Can the Principles of Sustainable Development Work in the Area of International Aid?

"Is this really how to save Africa?" asks Tanzanian columnist Ayub Rioba, a day after Bill Clinton has left Africa. "We appreciate generous and humane contributions from people like Bill Clinton," he writes in The Citizen, a respected Tanzanian national daily paper. "But we [Africans] must also show that we are doing something. We cannot sit just like couch potatoes waiting for others to come and give us medicine."

"We have been made permanent recipients of aid, funds, scholarships, food, medicine, from developed countries.... And what exactly do we do with all that aid and assistance and help? Almost nothing. Since we gained independence, almost 50 years ago, we have been receiving aid permanently, and statistics today indicate that we are becoming poorer!" adds the columnist. (1)

A Simple Conversation
Not long ago I had a conversation with a friend and colleague who works for an NGO that serves the African Diaspora and other populations with social justice needs (Native American, rural and poor.) Having just returned from Liberia where he had just spent several months launching a program to serve young women and girls, under-served victims of the Charles Taylor regime, he was exhilarated, frustrated and dispirited -- personally enriched by doing the work -- that was exhilarating, yet frustrated by the corruption and inequities to be found in Africa and dispirited by the notion that most of the people working on the ground in Monrovia on behalf of aid organizations never left the “protection” and infrastructure of the city.

During his trips to several sites outside of the city he was greeted by disbelief, then celebration. Few ever ventured into the country side and certainly not more than once if at all. His visits to the country side and their effect made him realize that there was an opportunity being lost -- an opportunity to make a direct difference to those he could personally touch and with whom he could help directly. His desire is to provide education and leadership opportunities to help people help themselves, an approach to social justice that his NGO has used for a century.

My friend and I have been discussing Sustainable Development over the years. There is “functional work” that the NGO could undertake such as selling carbon credits through CO2 sequestration and reforestation projects on behalf of their stakeholders. After listening to my friend describe the work outside of Monrovia, a notion I’ve been wondering about popped into mind...Base of the Pyramid (Base). Why this notion is important to me and why it could have real consequences for aid efforts local, national and international will now be made clearer later, but some background first.

Background
As a consultant, I have always engaged organizations at the highest point in the food chain to get things done. And in my Sustainable Development practice, I have always worked at the highest levels open to me. While this might work in business for the simple reason that the top decision makers in an organizations cut through a lot of red tape -- results are realized father and wider with their buy in. Outside of business things get trickier.

My friend’s experience in Africa and my own experience in the US discredit the notion that working from the top gets broader results. Moneys flowing into the top of aid organizations (substitute the word governments, NGOs, non profits, whatever seems appropriate here) have sometimes been diluted or diverted by overhead, middlemen or outright corruption. The Base isn’t always the recipient of the maximum amount of funds earmarked for it. So I’ve really been thinking hard for quite some time about how to get aid to the base of the pyramid to get broader, more tangible results.

Now comes the idea that popped into mind during the conversation about Liberia. Many of the groups in Monrovia were interested in having my friend distribute their materials as he traveled the countryside. Most were interested in furthering health, education, food and other services to varying populations. The opportunity to extend their reach without leaving the comfort (safety) of Monrovia was very attractive. The point being that my friend was dealing directly with people who would receive the “least diluted benefit” as a result of his direct engagement. In other words, the Base was receiving direct aid without the intervention, dilution or diversion of other operators. “What if you could put the principles of Sustainable Development into this mix?” I asked.

Sustainable Development at the Base of the Pyramid
What I mean is this. Sustainable Development looks along three axis of action to achieve sustainability. In business, the “Triple Bottom Line” are the social, environmental AND economic dimensions of conducting business to provide the highest returns and ensure viability of the business. The social dimension may mean providing training and education to local suppliers, investing in employees, or supporting charitable causes. The environmental dimension may require businesses to curb emissions, reduce waste and miles commuted by auto or air. The economic dimension is the bedrock of business.

In the international aid sector applying a sustainable development approach would mean, for example, providing education, job training and/or tools to help someone make a living as well as assistance in making the environment safe and habitable by building cisterns and latrines, planting crop trees or providing feed and seed -- and health services to support the community -- that is, a whole solution. In the international aid community many of these service are already in place --often as single solutions.

What if my friend and his NGO could coordinate a Sustainable Development approach by getting aid organizations to partner to provide triple bottom line solutions directly to communities -- to the base of the pyramid? What if we networked with other organizations to help the Base become self supporting, i.e. self sustaining?

I’m happy to report that as a result of our conversations we will work together to create a framework to try just this -- coordinate aid organizations to network approaches that compound the strengths of sustainable development. We’ll look to combine individual aid efforts into unified solutions designed to provide direct assistance to people, i.e. implement sustainable vision and practice at the base of the pyramid. Each solution would be locally developed as needs differ from location to location.

(1) Danna Harman, “Is Western Aid Making a Difference in Africa? Two US Economists Debate the Value of Antipoverty Efforts,” Christian Science Monitor, August 23, 2007