Your role in achieving sustainable development

The readers of this book most likely hold considerable agency in their own life. If people currently work for a large development organization or dream of working for one in the mid-term future, then they might think that they will have less agency there: however, the opposite can be true. The larger development organizations become, the less they have an overview of what is happening across the organization. The analogy of an hourglass is used, with significant power held by the lower-level staff. Even though it is recommended to students to work for smaller NGOs or foundations post-graduation as there are more opportunities to learn (and engage) beyond the job description, the reality is, even in large organizations, people can have leeway in how to undertake and reshape development work.