Teachers, policymakers and education implementers discuss promising approaches to improve learning at Results for Development’s early learning toolkit workshop in Dakar, Senegal.
In global development, people are energized by images and stories of pregnant women receiving care, babies receiving lifesaving immunizations and healthy children actively participating and learning at school.
The unsung heroes in this field are those who aren’t always visible yet crucial to work happening on the front lines. These are the policymakers, administrators, local NGO leaders and private sector innovators. They labor to fund, design, and manage programs that work, tracking progress and trouble-shooting big systemic problems. They are the change agents who are engineering and implementing health and education reforms that will save lives, lift people out of poverty, and ultimately create peaceful, prosperous, and equitable societies. It’s our job to support them.
We can do this by arming them with effective yet practical ideas, evidence and tools for solving common and uncommon challenges; by creating learning networks; and by working with global donors to help prioritize funding and energy where it will be of greatest benefit to change agents in low- and middle-income countries.
Their stories of impact — and results — are the ones we aspire to shape and share at Results for Development.
Now, more than ever
In recent decades, the number of people around the world living in extreme poverty has declined, and many countries have experienced rapid economic growth. In response to this trend — and spurred by domestic politics, in some cases — many donor countries are increasingly focused on “graduating” countries from foreign aid.
To ensure that hard-won gains are not lost and that progress continues, these transitions need to focus on providing the kind of support that will lead to strong, domestically-driven, self-sustaining systems.
Many countries have the potential to increase domestic resources directed toward health and education and the capacity to build strong health and education systems that deliver positive benefits for all. However, they face challenges designing effective and responsive institutions, scaling and sustaining efforts and integrating discrete interventions into comprehensive systems.
Three ways we can help
Meaningful change often requires policy reform, institutional capacity building and on-the-ground operationalization of processes. While we can appreciate the desire of many donors for rapid results, this is not the kind of work that be done quickly, or with limited, one-off interventions. Strong, sustainable, homegrown or country-driven change, requires global development workers to get out of the way and let country-level policymakers and practitioners lead. We can do so by:
- Supporting networks that enable more joint learning opportunities. I can’t stress joint learning enough, the simplicity in the approach and the tremendous payoff it can have. The Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage is a prime example. This network of nearly 30 countries was launched in 2010 to help fill a critical gap. Together, members work to co-develop practical solutions to complex challenges on the road to universal health coverage.
- Creating practical useful tools that are based on a real need. We can help local change agents achieve their goals by working alongside them to generate and share practical knowledge that has potential application in other contexts, and then supporting them to put those newly surfaced insights into practice. Developing how-to knowledge requires being responsive to the real-world challenges of practitioners, gleaning their ideas from practice, and systematically testing to see what works. For instance, Results for Development recently produced an immunization financing toolkit to support costing and domestic financing of national immunization programs, targeted to countries experiencing reductions in donor aid. This resource is designed to provide practical information for advocates, policymakers, program managers and planners in ministries of health and finance.
- Putting country partners in the driver’s seat. Building networks to promote joint learning and sharing of practical tools and knowledge are ways we can equip local change agents. To build greater institutional capacity, we should support the development of in-country know-how and infrastructure rather than enhancing our own. Where possible, we should work with local partner organizations and support their efforts to grow and increase their effectiveness.
Like many working in global development, I’m frustrated when good policies aren’t implemented, promising innovations aren’t widely adopted and effective pilots aren’t scaled. Regardless of the Sustainable Development Goal we’re working to achieve, we as a global development community need to do a better job of supporting local change agents. We know outsiders can’t create lasting, comprehensive, large-scale change, so we need to invest in those who can — and support them to implement evidence-based policies, and to design, test and refine operational models that will lead to societies of healthy and educated people.