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Willi Graf, Ph.D.
Senior Adviser, Natural Resources & Environment, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Berne
Donors need solid local institutions to harmonise around
Nater: What’s the reaction to your outreach efforts?
Graf: When colleagues are on visit from the field, they get fed up pretty quickly if you submerge them with briefing updates and five-bullet strategy papers. People are tired of PowerPoint and tired of having paper thrown at them. They want to be listened to. As in most institutions, we need better internal communication, more of a human touch.
“We’re trying to develop networks of people who like rural development and want to talk about it. It’s a bottom-up approach and it’s being noticed. I believe it’ll have effects on investments and on programme quality.”
Is it working?
It’s too early for a final assessment. Part of the target group are the Swiss colleagues in field offices, but they rotate out every three or four years. So even more important are the local professionals. Some of these are the best experts in their respective countries. They’ve built up long-standing experience. They don’t come here to Berne very often but when they come we invite them for briefings or to give presentations. We treat Junior Programme Officers the same way. We’re trying to develop networks of people who like rural development and want to talk about it. It’s a bottom-up approach and it’s being noticed. I believe it’ll have effects on investments and on programme quality.
Vertical integration between headquarters and the field is supposed to be a vital condition for donor harmonisation and alignment. Do you agree?
The dynamics should be created from the field, not from headquarters. Being headquarter-centered won’t work. The only way to get results in H&A is to work through the people on the ground. And donor commitment to H&A is only part of it. You need something to harmonise around, a solid national programme. Like SIBTA, the  Bolivian Agricultural Technology System programme in Bolivia or the national seed system there, where the Dutch, the Swiss, the British, the Danes, the Japanese, the Germans, the USA and the Inter-American Development Bank have all provided concerted support. I just hope these programmes will continue. I hear that the new Bolivian government under President Evo Morales is skeptical of institutional autonomy and wants a stronger role for the state. But I think we can discuss and resolve this legitimate concern without disrupting the programmes.
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