“It’s a coffee with a purpose”: perspectives on thinking and working politically in the Pacific

ABSTRACT

Thinking and working politically is an approach to manoeuvring within social and political realities to achieve development goals, which some see as a new orthodoxy [Teskey 2017. Thinking and Working Politically: Are We Seeing the Emergence of a Second Orthodoxy? Governance Working Paper Series, Issue 1. Massachusetts: Abt Associates]. This research explores the practice of thinking and working politically in the Pacific, through in-depth interviews and observation with nine Pacific Islander staff working within a bilateral aid programme in Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands. The findings provide a rich description of what thinking and working politically entails in small, highly connected island communities, with insights into how these processes can be supported in official aid programmes.

Highlights

• This research unpacks thinking and working politically from the unique perspective of Pacific staff working in a bilateral aid programme.

• Thinking politically involves knowing the context, who to work with, and when to act.

• Working politically entails good communication, intuition, flexibility, influence, connecting people, and “playing different cards” at appropriate moments.

• Building and maintaining relationships is the cornerstone of thinking and working politically but is not always valued by within aid programmes.

• Moving away from political analysis as donor-led, intelligence-gathering exercises towards investment in locally led processes necessitates genuinely valuing relational work.

KEYWORDS:

• Politics
• relationships
• Pacific Islands
• political economy analysis
• aid
• development effectiveness

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the PLP staff who gave their time to participate in the study and offer feedback on draft findings. We appreciate the input of Elisabeth Jackson, Lisa Denney, and John Cox who provided useful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by La Trobe University’s Disciplinary Research Program (DRP) competitive grant scheme.

Notes on contributors

Kayli Wild

Kayli Wild is a Senior Research Fellow at La Trobe University and holds a Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellowship. She is a medical anthropologist and health systems researcher and is interested in bringing the voices of people with lived experience to policy issues and health system change. Kayli’s areas of expertise are qualitative research methods, reproductive health, and gender-based violence, with a current focus on Timor-Leste, and previously in the Pacific and with Australian Aboriginal communities.

Linda Kelly

Linda Kelly has worked widely in international development and has held senior management positions in Australian-based international NGOs (World Vision and Oxfam Australia). Since 2001 she has been the Director of Praxis Consultants Pty Ltd Australia, and in 2014 she joined the team at the Institute for Human Security and Social Change at Latrobe University, working on the interface between research and practice.

Chris Roche

Chris Roche is Professor of Development Practice at La Trobe University where he is also the Director of the Institute for Human Security and Social Change. Chris is also Deputy Director (Impact) of the Developmental Leadership Program, an international research programme which explores how leadership, power, and political processes drive or block successful development. Prior to joining La Trobe in 2012, Chris worked for over 25 years for International NGOs as a project manager, evaluator, policy researcher, and as a director. Chris is particularly interested in understanding the practice of social change processes and how those involved might be more effectively supported.