The October 2014 ‘Doing Development Differently’ workshop emphasized the need for a shift in development initiatives to achieve greater impact. It acknowledged the prevalent issue of limited effectiveness in many projects, where schools and clinics are built but fail to produce significant outcomes, and reforms are adopted with minimal tangible change for citizens.

This lack of impact is attributed to the complexity of genuine development progress. Solutions are not always straightforward, and those most in need often lack the power to influence outcomes. Additionally, key stakeholders may remain disengaged, while political barriers are frequently underestimated. Consequently, many initiatives fail to address this complexity and instead promote interventions that are irrelevant and ineffectual.

However, amidst these challenges, there are examples of successful development initiatives that yield real results. These initiatives, whether domestically driven or supported externally, involve collaboration among various actors, including governments, civil society, international agencies, and the private sector. They adhere to common principles that underpin their effectiveness.

These principles include a focus on solving local problems identified and refined by local communities, ensuring legitimacy across all levels, leveraging local conveners to mobilize stakeholders, integrating design and implementation through iterative cycles of planning and action, managing risks through small-scale experimentation, and ultimately delivering tangible solutions that build trust, empower communities, and promote sustainability.

As an emerging community of development practitioners and observers, we are committed to applying these principles in our own work, documenting new approaches, elucidating their practical implications, and advocating for their wider adoption. We seek to expand our community to include others who share our commitment to doing development differently.

We urge international development organizations of all kinds to embrace these principles as the most effective means of addressing complex challenges and fostering meaningful impact. While we acknowledge the inherent difficulties, we believe that adopting more effective strategies and approaches can lead to higher and lasting impact in the field of development.