It’s time for aid and development work to switch from “bottom-up” to “inside-out” thinking

Among the many paradoxes of humanitarian aid and international development work is the assumed separation between those giving, and those receiving. This de facto dichotomization of aid puts those with resources (whether defined as money or ideas) on one side of an imaginary divide and those with needs on the other. Unfortunately, this perpetuates a limited view of what constitutes both resources and needs. It also means the flow of resources and support is inherently one-way – from those with “resources” to those with “needs,” a dynamic that creates cycles of codependency and depletion. The framework is rooted in fragmentation, with all the sectors disconnected and largely acting upon each other.

The phrase “top-down” is often used to describe this system, which illuminates the hierarchy embedded in the framework.? The implication is that if you don’t like this paradigm or if you want to challenge or change it, the alternative is “bottom-up.” But “bottom up” thinking also perpetuates the assumption of hierarchy, and it doesn’t challenge the original assumption of separation and fragmentation.

At Catalyst for Peace, we reject the linear, fragmented, hierarchical assumptions embedded in both top-down and bottom-up language. Instead, we act from a vision of the international aid system as a set of nested circles with local communities – those closest to the problems being addressed – in the center. In this configuration, roles and locations are distinct, but there is no inherent hierarchy. Instead, the role of each sector, of each ring in the circle, is to hold and invite and support the purpose and potential of those within it, and to share ideas and learning with the circles outside it. This allows for a two-way flow of resources—including and especially from the inside out. Each level has distinct resources, capacities and needs, but all work together as part of a larger whole.

This isn’t a mere abstract vision – we have lived it out in practice in our work with Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone. As I’ve written on LinkedIn and in my book The Answers Are There: Building Peace From the Inside Out, this vision rests in the belief that people and communities, even after war and violence or in the midst of other social and economic crises, have within them resources for, and answers to, the problems they face.? They have the potential to lead, plan, and enact change for themselves.? Inviting, receiving, learning from and building on this potential is the one thing that will ultimately create real, sustainable change.

In virtually every community where Fambul Tok has worked, this approach—mobilizing community leadership while operating from an understanding of the system as an interconnected whole—has succeeded, tapping into and opening up a wellspring of energy for community action and leadership, while also creating challenges to support and sustain that work over time. We have seen example after example of people spontaneously mobilizing to better their communities, whether by building roads and schools or tackling local social issues like teenage pregnancy and domestic violence. And we have seen leaders at every level, from the most local to national and international, express astonishment at how much easier their jobs become when there is space to work collaboratively to address the challenges they face.

Central to this approach is the conviction that the role of an outside supporter is not to go in to fix or save but rather to look for, notice, encourage, magnify, and build on the resources that are already within the community itself. This centers the work of accompaniment, and it also means an outside supporter has to go in as a learner, as much as a helper. That is the essence of what allows us to build peace from the inside out.

While a top-down approach is widely recognized as inadequate and ultimately destructive, it’s time to also move past the limitations of “bottom-up” frameworks. Let’s embrace an understanding of the system as a living whole, and create space not just for outside-in flows, but for “inside-out” thinking and acting.? Despite decades of embedded assumptions and habits, the switch can be made, simply and organically.

How?

Whether you’re a nonprofit organization, a local or national government agency or a donor, I offer these ideas from my own experience:

• Adopt the assumptions that people and communities CAN fulfill their own potential; this isn’t a one-and-done thing, but rather it requires ongoing reflection and questioning.
• Open up to the possibility that the fragmented sectors currently acting upon each other can act with each other. Look for opportunities for better collaboration in your own arena.
• Locate yourself as part of and within the larger, interconnected whole and shape your role and work accordingly. We have all internalized assumptions of fragmentation, and we perpetuate those notions without thinking, unless we begin to stop and ask ourselves what it would mean to work from within a system that is actually whole and healthy – even while we’re working to challenge and dismantle the practices that keep us fragmented.
• Hold the understanding of a whole, healthy, interconnected system in an already-not-yet way, acting from it while also actively working toward it.
• Bring this system into fuller manifestation in an incremental way, right from where you are. “Small small,” is one of my favorite sayings in Sierra Leone, signifying the way things happen one step at a time. But “small small” over time…is big big.

This is at the heart of what it means to build peace from the inside out.