How Irish NGOs are pushing innovation in global development

How Irish NGOs are pushing innovation in global development

On 7 May 2015, Dóchas hosted a conference on innovation in the global development sector.

Chaired by Justin Kilcullen, the conference showcased numerous innovative programmes by Irish NGOs and heard key note presentations from Mark Little of Storyful and Microsoft's Kate Krukiel. In addition, the inaugural Dóchas Awards for Innovative Programme and for Global Citizen of the Year were presented.

And one of the key points we made at the conference is that 'Innovation is not about being 'new'. Rather, it is about working smarter and working differently.

Dóchas is a network of organisations that come together to learn from each other and to turn that learning into recommendations for changed practice and changed policies. Our members know that, as organisations serving poor and vulnerable communities, we have a duty to do our utmost to make sure that our programmes deliver real benefits, now and well into the future. In our line of work, being well-intentioned is not good enough.

The issues we encounter in our work are complex and the problems we want to eliminate have many and deeply rooted causes. We have many different 'stakeholders', often with diametrically opposed demands and expectations, and the funding that we rely on is often based on a premise of quick results, despite the fact that we are aiming for change processes that may take generations to accomplish. In short, Development NGOs are complicated organisations, working in a complex environment – and one that is rapidly changing.

And in such a setting, it is important that we continue to challenge ourselves, to ensure we remain relevant and effective. And we believe that the key strategy to achieve that is to be willing to change; to innovate in order to respond to the needs and expectations of our programme participants, our partners, our donors and our peers.

For us, "innovation" is about having the courage to stop, to listen and to re-think. Innovation does not need to be "new".

What is new in one organisation or sector may not be seen as innovative in another. And innovation is not only about new technologies. Rather, for Dóchas "innovation" is creating a culture of inquisitiveness, curiosity and willingness to learn. Innovation is about encouraging our staff, partners and donors to ask the 'difficult' questions and to suggest alternative ways of working. And innovation is also about setting minimum professional standards for our work, and about sharing experience, so that others may encourage us to become even better at what we do.

At our conference, we want to showcase some of the many ways in which Irish NGOs are innovating their services, their competences, their use of data, their partnerships and their ways of working.

In doing so, we want to inspire further change and creativity. But we also want to challenge some of the perceptions of our sector and highlight the professionalism, dynamism and complexities of our member organisations.

Irish NGOs have shown that they are looking for innovation and improvement in a variety of different ways:

1) Collaboration with for-profit companies

One of the most significant changes in the sector relates to the growth of NGO partnerships with for-profit companies. Traditional "corporate social responsibility" partnerships, which focus essentially on funding, are being replaced by arrangements where both parties leverage each other's core competencies and skills. As more and more companies understand that their long-term sustainability is about more than their financial bottom line, and more NGOs recognise the limits of their own areas of expertise, new partnerships develop in many different areas.

Examples:

  • Camara’s iMlango programme is based on a partnership with Irish companies and the Kenyan Ministry of Education and seeks to address the cultural and financial issues that can lead to reduced school attendance among marginalised girls in Kenya.
  • Oxfam Ireland’s ‘Female Food Heroes’ programme is a national competition in Tanzania that accepts entries from small-scale and poor female farmers who if selected take part in a reality TV show that highlights their innovations in agriculture and provides them with further training.

2) Developing the private sector in developing countries

The traditional focus of Development NGOs was - and remains - the empowerment of marginalised communities by grassroots organisation and participatory problem analysis. By bringing communities together to consider the causes of their marginalisation, NGOs have been able to identify not just gaps in social services but also failures of market and governance systems. And increasingly, NGOs are looking to promote small and cooperative enterprises, and the policy environment that SMEs need to thrive, as a further contribution to global development.

Examples:

3) Organisational renewal

The members of Dóchas have long argued that to increase their impact they need to strengthen their internal governance, management and accountability structures. In recent years, however, they have made a further shift, focusing on options to scale up their activities and embracing concepts and approaches from the private sector. It is now quite common for NGO staff to speak in terms like 'business development', 'brand' and 'product', and many NGOs now analyse their work not only in social impact terms but also in 'cost per unit' and cost effectiveness terms.

Examples:

  • Tearfund Ireland’s ‘Partnership for Change’ research involved a cost/benefit analysis of the organisation’s work with self-help groups in Ethiopia. The study assessed value for money and wider economic benefits for the community, using both qualitative and quantitative data. 
  • VSO Ireland’s ‘Care to the Newborn’ programme aims to improve the standard of care for mothers and newborns in hospitals in Ethiopia, by tailoring solutions to local contexts, resources and capacities.
  • Concern Worldwide’s IMAM SURGE programme (Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition SURGE Model) aims to avert child deaths due to acute malnutrition & other childhood illnesses through the strengthening the capacity of the health system in Kenya. The programme wants to create a shift from the start-stop model of emergency response to an approach based on early action to avert potential emergencies. 
  • WorldVision Ireland local-level advocacy methodology, Citizen Voice and Action, mobilises and equips citizens to monitor government services (such as health and education). The approach aims to strengthen relationships between citizens, government and service providers resulting in improved service delivery.
     

4) Open NGOs

NGOs have long recognised the importance of diversity of perspective. In their overseas programmes, NGOs have pioneered techniques to ensure the inclusion of many different groups, to ensure everyone in the community had their say. Paradoxically however, at HQ level NGOs have been slower in their efforts at ensuring diversity. In recent years, more staff with a non-traditional background have been recruited by Irish NGOs.  In addition, many Irish NGOs have embraced the 'Open Data' concept, to map discrepancies between planned programmes and actual expenditure, and to enhance the transparency of their operations.

Examples:

  • Dóchas publishes its financial data in the internationally agreed International Aid Transparency Initiative’s IATI standard format.

5) New competences

A sector in flux requires new ways of working and also new skill sets. The ICT revolution has led NGOs to develop new skills in communications and new ways of organising the division of labour within organisations. Social media are asking NGOs to engage more in a two-way engagement strategy, not just with supporters and donors but also with a wider audience.

Examples:

  • Addressing The Unaddressed provides legal identity to people, by mapping slum areas and providing them with GPS addresses. The new addresses help provide people with verifiable proof of identity and allow them to claim their rights as citizens.
  • Development Perspectives’ ‘Insight’ programme uses a systems thinking framework, to reflect the complexity of global development, and emphasises the reciprocal nature of the programme, which offers experiental learning for participants from both Ireland and Tanzania.
  • UNICEF Ireland’s ‘U-Report' programme is based on a free SMS system that allows young people to speak out on what's happening in communities across their country, and work together with community leaders for positive change.
  • Plan Ireland’s birth registration programme in Liberia and Sierra Leone aims to assist vulnerable communities to claim their rights, through community information and the digitalisation of the birth registration system.
  • GOAL has developed a ‘toolkit for Measuring Community Disaster Resilience’ measuring the dimensions and levels of vulnerability within a community in an effort to build community resilience in a remote region of Honduras.
  • Trócaire runs the ‘Long Struggle for Justice in Guatemala’ programme in partnership with local human rights associations to challenge the culture of impunity and violence in the country. With Trócaire support the local organisations, acting on behalf of indigenous Ixil communities, succeeded in bringing a legal case against former president General Ríos Montt for crimes against humanity and genocide; a case they won.

Do you have other examples that we should add to this list?
Then do send them to us, and we can include them.

But most of all, do register for our conference, and join the debate on how we can promote Innovation in Global Development.

Miguel Fitzgerald

Real Estate Investment Director - Greystar Ireland 🇮🇪 | Depaul Housing Association Trustee | FSCSI FRICS M.B.S. B.Sc. | YIMBY

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Joyce Loughnan

Non Executive Board Director

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See you there. Looking forward to the discussions

Marta Alemany Puig

Communications and Engagement Lead

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very interesting!

Ruairí McKiernan

Social impact consultancy | Counselling | Author | Speaker | Podcast host | Presidential appointee to the Council of State 2012-2019

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nice on Hans

Evanna Craig

Business Partner, CEO's Office at SOLAS (An tSeirbhís Oideachais Leanúnaigh agus Scileanna)

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Looking forward to it!

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