Our proposition
Generating leadership action that improves the lives of people in crisis
Impact launched the Relief and Development Group in 2006. Since then we have worked alongside the people and organisations at the heart of some the most compelling issues of our time ~ climate change; poverty; wars in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the Congo; the food crisis; and natural disasters in Myanmar and Ethiopia.
We find that these issues are fundamentally leadership challenges on a global, systemic level. And we’ve concluded that our work is to help generate leadership action that tackles these issues and that ultimately drives change in the lives of people in crisis.
Issues as complex as these are at the same time very personal and profoundly global:
• The Haitian who cannot afford to buy enough food for her family, is hungry because of oil price fluctuations, increasing meat consumption in China, commodity speculators, US bio-fuel subsidies and a drought in the grain fields of Argentina.
• The Congolese refugee fleeing armed militias is bound up with global mobile phone sales, the regional investment climate, the effectiveness of the United Nations system and an absence of political leadership
• The Burmese fisherman rebuilding his village after Cyclone Nargis is unwittingly affected by climate change, international criminal law, economic sanctions, and the price of rice.
The people and organisations who aspire to tackle such issues must themselves simultaneously operate at the personal and global levels. And meaningful change requires action across all dimensions: How does the manager of a development agency influence the global causes of suffering, while on a day to day basis the choices he or she faces are often mundane? How should I run this meeting? What are my priorities today? How do I ensure my team is working well? Who do I need to influence?
People living in crisis struggle to break free from poverty, suffering or insecurity due to a complex web of social, economic and environmental factors. The individuals and organizations working on relief and development issues are ultimately faced with a challenge of leadership – what actions will generate the change they seek in the world?
Impact’s Relief and Development Group are experts at generating leadership action to improve the lives of people living in crisis. We work with individuals and organizations to achieve change that cascades through four interconnected domains – personal, team, organisational, and ultimately at a systemic level. We help people align behind clear and targeted shared goals, and then develop ways of working through which they will achieve these.
At the heart of our work is an unwavering belief that leadership is a special kind of action, not a special kind of person. It is action that intentionally and positively impacts the future. It is aligned action from many sources that is required to tackle complex global issues.
The world is globalised as never before. We need people who understand their leadership role beyond the parameters of their own team or organization, particularly when grappling with the profound challenges of relief and development work. Impact’s expertise in generating leadership action is relevant in new and urgent ways.
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