Terms Of Reference Podcast

The availability of continuous power - that is, the assumption that you can plug in an appliance, or flip a switch without wondering whether or not electrons will flow - is a hallmark of civilization. So much so, that a great deal of what holds up our global economy would not be possible without the assurance that we can keep the lights on (or at least turn them on) 24/7. So, what do you do when the power goes out? Do you call your local utility? Do you investigate your community breaker box? Or perhaps you view it as a unexpected respite from the daily grind and simply relax. In some parts of the world, utilities have moved to a system that utilizes “smart meters.” These devices not only allow the utility to control access to power, but they can also alert the utility when power stops. But smart meters are expensive and may not be a silver bullet, especially in emerging economies. My guests for today’s 159th Terms of Reference Podcast, Noah Klugman and Jay Taneja, recognized the limitations of smart meters a

I’d like to start today’s episode with a quick, informal poll. Ask yourself: as a social sector professional, do you regularly receive calls or emails from the people who you’re trying to help where they ask - with great anticipation - about when the next version of your project or programme will be released? While this regularly happens for other sectors, like mobile phones, automobiles, and fashion, for the vast majority of us in the social sector, the answer to this question is, emphatically, no. The disconnect that this question exposes is the foundation that Dennis Whittle, who is my guest for today’s 158th Terms of Reference Podcast, stumbled upon a few years back and which has now grown into a powerful collaborative effort to change how we help those in need. Dennis is the Executive Director of Feedback Labs, an organization that aims to change the norms in development, aid, and philanthropic policy to be more responsive to the people that those policies aim to help. Before Feedback Labs, Dennis was th

If there is any one question I get asked more than any other from professionals in the social sector, it is some variation of this: “How do I raise money for my organization, cause or program?” And, there is usually a quick follow up that goes something like, “and, how do I raise money sustainably?” Fundraising, marketing, business development, sales… call it what you want… will always be the greatest problem for the social sector. The reason I know this is because it remains the greatest problem for any business, regardless of the sector. Getting individuals to part with their hard earned cash is never an easy prospect, whether your talking about a new pair of shoes, supporting Syrian refugees or anything in-between. There are many good answers to this question, depending upon a number of variables, and there are actually a ton of fantastic success stories in the social sector. But today’s episode is focused on crowdfunding and how this powerful platform can be used as a part of a successful strategy within

A great deal of the actual “work” delivered in the social sector comes in the form of services. Of these services, the lowest hanging fruit is skill building, often known as capacity building. But there are, of course, many other flavors of services - everything from helping to draft policies and plans, to the know-how behind running a power grid, to mapping service centers for at-risk youth. My point here is that delivering services is a tried and tangible means for getting your hands dirty helping others. While not new by any account, one of the more exciting areas of the social sectors is the delivery of products. I think product delivery is especially interesting for a number of reasons. The design and delivery of products offer the opportunity for true leapfrog moments, and the measurement of success of a product is extremely tangible. Finally, in most cases the evolution of a product, as it iterates and is improved over time, is again extremely tangible. But, as we already know, designing, delivering an

As you may have noticed over the past few months, I’ve been talking more and more about the “social sector.” As I’m sure you’ll have assumed, this has been intentional on my part to begin to reach out beyond my comfort zone of humanitarian aid and international development to the wider community of social actors; people who consider themselves social entrepreneurs, philanthropists and even intrapreneurs who see opportunity within their existing companies and organization to make change that will both serve those in need, but also improve our prospects for human flourishing. It is in this context that I’m excited to introduce you to Lev Gonick, the CEO of DigitalC. As you’ll hear in our conversation, Lev is passionate about how technology can be used as an enabling platform to bring change to legacy cities. Now, like me, you may ask what exactly is a “legacy city”? Here’s how DigitalC frames it: Many communities that were built on a 20th century manufacturing base now face the challenge of transitioning to a d

For as long as I have been a social sector professional, there has always been a desire to do more partnering with the “private sector.” And, by that I mean traditional, for profit or commercial enterprises like Coke, Toyota or Airbus. In fact, 14 years ago, the capstone project of my Masters degree at American University was, I’m not kidding, “The Role of The Private Sector in Conflict Resolution.” My point here is that this is not a new topic by any stretch. No matter how you’d like to approach it, the reason why we don’t see more traditional investment in parts of the world where its necessary to send aid or development assistance can be boiled down to one word: risk. Money, or more specifically the individuals who control money, large and small amounts alike, do not like to place that money at risk of being lost. Unfortunately, the places where social sector actors choose to align there sights for action can readily be characterized along a scale of increasing risk. But here’s the thing - the money, or ag

Because I am something of a super geek, and what I like to think of as the new-old guard (I mean, I had a TRS-80 in my house growing up), when I hear the term "defragment," the first thing I think of is hard drives. Fortunately, for everyone's sake, that's not what we are here to talk about today. Instead on today's 153rd Terms of Reference Podcast, I speak with Jason Wendle. He is the Director of the Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab, which focuses on identifying more and better financial solutions for smallholders. In our conversation, Jason and I discuss the continued fragmentation of the financial market seeking to serve small hold farmers and how the Lab and its many partners are working to connect the dots between the necessary trifecta of access to markets, knowledge, and finance. I'm sure you'll love this talk about the types of financial difficulties facing smallholder farmers, how fintech is starting to bridge the gap, but also how, ultimately it will also take a conscious evolution from t

How much do we really embrace failure in the social sector? I ask this question because, as someone who has been lucky enough to be a part of the evaluation revolution over the past decade, embracing failure at an institutional level still remains elusive. Organizations and individuals alike still remain reluctant to lay bare the shortcomings of their efforts for a number of reasons that go well beyond just the fear of losing donor funding or having a black mark on your CV. Unfortunately, I’m not here today with a clear cut answer about how to embrace failure other than doing so ultimately requires the same focus and discipline that you would apply to any other skill. You must not specifically incorporate the recognition of failure into your planning and design, you must also be willing to practice it every day, ruthlessly. The good news is that, like so many other things, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you can create this discipline and practice in your life, you’ll learn faster, be more adaptabl

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 t

Professor Chris Blattman is the Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago, at the Harris School of Public Policy, as well as a research associate at National Bureau of Economic Research, among many other things. He's a heavyweight in the world of understanding what works - and more importantly what doesn't - in aid and development. As you'll hear on the show, Chris thinks he's a professor because he was a failed development professional. This is actually a lucky turn for the rest of us because he is a critical voice in the R&D department of the development and aid sector. In our discussion, you'll hear us discuss how research finds its way into practice and how we learned that microfinance doesn’t work to alleviate poverty. We also discuss why you can’t test programs and programming, but rather you have to test the assumptions those programs are built on, in order to find out what works. We round out our discussion on what the future of the social sector could lo

There is a beautiful simplicity to the commercial sector. Anyone can create products and services that satisfy a real or perceived need in whatever market(s) they want. Then, with the right marketing and (hopefully) added value from the "better mousetraps" people create, the business can realize a profit. And that, ultimately, is the measure of your success. Unfortunately, finding the same simplicity in the social sector is difficult. While social enterprises, non profits and charities are on the constant lookout for, or purposeful invention of, products and services that satisfy real (or perceived) needs, rather than seeing profit as the end game, the social sector seeks an overall improved human condition. This presents something of a conundrum because we still have so much trouble, as a human community, agreeing about what improvement means. I know there is a lot to unpack in this seemingly simple distinction. But, fortunately, that is exactly why I am so excited to introduce my guest for the 149th Terms o

We’ve be fortunate enough to have guests on this show from across the entire spectrum of the social sector and from around the world. One of the common issues we’ve talked about is resource scarcity and how that presents both unique opportunities for innovation and challenges in terms of programming, priorities and management. Today, we’re going to look at the other side of the coin and discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with an organization that’s focused on helping solve some of the world’s most challenging problems, but also has scale, and the very real ability to leverage that scale. My guest today is Jamey Butcher, who is an Executive Vice President at Chemonics and currently leads the Strategic Communications and Solutions Division. I’m excited about this episode because I think it really gives a peek under the hood of what is possible within a large development organization. Just to give you a taste, we cover things like: how Chemonics approaches ICT4D, how they are working to make int

Let's say you woke up tomorrow to the sound of someone knocking at your door. And, when you answer, the person standing outside politely explained that they were a representative of a energy company that had recently acquired the rights to extract the natural gas in the area. Oh, and a great deal of that resource happens to be located under your house. Or, what if you were able to track changes in the water your community uses for drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning physically change over the past few years - from a pure, clean resource, to one that is smelly, polluted or fouled in some other way. And that those changes began when a mining operation started upstream. Now here's the kicker - you are unable to bring a complaint against thees resource extraction companies simply because you lack the time, money or other resources. Or, an even more likely scenario, if and when you do bring your issues to your local or national authorities, you find that the scales are tipped against you simply because the com

How obsessed are you with goal setting? I mean seriously - if you've been living on planet earth you know that, those invested in the science of achievement, have done an incredible of not only convincing, but actually getting us as a whole to adopt goal setting as a lifestyle. And, full disclosure, I am not only a living, breathing product of this paradigm, but I'm also one of its loudest proponents (at least in my mind). Goal setting has become something of an absolute in the design of products, services and programs in the social sector, as well. Just think of how many times you've designed theories of change, conceptual and logical frameworks or SMART indicators. You know what I'm talking about here - the obsession with defining the results that we want to achieve with our work and, perhaps even more importantly, how will measure our progress towards achieving them. While I could hold court on how to improve the way we design programs to achieve social goals for the next 4 days, here's the thing: this sho

Two very common themes in the aid and development community are “resource scarcity” (some even call this resource starvation) and “locally driven solutions.” The particular resource scarcity I am referring to is a lack of funding. This is a conversation you cannot avoid, because the challenges always seem to be greater than the available pools of money, and one that, unfortunately, will only become more acute as we navigate the age of Trump and the new populism. Locally driven solutions refers to an ideal that contextualization of products and services results in solutions that are more appropriate, more readily accepted and potentially more durable, or sustainable. By supporting the development of answers at the local level, it is also assumed that we will foster a greater set of unique ideas, which spurs innovation and invention globally. While these two themes, at least at first blush, seem fundamentally in tension with one another there are a number of approaches that successfully bridge the gap. One of t

While we live in a world of unprecedented prosperity for many, we also live in a world that is experiencing unprecedented levels of humanitarian crisis. You know the examples: protracted violent conflicts, devastation caused by earthquakes or hurricanes, the specters of famine or disease outbreak... unfortunately the list goes on and on. The good news is that we have a humanitarian community that does a fantastic job of responding to these crises with the resources available to them. In large part, supplies arrive, shelter is provided and people receive care until a time in which they can begin the transition back to normalcy. Unfortunately, as with the creation of any system, developing the capacity to address these large scale crises has produced unintended consequences and externalities. One of these externalities is a logistics and supply chain ecosystem that is bureaucratic, expensive and rigid. On this, the 144th episode of the Terms Of Reference Podcast, I talk with Andrew Lamb of Field Ready about how

We've had a lot of change makers on this show over the past two years - people and organizations that are redefining old systems and creating new products and processes that demand completely new ways of thinking about how we serve those in need. Across these interviews, one of the factors critical to the success of any endeavor is the ability to communicate effectively. This skill not only entails the ability to bring facts and evidence to the table, but to weave these into a narrative that conveys the "why" behind what you believe. While I'm fairly certain that most of you would agree that communication is important, it is still something that we don't properly prioritize, even thought many times it is the deciding factor for convincing someone to join your cause, retain top talent or secure funding. If you think I'm wrong, I challenge you to spend 30 minutes at any event in any major hub of the aid and development sector this week - places like Washington, DC, New York, Geneva, Bangkok or Nairobi - and tel

One reason that innovation has become one of those words that you just cannot escape in social impact, is the fact that the institutions that have occupied this space for the bulk of history are the anthesis of what we would consider "shiny new objects." But really, if we sit back and think about it, for many (and maybe most, or even all) of them, the rapid or constant change that we associate with innovation is actually the exact opposite of what these institutions we're built to achieve. Seriously. The public relies on public structures like governments and international organizations for setting and maintaining rules and processes that ultimately lead to a common, knowable... and stable... environment in which we can run our lives. Injecting the change associated with innovation into any system or process creates uncertainty, which is the opposite of what the "institutionalization" of something seeks to achieve. All of this is to say that, its no wonder that realizing innovation within this sector is a mas

I invite you to pause just for a second and take a moment to think about the last time you changed your mind about something. Specifically, I'd like for you to identify something that was either very important to you or your worldview, or something that you had taken for granted, that today you have either the complete opposite or at least a very different perspective on. Got it? Now ask yourself, what was it that made you change your mind? And, again specifically, what evidence did you unearth, or were presented with, that made the case for changing your mind? For most of us, a profound change of mind doesn't happen very often, but when it does, the effects of such a change alter lives, communities, and entire belief systems. As a final step in this exercise, I'd like for you to think about the core beliefs you have about the work you do in the social impact sector, and what you expect that work will help achieve for people in need. Now, ask yourself, what would it take to alter those beliefs - even if it me

So, imagine for a moment that you're a college student getting ready to spend a summer working internationally. Maybe in a hotel in a tropical resort, or as an eco tour guide, or maybe helping teach children in an orphanage. The options are almost limitless if you look hard enough. This is exciting stuff! So, now your bags are packed, you've said goodby to mom and dad and you're on the plane. But, when you land at your destination, it turns out to be nothing at all like what you expected. You're passport and phone are taken from you. You're locked in a hotel room and, rather than serving cocktails to high end tourists, you find yourself being forced to clean fish or... some other job. I've just painted a picture that, in reality, is fairly unlikely for a kid from the US or Europe, because there are systems in place that vet employers, study abroad opportunities and the like to ensure they are legit. Unfortunately, however, human trafficking and exploitation is still a reality for thousands of people around th