‘Things can turn on a dime’: Six global development leaders on lessons learned in 2021

Canada’s global development sector wasn’t just juggling too many pots in 2021. It was putting out a kitchen fire one-handed while preparing a five-course meal and wondering whether it could afford all of the ingredients it needed — during a global pandemic, no less.

Between famines in Afghanistan, apocalyptic forest fires in Greece and Macedonia, typhoons in the Philippines, and the uncontrolled surge of COVID-19 cases around the world, global development organizations worked tirelessly. On top of these disasters is a background hum of inequity around poverty, women’s rights, and access to education. 

Global development organizations have much to consider in 2022. Many of these humanitarian disasters will not magically disappear in the New Year, and organizations will need to be ready to handle them while also juggling the new Omicron variant and a crescendo of climate disasters. 

Future of Good asked global development leaders to share something they learned in 2021 that will change the way they approach their work in 2022. Here’s what they had to say (the following responses have been edited for length and clarity): 

Be ambitious 

“I think 2021 has forced us to confront some very paradoxical lessons. We have learned that we can accomplish a lot in the virtual world, be more inclusive, stretch our conversations further into local communities and drive forward agendas from our crowded dining room tables around the globe. For us at CanWaCH, holding both these things as true means a whole lot of hopeful planning for big virtual expansive moments, and real, more intimate, in-person connected moments and most importantly demanding that everyone, every nation, every continent has access to the vaccines that will make both of these possibilities a reality.” – Julia Anderson, CEO, Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health.

Skip the bureaucracy. Act now.

“I learned that things can turn on a dime. With all the uncertainty that we deal with daily in international development, we were not prepared for this. I learned that we must now act quickly — we cannot defer critical actions to tomorrow, or until the strategic plan is in place, or until all the stakeholders are aligned, or until all the funding is in place, or until everyone has learned what we already know. We must move quickly, forthrightly, assuming risks, and working together. I learned that if we don’t do this, we have failed in our mission.” – Janet Longmore, founder and CEO of the Digital Opportunity Trust

Fighting racism in the sector must be urgent

“In 2021 I had the privilege of co-chairing the taskforce on accountability for Cooperation Canada’s anti-racism efforts. Along with an amazing group of volunteers from the sector we produced a baseline report on anti-racist practice in the international cooperation sector. 

“It is a pretty discouraging and daunting task to take on racism. There are a lot of emotions involved, and for me, a lot of skepticism about what can actually change, especially in the face of resistance we encountered from some parts of the sector. However, if we take on the same posture as we did with sexual exploitation and abuse — that it is unacceptable that people are experiencing racism and discrimination and that, it is unacceptable that we turn a blind eye to it, then we will begin to feel the needed culture change in the sector and in our individual organizations. 

“The recommendations that flowed from the initial baseline report will be a starting point from which I plan to work to effect change in my areas of leadership and influence.” – Musu Taylor-Lewis, director of resources and public engagement at Canadian Foodgrains Bank

Design programming alongside young people 

“2021 represented a year of unlearning, re-learning and learning across WUSC’s programming and ways of working. In 2021, we learned what it means to translate rhetoric into action and partner with communities and individuals with lived experience in meaningful ways that value their lived experiences and insights and ultimately, put them in the driver’s seat of change. Looking ahead to 2022, we plan to continue our partnership and allyship with young people, including refugees, to shape our programming.” – Katharine Im-Jenkins, Chief Programs Officer at WUSC 

Take care of your people

“A lesson of leadership I have always known and that has been reinforced this year is that people always come first. Whether it is the people with whom we work, our staff team, our Boards, our volunteers, our donors and funders – it is people who make things happen and who create and realize change. For me personally, this second year of COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of friends, of community, of supporting each other, of holding each other up at times and lifting each other at other times. It all begins, and ends, there.” – Barbara Grantham, CEO of CARE Canada

Embrace your identity

“As a woman of colour in [a] leadership position, 2021 was a major turning point for me. I learned and feel confident about being myself, to be OK about my colour, my differences and not feel ashamed or embarrassed about it. I can talk about it openly. I know that my view points will be different, but they come from my experience of my life growing up in poor circumstances of [the] developing world, but it shapes me to what I am today, makes me resilient and most importantly brings lived facts of realities of women of third world countries to the discussion on international development.” – Tanjina Mirza, chief programs officer at Plan International Canada

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