Through inspiring examples that cover what worked and what didn’t, a guided panel, and interactive breakouts, this session invited participants to explore their own roles and relationships with others in driving sustainable change.
Innovation requires iteration and learning
The speakers suggested focusing on trial and error, rather than waiting for the perfect situation or scenario before taking action. It’s not just innovation by us, but building on the local innovations that arise as we work together with local communities and stakeholders. At the same time, we need to stop competing with local actors and with what already works on the ground. Systems that fall apart when funding stops need to be stopped.
With this, partnerships are important to have deep change within a variety of actors. Partnerships help us work more effectively, and help us to ensure we don’t reinvent the wheel. Flexibility and adaptability are key in these large partnerships.
Change starts with us
Furthermore, the speakers acknowledged that we need to model the change ourselves, while also recognising that not everything is wrong. It’s important to keep what works and adjust the aspects that don’t. Putting the needs of local system players and communities squarely at the centre of our work helps us to clarify what our role should be an where and how we can add value. Listening to the communities we serve helps both of us to do better. We need to shift power structures based on what communities want and need; different communities have different wants and needs, and we need to allow room for these differences in our programmes. For this, negotiation with donors is needed to shift listening to donors to listening more to communities.
We need humility
The speakers added that we need to move away from creating change towards facilitating change. All the ingredients for success, on whichever dimensions, already exist locally. Therefore, we should focus on identifying those stakeholders and supporting them to unlock their creative power to be the most effective they can be.
Data being owned by communities themselves is a strong driver of change. Research and development are also a key ingredient for systemic change. Especially when this is fully implemented by communities. Listeners are needed, people that want to facilitate instead of control.
Concluding
Therefore, a new role for NGOs could be a partnership broker between different actors to ensure that impact lasts. Close collaboration and alignment are key, sometimes step by step and being patient in trying to achieve your goals. We need to pay attention to community led development, and to step back and support the creation of change through local systems and actors. Above all, communities need to be at the heart of our work again.
Picture by Nina Akollo