Devex Executive ReviewSummer 2014
Exclusive to Devex Executive Members
NGO rebranding:How to getit rightDevelopment executivesshare lessons learned
NGO rebranding:How to getit rightDevelopment executivesshare lessons learned
#SheBuilds:Going beyond the rhetoric
Timeline:Highlights from our developmentnews coverage
The twisted tale of Inga 3
The Global BeatRaj Kumar, president & editor-in-chief of Devex
Representation from Hollywood is a must during these festivities, and we were honored to be joined by Tony Goldwyn (inset), the esteemed actor who, as is apropos, plays the character of the president of the United States on the hit ABC television drama “Scandal.”
The party was held May 1 at the new o!ces of the United Nations Foundation. The U.N. Foundation’s own poll, released the week before, added important nuance to the idea that Americans want to be less engaged in world a"airs. In the survey, 71 percent of Americans favored U.S. policy that includes “international cooperation” and “America providing leadership and aid for international humanitarian crisis situations.”
Where does that leave us? Increasingly, it means Americans will turn to relief and development workers as our “boots on the ground.” There is an entire ecosystem of NGOs, foundations, mission-driven companies and development agencies which are becoming more and more important in
places like Myanmar, Somalia and Haiti. These profession-als, this ecosystem needs to be informed to do its job well.
That’s where Devex comes in. Whether it’s getting the inside story on World Bank reforms or reporting on humanitarian logistics from the ground in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, Devex reporters write with the knowledge that everyone from Melinda Gates to a new Peace Corps volunteer requires insights and information to do more good for more people.
And we couldn’t do it without you. The 120 reporters, analysts and professionals at Devex who follow the money and cover the latest innovations in global development do it knowing that you, the leaders of the global development community, are reading, engaging with, and supporting our work. You too are part of the global beat.
It’s true that the search for a lost plane can be what passes for international news in some corners of the media. And the old days of journalism with well-sta"ed bureaus in Moscow and London are long gone. But I have come to believe that something
even better is taking its place. For those of us who seek out the latest news from Kharkiv to Khartoum, today more than ever, there’s top-notch international a"airs journalism and enterprising reporters who go to great lengths to hunt down the story, often at great personal risk.
Why does this matter? In late April, The Wall Street Journal released its survey of Americans and reported a record: Almost half of all Americans (47 percent) now say they want the United States to be less active in world a"airs. A decade ago, only 14 percent felt this way. Given our recent history in Iraq and the tumultuous situation in countries from Syria to Libya to Ukraine, many people around the world might agree. But disengagement — for the United States or any other country — is not a real option in today’s interconnected world.
Global development is the best example of this. Disease, conflict and climate change respect no border. Economies are linked as is commonly understood, but so too is our health, our security and our environment. For Americans who see a world of risk and want to withdraw, the antidote is information and insight. And there’s more of it than ever before.
On May 3, Hollywood stars, Wall Street tycoons and Silicon Valley legends descended on Washington for the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. There were parties galore, many sponsored by major media companies, which added to the festivities. For journalism, this was one moment when the spotlight was turned on us.
One thing has been missing from that spotlight for too long, though: a focus on the importance of international a"airs journalism. That’s something we at Devex and the venerable Foreign A"airs magazine set out to change last year with the very first event specifically celebrating coverage of the global beat.
This year, the party — appropriately titled “The Global Beat” — was back, and it featured award-winning journalists who cover international a"airs and global thinkers like Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass.
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.
To become an Executive Member, go to devex.com/executive.
About Devex
We are a membership organization serving a global membership of half a million pro-fessionals and 1,000 organizations in 100 countries with development business news, information and insights. Our motto is "Do Good. Do It Well.™" because we believe a more e!cient global development industry can change the world.
Learn more at about.devex.comDevex: Washington, DC | Barcelona | Manila | Tokyo
Quotables
“Sustainable development solutions must be homegrown to be successful.”- Makhtar Diop,
vice president for the Africa region at the World Bank
“People no longer want to give with the idea that it may help today, they want to know what their investment is doing for tomorrow.”- Vicki Escarra,
CEO of Opportunity International
“Just as women’s rights are human rights, women’s progress is human progress.”- Hillary Clinton,
former U.S. secretary of state
"The best way to build a state is putting it to work."- Erik Solheim,
chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee
Actor Tony Goldwyn with Raj Kumar
Devex TimelineHighlights from our development news coverage
05
International Relief and Development in the spotlightNGO receives notice from the U.S. special investigator general for Afghanistan reconstruction about its use of confidentiality agreements; more scrutiny may be ahead for IRD
10
French parliament adopts legislation allowing lawmakers to debate development cooperation policies for the first time
27
Myanmar to MSF: Cease operationsDays later, the government allows the relief group to resume work in selected regions
11
Under the Harper administration’s 2014-15 budget, Canadian foreign aid remains at CA$5B ($4.6B) (above: Christian Paradis, minister of international development)
01
Sudan orders Red Cross to suspend operationsGovernment cites some “technical issues” as reason for the request (above: ICRC President Peter Maurer)
25
Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway suspend aid to Uganda over anti-gay lawSweden follows suit; the World Bank postpones a $90M health loan (above: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni)
30
Australia caps foreign aid budget at AU$5B ($4.7B) per yearPrime Minister Tony Abbott (above) later suggests it may take a decade to reach the ODA spending target of 0.5 percent of GDP
08
At the World Economic Forum on Africa, Premier Li Keqiang a!rms that China will spend more than half of its foreign “aid” on the continent
13
EU issues policy paper on engaging the private sector in development cooperation
20
In Oslo, donors pledge more than $600M in emergency aid for South Sudan
02
USAID releases policy framework on local systems
04
U.S. President Barack Obama requests $50B
for foreign aid in fiscal 2015
10
World Bank announces up to $3B aid for embattled Ukraine in 2014
07
Barack Obama signs farm bill into lawThe Agriculture Act of 2014 is meant to make U.S. global food aid more e!cient and flexible
13
South Korea to spend $2B in foreign aid this year, an 11 percent hike (above: Prime Minister Chung Hong-won)
19
GAVI launches appeal for $7.5BThe funds will be used to help vaccinate another 300M children from 2016 to 2020 (above: GAVI Alliance CEO Seth Berkley)
13
In the U.K., a bill ensuring foreign aid projects promote gender equality becomes law (above, aid chief Justine Greening)
15
Syria donor conference yields $2.4B
22
AfDB board approves new gender strategy
01
USAID launches the Global Development LabIts goal is to “take game-changing solutions to more than 200 million people”
08
OECD: Foreign aid reached all-time high in 2013 ($134.8B)
16
AfDB establishes the Africa Climate Change Fund with seed funding from Germany
16-17
Global Environment Facility gains $4.43B in fresh funds
February
29
USAID changes its mission statementIt now reads: “We partner to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity.” (above: Administrator Rajiv Shah)
January
21
MCC commits to help PEPFAR “go local”The two sign a 3-year partnership that aims to ensure PEPFAR’s long-term sustainability
26
World Vision reverses decision to hire employees in gay marriagesIn protest, Google’s Jacquelline Fuller (above) resigns from the NGO’s board a week later
02-05
At ADB annual meeting in Astana, President Takehiko Nakao (above) promises reforms Buzz about China’s proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank intensifies
19-23
Celebrating its golden jubilee, AfDB outlines vision for “the Africa we want” (above: President Donald Kaberuka)
19-24
Productive: 67th World Health Assembly in GenevaAmong the agreements: electronic voting for the next director-general in 2017 and a global monitoring framework on maternal, infant and young child nutrition (above: World Health Organization DG Margaret Chan)
March April
15-16
Mexico hosts first major post-Busan development e!ectiveness summitMore talk, little action? Opinions vary about the Global Partnership for E"ective Development Cooperation’s high-level meeting (above: co-chair Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala)
07-13
World Bank spring meetings clouded by uncertainty over reformsDevex live coverage includes news on emerging country engagement strategy (above World Bank chief Jim Kim)
May
22
John Kerry launches QDDR 2.0The 2nd U.S. Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review will be more focused than its predecessor and serve as a “blueprint for America’s success in the world”
It doesn’t.
The international development sector is undergoing a seismic shift. Private overseas capital flows have come to dwarf o!cial development assistance. Governments are ramping up e"orts to engage local institutions and the private sector — both as investors and implementing partners. Foreign aid budgets remain dwindling and unpredictable, and in the past year alone, two bilateral agencies have been absorbed into their countries’ diplomatic and trade departments. And in the midst of it all, the international community is grasping for a new sustainable development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals by the end of 2015.
Aid groups need to keep up — and they need to protect and project their image as e"ective and innovative partners in today’s fast-paced development landscape.
It’s not easy to cut through the constant stream of information and chatter, position your organization as a leader and project a greater degree of openness to partnership and collaboration, especially for midsize nongovernmental organiza-
tions operating in the space between international giants and local institutions.
Some NGOs pursue mergers or acquisitions. Others strategically reposition themselves to stay current.
But there are other tools. Leveraging the power of a new brand — the symbols and language an organization uses to project its mission, vision and culture to partners, clients and employees — is one of them.
Rebranding is a high-stakes exercise. It means boiling down everything your organization is and wants to be to its essential characteristics, finding a way to translate that into words, shapes and colors, and then watching as the symbolism and messaging you’ve adopted permeate across your employees’ interactions — with one another, with your clients, with beneficiaries and with your partners.
But despite that intimate and unique connection between each NGO and its brand, some lessons are generalizable across the international development space. And leaders of mission-driven
organizations operating in a global arena today have much to gain from their peers’ experience.
Pact, Population Services International and Pyxera Global have all refreshed their brands in recent years, reimagining the image they project outward to partners and inward to employees. Here’s what the executives and leaders who steered those e"orts learned along the way:
1. Know who you are and where you’re going before you mess with your brand
Mark Viso took over as CEO at Pact almost five years ago.
With new leadership in place, and big changes reverber-ating throughout the U.S. global development sector, members of Pact’s board of directors raised the idea of a rebrand. For Viso, it was an opportunity to update the organization’s image.
“Branding is fun,” he told Devex. “It’s sexy. It’s romantic. There are colors involved.”
Viso had been through two rebrands at other organiza-tions, and he understood that a brand has to be built on an accepted mission and sound business practices, not vice versa. So instead of jumping headfirst into debates about colors and symbols, Viso led a deep dive into Pact’s core business practices — its mission, strategic vision, metrics and culture — to fix the organization’s “internal pipes.”
His mission, Viso said, is to “marry” what he saw to be missing from the development NGO industry — “the rigors of business science” — with the passionate purpose of mission that development workers bring with them to the job.
A good brand captures the essence of what an organiza-tion is about and where it intends to go. The process of discovering what that essence is, of distilling the arche-
typal characteristics of your employees and the meaning they derive from their work, requires deep reflection on an organization’s strategic vision.
Moving ahead without a clear vision — and a process for engaging sta" members — can backfire.
“It is dangerous,” Viso said. “Don’t do this until you’re happy with your strategy. It will cause you to reflect on things internally without the fabric around you to do it safely.”
For organizations that go through the di!cult process of soul-searching, a rebrand can help project the positive results of that work both outward to partners and clients and inward to employees.
Read the full article at devex.com/ngorebranding
Mission-driven organizations and their leaders tend to take comfort in the notion that their commitment to doing good speaks for itself.
Development NGO rebranding: How to get it rightBy Michael Igoe, Devex senior global development reporter
“Branding is fun. It’s sexy. It’s romantic. There are colors involved.”- Mark Viso, CEO of Pact
“Brands are about emotion. When you change that, it’s not a surprise that it’s an emotional reaction from people.”- Marshall Stowell, director of external relations and communications at PSI
Mark Viso, CEO of Pact
Pact: old logo Pact: new logo PSI: old logo PSI: new logo
This year, on International Women’s Day, Devex launched She Builds, a campaign to advance the cause and showcase the leadership of women and girls around the globe. And
while #SheBuilds has o!cially ended, our mission remains — and the international community appears more determined than ever to take it up.
Beyond #SheBuilds: A campaign ends but its cause remainsRolf Rosenkranz, Devex global editor
We’ve heard from changemakers around the world who are building a better future for all of us. We learned about new, creative ways to empower women and girls by providing them with health care, education and jobs and by expanding oppor-tunities for them to lead. We heard about successful initiatives that engage women in activities from policymaking to peace building, from teaching to keeping communities safe.
And we showcased ways all of us can make a di"erence — something that was particularly important to us and our campaign partners Chemonics, Creative Associates, JBS International as well as the Millennium Challenge Corp., U.K. Department for International Development and United Nations O!ce for Project Services.
We’ve heard how foreign aid donors like UNOPS and MCC are mainstreaming gender issues internally and within the projects they support, and shared three tips by Susanna Mudge, the president and CEO of Chemonics, for organiza-tions eager to do the same.
We've learned how JBS empowers tribal women through innovation, and how Creative engages women to advance peace, safety and security in fragile states.
We’ve heard bold commitments from Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, the EuropeAid director-general, and Justine Greening, the U.K. secretary of state for international development, to push gender equality and empower women and girls around the world.
The United Kingdom recently took a major step in that direction by passing legislation to ensure that all of the country’s relief and development e"orts take gender issues into account — a landmark achievement for a country that has made the elimination of female genital mutilation and early and forced marriage a central pillar of its international cooperation. Prime Minister David Cameron will host an international summit in London this July to galvanize global e"orts on what Greening, in an exclusive guest commentary
for She Builds, called two “ne-glected issues.”
She Builds also featured com-mentary by U.N. Women Executive
Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Haitian Prime Minister Gary Conille and Melanne Verveer, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, among many others.
People from all over the world shared their advice and their stories on how to empower women and girls. #SheBuilds reached millions of people via social media. On Twitter alone, we counted more than 4,500 contributors, including Melinda Gates, Desmond Tutu and the Hollywood actresses and humanitarians Debra Messing and Ashley Judd.
The United Nations and several of its agencies — including U.N. Women and UNOPS — joined the conversation, as did lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere, companies like Coca-Cola, nonprofits like Oxfam, CARE, Women Deliver and the ONE Campaign, and initiatives like The Girl E"ect, Girls Not Brides, Girl Rising and Girl Up.
Women and girls are changing the world, and Devex will keep the spotlight on their leadership and vision as we gear up for next year’s 20th anniversary of the historic Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and as world leaders negotiate a global framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals, which expire at the end of 2015. Join us!
Contact [email protected] and check out devex.com/shebuilds
Photo credits: Mark Viso: Pact; Girl on the cover / European Commission; Makhtar Diop: Eskinder Debebe / United Nations; Hillary Clinton: Chatham House; Vicki Escarra: Opportunity International; Erik Solheim: personal collection; Raj Kumar, Rolf Rosenkranz, Michael Igoe, Paul Stephens, Kate Warren: Devex; Tony Goldwyn and Raj Kumar: U.N. Foundation; Chung Hong-won: Evan Schneider / United Nations; Rajiv Shah: USAID; Peter Maurer: Urs Jaudas / World Economic Forum; Christian Paradis: Jakob Polacsek / World Economic Forum; Yoweri Museveni: Russell Watkins / DfID; Justine Greening: Marisol Grandon / DfID; Jacquelline Fuller: Landmark Ventures Events; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Bret Hartman; John Kerry, Tony Abbott: U.S. State Department; Takehiko Nakao: ADB; Donald Kaberuka: World Economic Forum; Margaret Chan: World Health Organization; Seth Berkley: Benedikt von Loebell / World Economic Forum; Melinda Gates: Ky Chung / United Nations; Ashley Judd: genevieve719 (on Flickr); Desmond Tutu: Joshua Wanyama
Correction: In the winter 2013 edition of the Development Executive Review, we misspelled the name of Global Health Council Executive Director Christine Sow.
Share this publication, keep it as a reference or recycle it knowing that Devex supports sustainable forestry.
World Bank President Jim Kim says the project, known as the Inga 3 base chute, the next step in what would become the largest hydropower complex in history, is exactly the type of “bold” initiative a revamped and re-energized World Bank ought to support, and he is vying for U.S. support.
The debate about whether the U.S. government — the world’s largest bilateral aid donor — should support the project has mostly been waged behind closed doors. But as Kim, who was nominated for his current job by President Barack Obama, tries to negotiate U.S. support for the controversial project, he has set o" fierce debates and met strong resistance from the halls of Congress.
The lack of a clear U.S. policy on the dam and other energy projects raises tough questions about how thoroughly the Obama administration has thought through its Power Africa strategy, which aims to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite the concerns, the World Bank’s board of directors approved in March a $73 million loan for a project to provide the initial technical assistance to plan the construc-tion of Inga 3.
That project would eventually cost between $9 billion and $12 billion to build and would be an important step toward construction of the Grand Inga Dam, a massive hydro-power project that would cost roughly $80 billion. Its potential 40,000 megawatts of output would dwarf that of China’s Three Gorges Dam and double the African continent’s energy output.
Read the full article at devex.com/inga3
The twisted tale of Inga 3By Michael Igoe and Paul Stephens
Inside DevelopmentExecutive Appointments Recruiting InsightAt the World Bank, a group of senior directors will oversee newly created global practices and cross-cutting areas, starting July 1, including:
Education: Claudia CostinEnergy and extractives: Anita GeorgeEnvironment and natural resources: Paula CaballeroFinance and markets: Gloria GrandoliniGender: Caren GrownGovernance: Mario MarcelHealth, nutrition and population: Tim EvansJobs: Nigel TwoseMacroeconomics and fiscal management: Marcelo GiugalePoverty: Ana RevengaPublic-private partnerships: Laurence CarterSocial protections and labor: Arup BanerjiTrade and competitiveness: Anabel GonzalezTransport and ICT: Pierre GuislainUrban, rural and social development: Ede Ijjasz-VasquezWater: Junaid Ahmad
Other leadership changes include:ADB: Lakshmi Swaminathan, president of the administrative tribunalADB Institute: Naoyuki Yoshino, deanAfDB: Marcia Denise Occomy, U.S. director (nominated)French Ministry of Foreign A"airs and International Develop-ment: Annick Girardin, minister of state for development and francophonie GBCHealth: Nancy Wildfeir-Field, president Global Green Growth Institute: Yvo de Boer, director-generalGlobal Partnership for Education: Julia Gillard, chair of the board of directorsInitiative for Global Development: Mima Nedelcovych, president and CEOInter-American Foundation: Juan Carlos Iturregui, Roberta S. Jacobson and Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, members of the board of directors (nominated)International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance: Yves Leterme, secretary-generalIMF: Mark Sobel, U.S. executive director (nominated)Italian Ministry of Foreign A"airs: Federica Mogherini, minister of foreign a"airs Millennium Challenge Corp.: Dana J. Hyde, CEOUNICEF: Anthony Lake, executive director (reappointed)UNOPS: Grete Faremo, executive directorUSAID: Alfonso E. Lenhardt, deputy administrator (nominated); Jonathan Nicholas Stivers, assistant administrator of the Bureau for Asia (nominated) U.S. State Department: Deborah Birx, U.S. global AIDS coordinator
Attracting top talent in the field is critical to an organization’s success in global development. Whether it’s identifying the winning candidate for a competitive bid, finding a leader with the right mix of language, technical and soft skills to shepherd a flagship program
or retaining support sta" critical to running an e!cient operation, having the right people in place is essential to securing funding and imple-menting impactful programs on the ground.
Devex recently spoke with seasoned chiefs of party, country directors and team leaders to learn what motivates them to join — or stay in — an organization and what turns them o". Here are the three takeaways every development leader should be aware of:
Compensation isn’t everything. While in-demand professionals expect a fair wage, money is not their top motivator when making career decisions, particularly for those leading projects in the field. Team dynamic, a feasible project design and positive work culture all rank higher as reasons to accept or stay in a job.
Brand matters. Be aware of how your overall brand impacts you employer brand and vice versa. In one study, 69 percent said they would turn down an employment opportunity — even if they were unemployed — if the employer had a bad reputation. Your brand may not be the same everywhere you operate, either. Look both globally and locally as perceptions can vary widely in di"erent contexts.
Loyalty comes first. The other reason in-demand professionals may turn down a job opportunity is out of loyalty to their current employer. If they feel valued by their organiza-tion, they are a lot less likely to leave. For example, finding work for star performers between projects can go a long way in making sure they stick around the next time you need to field them to a new assignment.
Read Kate’s blog at devex.com/blogs/development-careers
Kate Warren, Devex senior director & editor, recruitment and careers
In the lush southwest corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a massive dam project on one of Africa’s largest rivers has created a twisted tale of
political maneuvering and heated debates on the trade-o"s of economic development that has tripped up foreign aid leaders in Washington as they decide whether to support a project that is hailed as a solution to Africa’s “energy poverty.”
Move over, “integrated approach” and “local solutions.” Pact’s now known not only for its approach to international development but also for its distinctive new brand. The Pact look and logo is one of !ve rebrands that jurors voted Best of Show in the 2014 REBRAND® 100 Global Awards. Pact’s rebranding is more than just imagery. It’s a powerful symbol for Pact’s core values of local solutions, partnerships and results.Learn more about Pact’s brand — and how our remarkable brand of international development is building local promise worldwide.
one of the five best in the world
pactworld.org
