What can be done differently?

1. What can be done differently? ODI/Plan workshop on Understanding the politics of service delivery, Session 3 David Booth 16 Jan 2012

2. A layered approach to doing things differently?

3. Thinking differently about operational design

4. Organising differently to enable thinking differently • Obviously: make contextual/PE analysis a basic working method; but what else? • Get rid of organisational divisions (‘silos’) and vested interests based on those North Atlantic stereotypes; more genuine bridging • Grasp ‘theories of change’ with both hands as a design and learning tool – reward learning and creation of learning opportunities • Remove incentives to promise too much, with too much certainty • Fund more arm’s length working on institutional issues, but not normally in the shape of a basket fund for ‘demand side’ work by NGOs • Do more to stimulate intellectual debate in countries, rely less on buying compliance

5. Starting to build an enabling context for different organisation • Needed: • Either a decision to treat development assistance like monetary policy – too important to be subject to direct political control • Or a climate of voter and politician opinion in the North which enables development agencies to become genuine learning organisations If the second: • Official organisations: take public education seriously, in development just as in health or citizenship, and: • Build a firewall between this activity and political defence of the budget • Don’t contract it out to bodies that understand less than you do or have vested interests • International NGOs: build a firewall between public development education efforts and fund-raising campaigns • A new approach to campaigning led by education