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One of my favorite things about data analysis is when trends emerge unexpectedly. So often, when sifting through data we find exactly what we’re looking for. But its those moments when we’re presented with something unusual that are the real special event. This holds for why I love the monitoring and evaluation process in the social sector. So often I start an assignment with a client with a “view” about what will result from the research, only to find that after weeks – or more often months – of living with the data, conversations and documentation, I see alternative views clearly displayed. The trend I’m pleased has revealed itself to spark this editorial is disruption of the social sector. Somehow the universe conspired to allow me to have our past two guests on the show (Paula Kravitz and Chris Blattman), both of whom have specific views on how we can evolve the sector. Today’s guest is, happily, another voice whose decades of experience have lead to our conversation about yet another aspect of our work that is overdue for a rethink: the ever present silos we find everyday in our work. Silos are everywhere – within organizations, across humanitarian responses, within countries accepting development assistance and even within our own minds about how our worldview and approaches to our work. This isn’t a new problem, and one I can personally attest is alive and well. So much so that the term “multi-sectoral initiative” is something donors are interested in hearing and a topic that was a key focus for a recent guest here on TOR – Patrick Fine, the CEO of FHI 360 as he talked about “integrated development.” My guest for the 151st episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast is Tim France, Managing Director of Inis Communication. Tim came to his passion for communication through the health sector, in which he holds a PhD. As you’ve come to expect from this show, Tim is nothing short of a true expert having worked for the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and the founding of Health & Development Networks. I’m excited to bring you this conversation about a new tool developed by Inis, called SGD Insights, and how that becomes a platform for Tim and I to talk about the need for disrupting the social sector to break down our silos – and why this has never been more important. You can connect with Tim here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timfrance/
IN TOR 151 YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
- The origin of Tim’s interest for SDGs and an all-encompassing, simultaneous approach towards them
- A brief history of Goals by the Aid & Development community, from the “golden era” to today
- The problem of “intersectional illiteracy” in the sector, where “understanding each other is not a priority”
- How commitments to SGDs might be the way forward, and how SDG Insights can be used for this purpose
OUR CONVERSATION FEATURES THE FOLLOWING
Names:
- United Nations (UN)
- UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- World Health Organization
- SDG Insights
- Quill (Narrative Science)
Topics:
- AIDS
- Brundtland Commission
- 2008 Global Financial Crisis
- 2012 Rio Summit
- SDG Impact, Metrics
- “Intersectional Literacy”, Silos in aid & development, the “Generalists”
- World War II
- Natural Language Programming, Artificial Journalism
EPISODE CRIB NOTES
Download an automated transcript. Started on the lab now we’re here- “Not the best person to give career advice” Slowly growing interest in development Until WHO invites him on Geneva to talk AIDS Long time ago Tim starts his non-profit, and his communications company “We’re one-stop shop” for organizations large and wide So people can communicate their impact more We’re a for profit SDGs have evolved naturally as part of communications, not by explicit request by any client “The development mold is being broken” by SDGs 80s-90s Main threads in development: the Brundtland Commission, focusing on the environment AND the Social Development and equity thread We weren’t talking about people and environment together, not even in the case of disaster response 2012 A Meeting follow-up of the Rio Summit It was agreed to merge ideas Slow burn indeed. “Its time has finally come”
- 20 years for a lighting to strike The world circumstances needed to change The millennium development goals were the “golden era” It opened the doors for “bolder” approaches to innovation 2008 Global financial crisis hinders funds for development Aid effectiveness, value for money ideas are introduced More, smaller countries voiced their critique, want more audacious approaches “They were right” They want social and environmental issues dealt together. “We were deers on the headlights” Donors resumed, with impact metrics It’s not all rosy, and budgets are not what they were
- SDGs is taking us to a place where we’re compelled to make things happen This has made many perennial hurdles and barriers visible Mainly in communication Fragmentation. There are siloed approaches “Nobody knows what to to about it” “Nobody knows how to assemble a car. No part knows what any other part does” There’s good discourse, great meetings and round tables Each one has an agenda At the end of the day, there’s not a lot of dialog Low level of intersectional literacy Understanding each other’s area is not really a priority Internet use is not used in a way to deal with this Especially when algorithms filter information, deprive us all from raw results 4 year ago, we thought about information systems that pushes us into new ideas
- We did not think the internet would have this counterproductive effect on development (let alone electoral politics) Stephen: The field is full of very smart people. Generalists are very scarce. Organizations do not allow them to stay general or broad, instead molding them into their own. And there’s definitely not “generalist organizations” There hasn’t since WWII Development has always been about standardizing development Before the internet, there was TV. High awareness about local crisis (famine) Immediately, advocacy. Siloed, that is. Each organization has its goal on their name and will convince you their issue is the most important one Now, the world is even smaller and each issue is even more important than before We are in desperate need for “generalists”: Unbiased thought leadership Often, a big enough logo is all it takes for a following But, what about the ability to connect? Thought leaders show us new ways The hope is on digital natives, younger people who can be generalists and specialize, juxtapose information Stephen is 41, Tim 55 The era of thought leadership (is long missing) Large organizations (WHO) have it hard impersonating the cutting edge in thinking We need people who connect issues. It takes literacy
- From a practical approach Many organizations had similar ideas, about gathering information, “look clever” More agencies looking to master social media But SDG Insights “actually is” the “lateral” search engine A google search for “malaria” will get you further into the malaria rabbit hole SDG Insights will show you connected things, vectors: water sanitation Sometimes we don’t even know what are the dots we need to connect Cow vaccination is correlated with girls school enrollment SDG Insights tries to let us stop relying on serendipity We start by asking people who saw the links, how did they do it Culture crosses everything. Even weather predictions Meteorological organizations have a global shipping background Background help explain the divides “There’s few generalists. There’s a lot of people who know very little about few things”
- “We’re not actually sure” SDG Insights was initially built for internal purposes only 500 users to date We expect people to start using it in unexpected ways As long as people start seeing the dots, and connecting them, the tool will be useful The site needs to add more evidence streams “Promote the serendipity further” Identify barriers, test them with users Avoid too technical descriptions Become a more readily available tool for programming SDG Insights is expected to stay free and independent It must become reputable, a tool to develop the thought leaders we so sorely need Work needs to be done between SDG Insights and organizations to extract value better Though leadership development programs inside organizations
- SDG Insights at https://sdginsights.org/ “Just be voracious. Read. Read some more” Twitter Natural Language Programming. Artificial journalists. Quill (Narrative Science)
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