already a source of more than $1 billion annually. And formerly poor countries are becoming major players in foreign aid; South Korea, Turkey and India have all joined the ranks of the half-a-dozen developing countries with aid budgets north of $1 billion. It’s true that many top development agencies, like the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development, are still afflicted by a tangle of bureaucracy which delays project implementation and hinders risk-taking. But even among official agencies, there’s movement toward increased competition that could improve results. China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, for example, aims to respond to frustration with process and conditionality by rapidly deploying $50 billion in starting capital. Whether or not it, or the BRICS countries’ New

Development Bank, will succeed, they represent new alternatives in the development finance space. We have reported that nearly 80 percent of executives are optimistic about development’s future. That this future will likely be shaped by a larger and more competitive marketplace may be wrenching, but it should also lead to a stronger focus on results. For those of us in management positions, the prospect of change is both exciting and daunting. Good intentions and conventional thinking are no longer enough, and leaders in this new era need access to crucial information and strategic insights to steer their organizations in the right direction. That’s the value of Devex Executive Membership, the premier resource for our industry’s decision-makers. As you plan for the new year, I hope you will join Devex in its mission to help global development organizations do the most good. Given that this means working more effectively to save children’s lives, preserve the environment and forge peace, change in international development is one industry disruption that can’t come soon enough.

Devex Timeline

Highlights from our development news coverage

More money for Ebola fight

USAID pledges $100M; other donors include the World Bank and philanthropists like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Paul Allen

South Sudan moves against foreign workers, including humanitarians

“We are asking organizations to consider those positions where South Sudanese qualify,” says government spokesman Mawien Makol Ariik

Kenyan government cracks down on NGOs suspected of financing terrorism, ordering several iNGOs to open their books or face expulsion

Devex covers NY #GlobalDev Week Ebola and cross-sectoral partnerships dominate discussions at the United Nations General Assembly, climate summit and countless other events

21-27 $200M Global Innovation Fund is born

Donor conference yields $5.4B for Gaza rebuilding (above: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas)

Obama promises $3B to Green Climate Fund Donors pledge $8B for Horn of Africa development

27 USAID ends operations in Ecuador

Rome hosts 2nd International Conference on Nutrition

Food security leaders meet in Rome for CFS 41

Members of the Commission on World Food Security endorse 10 voluntary principles on responsible investments in agriculture (above: CFS chair Gerda Verburg)

13-18

Netherlands creates €570M ($700M) emergency aid fund for 2014-2017 (above: Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen)

In Beijing, China and 20 other countries sign the agreement to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (above: Chinese President Xi Jinping)

Protests by reform-wary staff and safeguards activists cloud the World Bank annual meeting (above, President Jim Kim)

10-12

European Parliament votes to increase EU budget

Foreign aid funding gets an extra €400M in 2015

October

In Lima, Peru, negotiators forge a deal forming the basis of a new global pact on climate change to be signed in 2015 (above: U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres)

01-14

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves gathers $413M in pledges (above: Hillary Clinton, chair of the alliance’s leadership council)

Ahead of the international troop drawdown, U.K. hosts international conference to help Afghanistan become a stable nation (above: Justine Greening, U.K. secretary of state for international development)

December

An era ends at USAID

Administrator Rajiv Shah (above) announces plans to step down in February

Nepal becomes eligible for the first time

November

MCC selects Mongolia and Philippines for new compacts

Bill Gates (above) promises $500M to combat malaria and other infectious diseases

U.N. seeks $16.4B for humanitarian response in 2015 (above: outgoing U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos)

Ex-Louis Berger Group CEO Derish Wolff pleads guilty of conspiring to defraud USAID

19-21

Rebuilding in central Philippines continues one year after Typhoon Haiyan struck

Congress announces a $1.1T spending bill that includes $50.9B for foreign affairs in 2015

Delegates agree on a common vision and commitments to action to end all forms of malnutrition

21 September

Averted: US government shutdown

Belgium's new development policy proposes cutting budget for development cooperation by €1B over 5 years (above: Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo)

Tony Abbott (above) announces further cuts to Australian aid budget, worth 3.7B Australian dollars ($3B)

A bright future for an industry in flux

Development executives based in Asia are the most optimistic on the future of development*

By Nicolas Gloeckl, Devex manager of surveys and advisory services

Earlier this year, Devex asked key influencers and development executives to share their views on the future of global development. We had nearly 1,000 responses from senior managers across six continents working in sectors from government and donor agencies to social enterprises and the private sector to nongovernmental organizations. The overwhelming majority of toplevel executives who responded to our survey believe the global aid architecture will transform substantially over the next decade. Many of them are expecting funding from emerging donors — foundations, bilateral aid agencies and new agency models — to grow much faster than that from traditional donors. These actors, however, aren’t the only ones that will contribute to a fundamental change in the industry. Private sector giving has been growing in recent years and is expected to rise further in the years ahead. And it’s not just development giving from the corporate sector. Our survey findings indicate senior executives expect impact investing to grow an average 8.9 percent over the next decade. Presently, some $46 billion in global impact investments are under management, according to a recent report from the G-8 Social Impact Investment Task Force. J.P. Morgan and the Rockefeller Foundation have also projected that the sector could reach $1 trillion by 2020. Nearly 1,300 asset managers that handle more than $45 trillion in combined capital have signed up to the U.N. Principles for Responsible Investment, which commits

70% Europe

84% Asia

them to consider environmental, social and governance factors before investing in a venture. It’s unclear how much of that money has been and will be channeled to development, but the vast resources available have contributed to the growing number of social enterprises that are espousing innovative and market-based solutions to address development problems and to challenge conventional norms around serving populations at the bottom of the pyramid.

76%

North America

And perhaps for these reasons, top-level executives — especially those working at social enterprises and NGOs — said they’re more willing to donate their own money to an untested startup with innovative ideas than to an established organization with a proven track record.

78%

73%

Then there’s the role of innovation, a timely buzzword that’s by no means unique to international development. While there are new approaches that fail to take off, those that have succeeded have given us open databases, geomapping applications and mobile phone-based services that revolutionized how development agencies target beneficiaries and deliver aid.

73%

Africa

Australia/Oceania

Latin America

80% *

75%

70%

Percentages represent levels of optimism in the regions where executive positions are based.

“Our basic premise is that the development sector in the next decade is going to be a very different development sector from, let's say, the last several decades.”

With the vast amount of - Gib Bulloch, founder and executive director of Accenture Development Partnerships information top-level executives have given us through this survey, we have published a series that investigates what these senior managers think about the Top drivers of change in the global development industry.* future of global development. Each article focuses on a unique, sometimes contentious, issue that’s likely to have an impact on the changing development landscape. We also sought comments from key executives in development who provided interesting insights supporting — and sometimes challenging — what we found in our research. One thing is clear: Whether in the survey or through our interviews, the majority of senior executives believe the global development’s future will reflect some considerable shifts. Read more at devex.com/globaldevfuture

26%

20%

18%

17%

13%

Rise of Developing Countries

New Actors

New Technologies

Market-Oriented Shift

Decreasing Bilateral Funding

Figures represent the most popular categories of executives’ answers to open ended questions.

Ann Mei Chang's vision for USAID's Global Development Lab

On Ebola's frontlines: A brush with celebrity

By Michael Igoe, Devex senior global development reporter

In the course of my work as an associate editor at Devex, I’ve been privileged to meet a number of high-profile luminaries in the global development industry. It’s not every day, however, that I get to meet a person of the year.

The Global Development Lab, launched in April, is considered one of Rajiv Shah’s greatest legacies at the helm of the U.S. Agency for International Development — a venture that’s meant to imbue the entire agency with a new innovative spirit and dedication to science, technology and partnership. Two days before Shah announced plans to step down in February, on Dec. 15, Ann Mei Chang officially started her tenure as the lab’s executive director.

By Richard Jones, Devex associate editor

But I think equally important is inculcating a culture of a different way of approaching development, of taking more risks, of driving innovation, of really being evidence-based.

Chang is a former senior engineering director at Google who joins USAID after stints with the State Department and Mercy Corps. Devex spoke with her about her vision for an office that’s meant to produce “transformative development solutions” within the confines of a government bureaucracy that’s not always the most flexible or risk-tolerant. Here are some excerpts from our conversation: How will the Global Development Lab avoid getting bogged down in bureaucracy and politics as it looks for innovative solutions under your vision and leadership? I think that’s one of the biggest challenges, certainly. Government is not known for innovation, but I don’t think government and innovation are an oxymoron. I really believe that it’s possible, and it’s about us really having the right people and the right culture that we set to really shift the way that we look at how we do our work. Everyone looks to the huge successes that we’ve seen out of Silicon Valley over the last couple decades as an aspiration for where we want to be, and I think there’s a growing momentum in the U.S. government to take advantage of the successes there and apply them to the really important work we’re doing in government. Would you say the Global Development Lab’s mission, as you envision it, is to create “transformative” products to serve developing communities, or is it to transform USAID’s way of doing business? I think it’s both. I think that we are both trying to identify new tools and techniques that really can dramatically improve the cost-effectiveness or the scale of the development efforts we have underway and so absolutely we’re looking at scientific breakthroughs and technology breakthroughs to be able to do that.

Ann Mei Chang

I think both of those are important and not only within USAID and the U.S. government, but I think it’s very important to work with partners across the private sector, other governments, civil society, local actors and so forth … This isn’t just about what USAID itself can do. Forgive the hypothetical, but I was curious to know — if someone approached you during your time at Google with an idea for something resembling the Global Development Lab, what concerns would you have raised? The same one that you talked about earlier. The government is not known for innovation. It is realistically going to be a challenge to shift that culture. The good news is that since I was at Google, that culture has already been shifting and we’re seeing signs of that with lots of things that are happening in the lab itself as well as things we’re seeing across the U.S. government, such as the U.S. digital service. The work that we’re doing is to modernize the way that we do our work in the government and the realization that technology and innovation is essential for us to be able to do our jobs better. Read more at devex.com/annmeichang

British Army trainers show medics from the U.K. National Health Service how to put on protective gear they will use while stationed at Ebola treatment centers in Sierra Leone.

But in December, I met dozens of them while traveling to Conakry, Guinea, with European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica. Time magazine — which honored the tireless work of global health workers to curb the Ebola epidemic by naming them collectively as “person of the year” — characterized their mission in West Africa, a region ravaged by the crisis, as a war “waged with bleach and a prayer.” Matters of faith aside, perhaps, it can certainly be considered a war: one of attrition, where the risks are real and the pressure is incessant for the many thousands of health workers on the ground in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia as well as Mali, Nigeria and beyond. And, like in any war, there are clear and present dangers, with little or no respite from active service. The war on Ebola is being waged around the clock, seven days a week, two months on the ground at a time. This is not a call of duty for the work-shy or the faint-hearted. The tension of the situation and the strain faced by the health workers in dealing with a task of such gargantuan proportions is palpable, but the overriding impression is one of professionalism and solidarity. Unlike a conventional war, there is an absence of fear here among the footsoldiers of the advance against the virus. Read more at devex.com/ebolafrontlines

Our thoughts are with those serving on Ebola’s frontlines — the first responders, doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, virologists, logisticians, tracing and treatment teams, liaison officers and local volunteers — who are among the very modern heroes in our midst.

Recruiting Insight 5 tips for a successful staff mobility policy By Kate Warren, Devex senior director and editor for careers and recruiting

Widely regarded as a necessary way to build skills, reduce employee burnout in hardship locations and maintain neutrality in different regions around the world, encouraging or requiring staff mobility is a part of many international organizations’ operational plan. However, it is not without its challenges. Below are five things leaders should consider when developing a successful staff mobility policy. 1. Map out future talent needs A core goal of staff rotations is to grow and build the skills and experience of individuals in your organization. Make sure these are skills your organization actually needs by aligning them with a deliberate, long-term talent development plan. Examine your current skills gaps, projected staffing needs and strategic plans to make sure you are grooming the talent that will help your organization succeed today and in the future.

2. Maintain institutional knowledge One of the challenges of a mobility plan is losing your employees’ institutional knowledge, relationships and cultural acumen when they rotate out of one duty station or function and move into another. Create systems and policies to help retain and share this institutional knowledge as individuals come and go. For example, allow for sufficient overlap between rotations so outgoing staff can properly onboard incoming staff.

3. Integrate plan with gender priorities Unless carefully integrated, mobility plans can often work against other staffing priorities. For example, women can be disproportionately affected by staff rotations if it requires moving to a non-family-friendly duty station or to a location where their spouse will have difficulty finding employment. For organizations committed to gender equality — including at the leadership level — a successful mobility plan will need to consider the gender impact. Some organizations, for instance, will allow staff to concentrate rotations at the beginning and end of their career, allowing for more stability in between when they may be juggling family responsibilities.

Executive Appointments In November, the new European Commission headed by President Jean-Claude Juncker took office. Christos Stylianides succeeded Kristalina Georgieva — now the vice president for budget and human resources — as commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, while Neven Mimica assumed the post of commissioner for international cooperation and development. After months of speculation, Rajiv Shah announced in mid-December that he will leave the U.S. Agency for International Development in February. Deputy Administrator Alfonso Lenhardt will head the agency until a replacement is found. Nancy Lindborg has left her post as USAID assistant administrator to become president of the U.S. Institute for Peace. In March, Valerie Amos plans to vacate the top job at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Other leadership changes: Abt Associates:Jack Downey, senior vice president for business development and new market initiatives Counterpart International: Derek W. Hodkey, chief operating officer Engagement Global - Service for Development Initiatives: Jens Kreuter, managing director European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: Philippe Le Houerou, vice president for policy Ford Foundation: John W. Bernstein, chief operating officer; Francisco Cigarroa, member of the board of trustees; Alfred Ironside, vice president for global communications; Kenneth T. Monteiro, vice president, secretary of the board and general counsel Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Mouhamadou Diagne, inspector general International Relief and Development: Roger Michael Ervin, president and CEO International Union for Conservation of Nature: Inger Andersen, director-general Save the Children: Robert Clay, vice president for health and nutrition UNEP: Janez Potočnik, co-chair of the International Resource Panel United Nations: David Nabarro, special envoy on Ebola; Anthony Banbury (followed by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed), special representative and head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response; Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, assistant secretary-general for peace-building support; Carole Wainaina, assistant secretary-general for human resources management U.K. Department for International Development: Lindsay Patricia Northover, parliamentary undersecretary of state for international development U.S. mission to the United Nations: Isobel Coleman, U.S. representative for U.N. management and reform U.S. State Department: Antony Blinken, deputy secretary of state Wellcome Trust:Tim Livett, chief financial officer; Ted Smith, director of people and development Women Thrive Worldwide: Patricia T. Morris, president World Bank: Annette Dixon, vice president for South Asia; Hafez Ghanem, vice president for the Middle East and North Africa

4. Provide psychosocial support The emotional stress of adjusting to new cultures, being separated from family or managing the logistics of frequent moves can affect the mental well-being of even your most resilient staff. Successful mobility plans provide counseling and other psychosocial support to help employees — and just as importantly, their families — manage the anxiety that can accompany frequent rotations.

5. Incentivize rather than mandate Mobility plans that are forced upon staff can lead to higher turnover, staff burnout and lead to the perception that rotations are made simply for the sake of rotation rather than linked to longer-term individual and organizational strategic goals. And so rather than require staff to serve a specified number of years in a hardship location, build incentives to encourage staff to opt in. For example, create a promotion fast-track option where those who choose to relocate to less desirable areas are rewarded. This also allows for a more gender-balanced mobility plan where staff can choose to manage their rotations to fit their lifestyle needs. Read more at devex.com/recruitmentwhereto

Share this publication, keep it as a reference or recycle it knowing that Devex supports sustainable forestry. Photo credits: Ebola worker: Pan American Health Organization; Raj Kumar, Michael Igoe, Richard Jones, Kate Warren, Nicolas Gloeckl: Devex; Helen Clark: J.M Ferré / UNHCR; Christos Stylianides: European Commission; Donald Kaberuka; Jakob Polacsek / World Economic Forum; Rajiv Shah: USAID; Lilianne Ploumen: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Jim Kim: Sanitation and Water for All; Mahmoud Abbas; Benedikt von Loebell / World Economic Forum; Gerda Verburg: Roel Wijnants; Xi Jinping: Office of the Peruvian President; Bill Gates: Simon Davis / U.K. Department for International Development; Qilai Shen / World Economic Forum; Hillary Clinton: Steve Jurvetson; Christiana Figueres: Violaine Martin / UNFCCC; Justine Greening: Jessica Lea / DfID; Valerie Amos: Yubi Hoffmann / UN; Tony Abbott: Roberto Stuckert Filho / PR; Ann Mei Chang: C.Pha / ITU; Ebola: Richard Jones; British Army medics: DfID

Reimagining Partnerships Building on 50 years of innovation and impact, Abt Associates recently brought together thought leaders from around the world to offer their perspectives on how we can take more public-private partnerships to scale and create an environment for innovation and partnerships at the local level.

Collaboration Post-2015: Where Can Partnerships Take Development?

Join the conversation #reimaginePPP To review the results of the Abt Associates Development Partnership Survey, go to www.abtassociates.com/BoldThinkersSeries/PPPSurvey

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