Humanitarian Business

Been following discussions that arose in the past month about inconsistencies in the metrics of the World Bank’s Doing Business Index. Since its conception, observers have been quick to weigh in on its utility and call out its shortfalls.

I’m reminded of a title — Humanitarian Business by Thomas Weiss.

Published in 2013. Professor Thomas Weiss most recently was a panellist at the UN 75 Global Governance Forum, speaking about the future of governance.

There are a great number of actors in the development space, and it is evident that we cannot afford to put the diadem on any as the single source of truth. Ranging from independent commissions, academics, NGOs, even civil society actors that Weiss terms as “MONGO” (my own NGO). This causes competing priorities and negotiation fatigue, but it also brings to bear enormous pressure to churn out content in a quick turnaround time, or using what little carved up authority that each wields, to achieve short-term goals.

Several advocacy and implementing groups that come to mind. Respective logos were collated from Google Images.

Operational entities and well-meaning enterprises can ensure both output legitimacy and input legitimacy if they join hands and touch base frequently.

For each group has its own strengths. International Organisations carefully preserve a hierarchical discipline, while aid groups of a smaller scale move with fluid expediency. Intergovernmental organisations serve as sticky institutions — regardless of a power shift, the norms and principles established by them are recognised as baseline standards in our collective consciousness. Implementing partners who are well-informed of local conditions are essential to providing actionable insights and to carry out ground assessments on aid intervention and risks.

Smaller and more agile working groups comprising of members from both mean that watchful observers and sensible critics can more effectively influence outcomes, if and only if their voices are heard much earlier.

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“Forum, fount, font, fanfare, framing, funding, following and funeral”, Weiss writes in a succinct summary of how development initiatives often meet the same end. In my view, a crucial part of making each donor dollar work harder, is by avoiding unnecessary duplication of efforts. Armed with the pragmatic idealism of a millenial, I hope that this vicious cycle may be recast as a virtuous one sooner.