Summary
What is the state of DEI in US-founded international development organisations (both for-profit and nonprofit), and how has this state changed since 2021?
What has been the action, as compared to the professed intentions for action?
In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Shiro Gnanaselvam, President and CEO at Social Impact, on DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) trends in US Development agencies.
Shiro’s Bio:
- CEO of Social Impact, a US-based mid-size consulting company that offers MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning) services to the international development sector
- Former EVP and COO of Social Impact
- COO of AfriCare, largest and oldest African-American founded international NGO focused exclusively on the continent of Africa.
- Senior Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Millenium Challenge Corporation
We discuss:
- Racial and ethnic minorities remain under-represented in positions of power
- The global development sector remains predominantly white and female, including at the top
- Disability reporting shows signs of greater awareness
- Organizations have invested in establishing governance structures for DEI: policies, strategies and staff with dedicated responsibilities as well as collective staff bodies (DEI councils etc.)There are modest improvements in how diversity data are captured
- Commitment to DEI remains, but competing priorities and resource limitations are a severe impediment to progress
- There are tensions between global DEO, localization and domestic DEI that need to be resolved – but also many points of similarity
Resources:
Shiro’s LinkedIn Profile
Social Impact website
Social Impact’s blog post on overall survey results
Social Impact blog post on 7 actions the US development sector must take
YouTube video of this podcast
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