The SAS+ Advisory Group provides advice on and support for influencing efforts for SAS+. They lend their specific expertise and extensive experience to strengthen SAS+ and ensure it incorporates a myriad of perspectives. Since they are so integral to our work, we want to share their valuable knowledge with you. 

Rachel Hayman manages the Agile Initiative at the University of Oxford in the UK, a large interdisciplinary research program delivering solutions to critical environmental science problems, particularly related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

Rachel’s journey to the international development sector and the SAS+ Advisory Group began with her PhD in African Studies, focussing on the politics of aid.

“I had a really keen interest then in the politics of aid flows and particularly sort of who’s determining the terms of cooperation and how the narrative is set around those who’ve got the most power. Aid ownership was a really big concept at that time, and it was really incorporated into the research work that I was doing.”

Her research was focussed on government-to-government relationships, and the role of NGOs as part of the aid chain. But after completing her PhD, Rachel was more interested in applying research in practice – leading her to work at INTRAC, an international NGO originating in Oxford that provides organizational development support, and supports civil society organizations around the world.

It was through INTRAC that Rachel became more involved in research relating to transitions and exit planning.

“In 2011 the real impacts of the financial crash of 2008 were making themselves felt in the aid system. At the same time we had a whole shifting dynamic because of the emergence of new middle income countries as well. So there was quite a profound effect at the time on NGOs and quite a lot of changes in aid amounts and in the patterns and the flows of aid.”

“We started a research project on this, and began digging around for resources that would be useful to our partners. We discovered work that had been done by colleagues at INTRAC in the mid 1990s.”

At the time, very little research existed for NGOs on how to plan and execute leadership transitions and exit planning – particularly around handling exits at short notice in different countries.

“Suddenly there was much less money available for doing work in India or South Africa, for example. So INGOs at that time were suddenly faced with quite rapid and unexpected changes and were exiting countries and they were cutting ties with partners and they were having to cut whole swathes of programs as well in particular areas. So there wasn’t a lot that was around at the time, in terms of good practice or even poor practice as well.”

“That was kind of the start of my journey in this area, and it lasted for the whole time that I was at INTRAC.”

She spent the next 10 years primarily looking at issues around exit, exit planning, and sustainability. Rachel’s work led to research, action learning, and a range of webinars and events to explore how INGOs and local organizations plan for and think about their own partnerships – and in particular, the sustainability of their work and practice.

“And that brought me ultimately into contact with Peace Direct and CDA Collaborative [as] something that Peace Direct were starting to look at quite a lot as well. So it was really interesting to go from a period where this was really not very present within the narrative and the work that organizations were doing to seeing a real kind of momentum […]  linking in more and more with debates around the mobilization of resources within countries and debates around the provision of aid more directly to organizations.”

Coming to SAS+, Rachel wanted to ensure the project wasn’t duplicating existing research.

“I was really keen to make sure that this initiative, SAS, was really building on what already existed and adding to a body of work that was already in existence. But, [I] really found the work of Stopping As Success really very enriching actually, in terms of being able to keep involved in a discussion about what’s going on in, in an area that really does interest me very greatly.”

In parallel to this work, Rachel also supported one of our case studies:

“Earlier on in the work that I was doing on exit, I was running an action learning set that involved Oxfam GB, which was at that time planning and going through its exit from the Caucasus, including in Georgia, where the solution to Oxfam actually withdrawing from Georgia was to help with the setup of a spinoff organization called BRIDGE.”

“It was really fascinating to see the BRIDGE side of the picture through the Stopping As Success project. I could see how the work that Stopping As Success was doing was building on and contributing to a picture that was becoming increasingly important.”

The SAS case studies are, to Rachel, a valuable pool of resources for the international development sector to draw on.

“[…] in my experience, everybody’s always looking for examples and they’ll always want an example that looks exactly like them… You’re never going to find an example exactly like yourself. But having more and more examples of organizations that have transitioned through change, hearing those perspectives from different angles and really having those in depth case studies available from very different parts of the world […] I think that’s an extremely valuable resource, and hopefully one that is being used by more and more organizations as well.”

These days, Rachel’s role in the sector isn’t as active as it used to be. But she continues to share her experiences and bring resources and examples to the next generation, both on the SAS+ advisory board and through guest lectures:

“I do a guest lecture each year on ending well, and around planning for sustainability and thinking about transition strategies.”

And she finds that people in her lectures – from professionals in UK-based civil society or funding organizations, to those who have experience of being on the receiving end of a transition – are really interested in the lessons of good NGO transitions.

“I think there’s a strong interest in it, and there’s greater recognition that this needs to be an integral part of the project cycle and project cycle management as well, because it gets token interest, but it’s recognizing just how fundamental it is, I think it’s a big shift. I’ve seen it with some organizations, but it really depends.”

“It’s so tied up with what’s going on in the aid sector – and the degree to which people are really serious about thinking about transitioning.” 

You can find out more about INTRAC via the link below.

INTRAC hosted SAS webinars: https://www.intrac.org/coming-soon-stopping-as-success-sas-learning-webinars/