Updated thinking on what type of work I should pursue
In moving to Nairobi that one of my goals has been to find out where in the global development/health space I think I can make the greatest contribution to improving others’ lives. I still don’t know what exactly I do want to do, but I’ve ruled some things out: Working at a government organization or large NGO (e.g., USAID, UN humanitarian agencies, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) is not the best way for me to help those in extreme poverty.
Being in the orbit of (and even consulting for some of) these organizations here has shown me that most of the common critiques of these orgs are basically right: They are bureaucratic, lots of money goes to writing reports rather than actually helping people, they don’t get enough input from or give enough agency to the people who they are ostensibly helping, there is little-to-no accountability for results, etc (1). Historically, these orgs have not been good at improving peoples’ lives given the amount of money they consume (2).
This was all good to learn, but not surprising. But there have been two things I’ve learned about these organizations that have been surprising and interesting to me:
Firstly: Everyone who I’ve talked to who works at these orgs basically agrees with all these critiques.
Secondly: Relative to other jobs (e.g., working at a startup, a local company, or at a small nonprofit) these positions are very comfortable from an economic and social status point of view, in ways that have nothing to do with how much these jobs actually help people:
They pay well (relative to higher-impact jobs you might take)
They are stable (relative to higher-impact jobs you might take)
They are prestigious (ditto)
In many roles, you work steady 40-hour weeks
It’s easy to explain what you do to others and they can immediately see that you’re trying to do good in the world
They allow travel around to many different parts of the world (3) (4)
All of these are compelling reasons to either convince yourself that working at this org is in fact very effective at helping other people, or to decide to make a tradeoff in favor of your own comfort at the expense of potentially helping others more.
To be clear: everyone I’ve met who works at one of these orgs has very good intentions, and probably does help people - just not as much as they probably could in other positions (in my view - I could be wrong though nobody has pushed back on this point to me when I’ve raised it). And it’s not as if the problems of promoting human flourishing are easy. But I find it very troublesome that the global development jobs that people in the space complain about most are also those that are the most comfortable.
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1. For me, The Tyranny of Experts by William Easterly summarized the problems the best. Noam Chomsky also has great critiques from a very different angle
2. In fact, it’s a mistake to even think of the purpose of “humanitarian” government orgs as helping people. As USAID Administrator Samantha Power said on Colbert this week, USAID “is the soft power arsenal” of the United States Government. Though most people who work for these orgs really do want to help people (and the orgs do end up doing some good), the purpose is ultimately to serve political goals for powerful countries
3. In fact, UNICEF requires its people in certain management roles to move countries every few years. “If you understand infant health in India then you also understand it pretty well in Ghana” seems to be the implicit philosophy
4. Of course all of this is also true of management consulting