The Listening Project Issue Paper - The Cascading Effects of International Agendas and Priorities

CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, with a number of colleagues in international NGOs, donors and other humanitarian and development agencies, started the Listening Project to undertake a comprehensive and systematic exploration of the ideas and insights of people who live in societies that have been on the recipient side of international assistance. The Listening Project seeks the reflections of experienced and thoughtful people who occupy a range of positions within recipient societies to assess the impact of aid efforts by international actors. Those of us who work across borders in humanitarian aid, development assistance, environmental conservation, human rights, and/or peace-building efforts can learn a great deal by listening to the analyses and judgments of local people as they reflect on the immediate effects and long-term impacts of such international efforts.

Many people across many different contexts describe problems arising from the external agendas, policies, priorities, fads and trends that influence the types and modes of international assistance that they receive or are able to access. They note how these external concerns frequently shift and change. They describe “cascading” effects they experience in communities, from “pre-packaged programming approaches” to the tendency to throw more money at new priorities rather than maintaining the focus on spending it more effectively. People also link the changing international agendas to the way the aid system is set up and functions (see the International Assistance as a Delivery System Issue Paper), and to their expectations of what international assistance can and should do (see the Expectations of International Assistance Issue Paper).