International development (in my words)

I start by distinguishing between humanitarian aid and international development – which is crystal clear to anyone operating among them but often mixed up by others. Humanitarian aid is short-time help to meet people's primary needs in catastrophes such as wars and natural hazards. International development (int dev) aims at delivering sustainable solutions to grounding problems like poverty, inequality, environmental destruction and bad governance. Three years ago, when I decided to make a career change to int dev, I was a total novice in the field. Having studied business and worked at the private sector, I did not know even the basics.

During a year of job seeking and two years of working I learned quite a bit about int dev. There are still many aspects I do not know anything about and even more of whom I have just scraped the surface. But when one starts from zero the initial learning curve is steep. Because of my commercial background, I will compare some int dev concepts and characteristics with those familiar from business. Since I have properly worked only for two organizations – one company and one NGO – my perceptions may reflect organizational cultures rather than being objectively representative of their sectors.

My NGO believes in green energy!

There are different players at the int dev sector. Project implementers, usually NGOs, can be called companies in our comparison. They undertake activities related to the int dev issues listed earlier. Their “clients” are people receiving goods, services and education provided by them. Often these people are underpriviledged and without the projects their needs would be left unmet. They rarely pay, at least fully, for what they get. So where do NGOs get money from since they do not make income with their clients? Their operations are funded by donors. Donors are generally country governments or consortiums of them, or rich privates, that fund the projects as their development aid commitments or out of good will. Instead of implementing wanted activities on the ground themselves, they contract NGOs for their resources and expertise. So in a way donors are investors in these projects, just that instead of getting money in return they get development results.

As mentioned, int dev often takes place in the project form. Donors announce calls (tenders in business terms) about the kinds of projects they want to fund. They define desired project location, size, scope, timeline and outcome. Different NGOs compete who gets the available funding. Proposal writing is a time consuming state of art, as NGOs must convince donors of their experience, knowledge and resources. As opposed to previous times, when donors knew little of how their money was spent in the end, donors of today require extensive reporting of achieved results. These results may be for example number of people reached, jobs created, disease prevented and so on, some easier to measure than others.

Visiting a beneficiary in Kenya

For employees int dev is more volatile work environment than stably running business. Winning a big call can mean notable operations increase to an NGO. It may need to hire new personnel with specific skills. This means that often int dev jobs are fixed to project budgets and timelines, and many people switch organizations every few years following suitable positions. Also external consultants are popularly used to provide spot-on expertise. Despite this uncertainty and relatively low salary level, thousands of talented people choose to work in int dev. They are drawn by the meaningfulness of the work, complex challenges to be solved, truly international teams and travels, and above all the colourful lifestyle. The int dev crew is exceptionally engaged in world problems, equipped with adventurous and open mindset, and truly motivated by the work they do.

Field trip visit in Indonesia

When I searched for my first int dev job I faced huge barriers. I competed against professionals with relevant degrees, extensive volunteer and work experience, and handful of fluently mastered languages. I lacked any contacts within the sector – the single most important factor in getting a job. Luckily back then I did not know how desperate my task really was, otherwise I might have given up. Instead I persistently sent tens of applications, also to irrelevant and unreachable organizations, since I did not know better even to separate project implementers and donors from each other. During the first half a year I did not even receive rejection messages. I wrote to foreign ministries (who surprisingly wrote back!) and sought out friends of friends working in int dev to ask for their advice. In the end I finally managed to get two interviews and one of them got me the job in the Netherlands. Following social media groups of young int dev professionals, I see many capable 30-year-olds still doing internships and struggling to break into paid work. Compared to private sector the int dev job market is twisted. NGOs can get highly skilled workforce basically for free since there are eager people lined up to do anything just to get the experience in their CVs. I can consider myself lucky for jumping right into a proper job, even though I had to accept a notable salary cut down from my business job.

So are int dev workers genuinely selfless and purely motivated by helping poor people? Of course not! They are intelligent and ambitious, and seek personal glory even more than average private sector workers. They want to get recognized as innovators of new concepts (regardless whether they benefit more or less people than replicating old ones) and get publicity at field circles. It seems to me that private sector teams are more uniformed working towards a common goal – simply maximizing revenue – whilst int dev workers each have their personal, often conflicting agendas in an environment without a clear common target. Because operations in int dev are not straight forwardly revenue driven (although results delivered to donors could be interpreted as such), resources are often used more loosely.

Maroccon street food with my favorite colleague and client

To conclude this subjective description of int dev, complemented with personal rambling, I want to say I do not regret a minute the decision to enter working on it. Although I may consider some profit-for-purpose type of a organization even a better fit for me, taken my result orientedness and effectiveness, I feel at home among int dev issues and people. I hope that when I read this text in a few years time I will think about how little did I know back then, since that will be a sign of continuous learning.