In the spotlight with Christine Allen, Progressio
Christine Allen, Chief Executive of Progressio, talks transformation, faith and the Progressio approach to development.
What inspired you to work in the sector?
After studying International Relations, I joined the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR), which later changed its name to Progressio. It lit a spark of “international” in me and opened my eyes to the idea of a church that was listening to the poor and being concerned about those issues. I have worked on community development, poverty and regeneration issues here in the UK and I think development and engagement issues overseas and in the UK are actually the same, it’s just a question of scale, resource and opportunity.
What are you are working on at the moment and what outcome do you hope it will have?
Water resource is a critical issue. Our focus recently has been on asparagus production in Peru which was draining natural water supplies. Drawing on the experience of our partners we wrote a report that led to valuable press coverage and very positive discussions with several major supermarkets about sourcing and certification issues. The impact of extended droughts and torrential rains, both of which are linked to climate change, are making growing food and food security incredibly difficult for the poorest.
The issue of water is both climate change and food production, for instance, the huge industrial-scale asparagus farming that is diverting water away from local farmers and communities. Our response is varied: at the grassroots we are supporting farmers to grow drought-resistant crops for instance, and to develop different ways to protect water supplies and manage natural water resources. This experience feeds into our policy analysis that says unless you are addressing the issues around water access and understanding the relationship between water and climate change you are not dealing with the whole picture. Then in discussions with major supermarkets we ask if they are aware of the implications of the way in which the food on their shelves is produced. We are working from the grassroots to the policy outcomes, which is a very “Progressio” approach.
What are the most rewarding and challenging parts of your job?
It is hugely rewarding to see people with passion, grit and determination make a massive difference to the lives of their communities and organisations. Our development workers help build the capacity of organisations and networks so one of the most successful outcomes is when a partner says “look what we have done”. This approach is challenging especially in an environment where we need to continuously tell stories and show our impact when actually this is about helping people do things for themselves. We need to work harder to help others understand the importance of longer term development work and the contribution this approach makes, especially given the current push from donors to focus on service delivery.
Why is faith important to how Progressio ‘does’ development?
While our organisational values - respect, solidarity, passion and boldness - are underpinned by gospel values and Catholic social teaching, they also speak to people of any faith or none. We come from a perspective that is about human dignity and the challenge to live as community, both local and global. We don’t just want to make things a little bit better; we seek transformation, which is absolutely central to what Catholic social teaching is all about.
What is the organisation’s most significant achievement?
There is a huge amount to choose from! This year we were one of the only development agencies involved in successfully securing legislation to ban illegal logging across the EU. There were lots of environmental organisations involved of course but we were the only development one and we received very positive feedback from the office of Caroline Lucas who was coordinator of the Legislative Committee. Participatory budgeting in the Dominican Republic, where community leaders work closely with the local government to decide what development projects it is going to fund, is another success. We have been working there for six years and what started in one municipality has become legislation across the Dominican Republic.
Where would you like Progressio to be in five years time?
I want us to have much stronger partnerships with other organisations so that our model of capacity building is integrated into the standard grant approach of the bigger organisations. Often it is capacity, not just resources, that is the missing input, and the intensive model that we use is known to work. Internally, like others I would like to have a more diverse funding and a larger supporter base. Progressio’s work is so good, more people should know about it!
With International Women’s Day on 8 March, why do you think there are still relatively few women NGO leaders, especially of larger UK NGOs?
I think it has got much better. When I joined CIIR nine years ago there were really very few women leaders. There were a lot of women at the Bond Annual Conference last November and having an inspiring woman as chair of Bond shows that as a sector we are moving in the right direction. As employers offer more flexibility and support for people with families, I am certain this will continue to increase.
You recently joined the Bond Board. What attracted you to the role?
I have a huge respect for Bond and I believe as members we have a responsibility to put in and not just take from it. As I have been in the sector for some time I felt it was my turn to step up and to help make it work. I have taken Progressio through a number of strategic and structural processes and a rebrand and I have a reasonable amount of public affairs and parliamentary experience and want to offer these and other skills to Bond.
Do you have a mentor or someone who has inspired you?
In this sector there is no shortage of brilliant inspirations. We work with people who face enormous challenges and yet their dedication and passion is awe-inspiring. It is an absolute privilege to work with them. As a person of faith, people of the church often inspire me, whether they are Bishops speaking out or theologians, religious or lay-people dedicating themselves to justice for people who are poor and oppressed.
What is the key challenge for the sector in the coming year?
One very big challenge is the real scepticism that we are beginning to see about the value of development. A couple of years ago you couldn’t argue against it and in fact there was a very strong public support for it whereas now, if you scratch the surface across government and the general public, development spending is heavily challenged. Development is beginning to be seen much more as service delivery and almost as a humanitarian response rather than addressing broader issues. As a sector we need to decide how to respond – do we deal with the symptoms or the underlying causes? This is a political discussion and it means that as a sector and as individual organisations we need to think about how to position ourselves. For Bond, as a membership organisation that needs to balance diversity with a position, it is even more challenging.
For more information about Progressio’s work: www.progressio.org.uk
