New Actors, New Roles: The Promise of Rapid Change
The term "new actors" is rocketing quickly to the top of the most used phrase list in the development and humanitarian sector. Its frequent use reflects the insight that the context for NGO work in the sector is changing rapidly, and one of the most profound changes is the increasing number of institutions and individuals outside the core traditional network of donor governments, UN agencies, and operational NGOs that have dominated the field of humanitarian and development work for the past four decades.
In recognition of this phenomenon, InterAction organized this afternoon's plenary session, "New Actors, New Roles A UPS-InterAction CEO Roundtable Event." The keynote speakers were InterAction President and CEO Sam Worthington and Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. Carolyn Miles, President and CEO, Save the Children, then facilitated a panel discussion including Daniel Brutto, President of UPS International, Harsh Jaitli, CEO, VANI India, Johanna Brandt, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF, and Mirza Jahani, CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation.
The participants struck an optimistic tone overall, choosing to embrace the new diversity and the opportunities it presents. Rodin was especially upbeat, touting the potential of modern communications technology to encourage and advance innovations that would have profound positive impacts on the lives of vulnerable people. "Innovators are inheriting the earth," according to Rodin, and "restless minds are changing the rules of the game." She cited examples of technology creating common platforms so that multiple individuals from all over the world could contribute to the development of programs offering greater access to credit for small businesses and to health care for uninsured Pakistanis. She offered a new perspective by seeing "new actors" in terms of multiple, often unknown individuals and organizations creating new public goods with wide benefits.
Worthington immediately challenged the InterAction membership: "Can we adapt to the changing environment? Where do we fit with other actors? Can we develop a common agenda?" He noted that the NGO sector itself has evolved and is therefore misunderstood by potential new partners; they underestimate the private financing that it brings to the table and the technical expertise that NGOs collectively possess. NGOs must inevitably change the way they deliver services, but the exact nature of these changes will depend on the local context and the range of partnerships that each group is willing to manage.
The highlight of the panel discussion was Brutto's firm and clear assertion of the rationale for UPS's involvement in humanitarian response, and his analysis of how corporate giving is changing. He stressed that cash donations to NGO programs have gone from being the sole component, which they might have been 10 years ago, to last on a list that includes direct mobilization of volunteer time and individual skills in direct service to numerous NGO projects, as well as utilizing the core competence of the firm, in UPS's case transportation and logistics, to improve humanitarian response. The approach is to use the human and technical assets of the corporation because "it is the right thing to do."
Contributed by Joel Charny
