Institute For The Future

Future of International Development: Process not Outcome

The international development field is going through bit of a crisis. You may find this surprising since showing empathy towards poverty in the so-called developing world is probably at a peak. Who hasn't gone to that country called Africa to dig a well for a couple weeks during summer break? At any rate, the institutions that define the field are facing increasing fragilities and opposition. As we settle into the 21^st century, the model of international development that was created in the mid 20^th century is quickly running into an identity crisis. The politics, the ground “truth” around poverty and “Third World” countries, and the exclusiveness of expertise that existed when the Bretton Woods Institutions were created is no longer relevant in today’s world. Even the concept of western nations giving aid to developing nations is troublesome. The sheer division of countries that exist in poverty and others that don’t is becoming increasingly difficult to support.

As Americans, when we travel to rural Kenya and see dirt roads and schools without electricity, for example, we assume poverty. But I can assure you that I know lots of people in Kenya who have grown up in surroundings that look deeply “impoverished” to us, yet they have far, far more capital and cash flow than I do. And at the same time, I can go down the street in the United States and meet neighbors struggling to feed themselves and access adequate education. Education in rural Kenya—without electricity, without many books, with dirt roads, even without shoes—can equip some youth far better for the world than if they had attended many of America’s public schools.

We are facing the highest levels of inequality we’ve ever dealt with. While inequality among countries may be declining, inequality within countries is on the rise. This is a recipe for utter disaster.

Poverty is coming home. No matter where you are. And so is wealth.

We need to reassess our understanding of poverty. And we need to reassess our understanding of the drivers of poverty and inequality. While international development efforts have focused on poor communities or countries, we’ve never been brave enough to address the global systems that perpetuate poverty. We’ve been implicating the wrong people. By focusing our interventions on those who are poor, we’re implicitly stating that they are the problem. That they are not knowledgeable enough to pull themselves out of poverty the way we did, but that is a false reality. And this dynamic has lead to decades of patronizing relationships between development organizations and the communities they work with, and between the "global north" and the "global south."

How do we resolve this challenge? Co-creating shared futures across hierarchies is a fundamentally missing capacity within social change and international development efforts. Until we can design our process for social change so that they reflect our desired outcomes—equal access and voice, open and shared dialogue, power structures based on equity and respect rather than money, and shared community—we’ll never be able to shape our future towards peaceful, sustainable, and prosperous livelihoods for all.