As the National Democratic Institute (NDI) moves into a fourth year of championing environmental governance in its global programming, staff are leading the Institute in integrating the principles of environmental sustainability, democratic participation and accountability within NDI itself. In the fall of 2023, NDI launched the Environmental Sustainability Initiative pilot for select country offices to design strategic sustainability action plans, measure progress, and share lessons learned. Through the initiative, staff globally are paving the way for prioritizing environmental sustainability as a core part of their office operations and strategic planning.
The Institute works to empower local civil society organizations and government coalitions to advance environmental governance action, participatory policymaking, and accountability at every level around the world. This pilot has created an opportunity for NDI to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and to embody its commitment to participatory processes, transparency, and norms change on an organizational scale, with even greater mobilization effects as staff and partners adopt sustainability measures in their families and in their communities.
From idea to runway– iteration, agency, and transparency
Led by the Institute’s Environmental Governance and Resilience (EGAR) Working Group, a collection of staff passionate about environmental issues, the pilot is being conducted by six NDI country offices: Albania, Guatemala, Mali, Malaysia, Kosovo and Serbia. The Initiative is a bottom-up effort by staff, who developed the resources pulling from their expertise in environmental policy, program monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and local office operations to chart a path forward for environmentally-conscious programming and operations. The takeaways from this pilot will inform the Institute’s learning and spreading of sustainability across its work and show the ease of making sustainable change.
Offices walk through a checklist of sustainability considerations, big to small, across a range of action areas – from office operations and programming logistics to partnerships and data transparency – to design a tailored strategic plan.
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One of the goals of the checklist is to “educate staff that they have agency and options.” How teams localize their action plan is key, applying the checklist in a way that makes sense to their office based on their context and needs. The checklist is not overly prescriptive but practical, so teams feel like they can get things done. Some teams want more structure to guide them on what to do. Busy with the day-to-day demands of programming, practical and accessible guidance to quickly integrate sustainability initiatives into their heavy workload is important for success.
To respond to the need for flexibility, the checklist is not a one size fits all approach. What initially might have seemed like a daunting list of potential action items to check off, became seen as an empowering menu of options. A success for teams was how they found ways to take small steps in areas they can act on right now, in line with their work priorities.
“We started to ramp up our field office with several initiatives such as ascertaining recycle bins (not restricted to just paper, plastic and metal – but also other recyclables such as light bulbs, e-waste, food waste, glass, textiles, styrofoam and more); obtaining more plants for the office (some good oxygen providers); and spreading this initiative to our partners and participants.” - Soon Wei Xen, NDI Malaysia Program Associate
To measure their impact, offices take a baseline assessment and monitor progress across each action area, along a ranking scale from “doesn’t exist” to “fully implemented.” The self-assessment tool enables teams to evaluate where they are currently in meeting diverse sustainability measures, holds them accountable, and invites dialogue and feedback from across all team members.
Sparking creativity and innovation
The result of their baseline assessment “was both an individual and collective shock,” says Dr. Badié Hima, NDI Mali Resident Director. The NDI Mali office developed an expansive list of innovative recommendations beyond their office, that address the Institute more widely. A few of the proposed ideas: a monitoring group composed of representatives from each country office to track the expansion of sustainability throughout the Institute, spreading a sustainability component across NDI program budgets, and more.
To empower offices with a way to recognize the work they have done, the NDI Serbia team created an email signature badge certifying offices that have assessed their current practices and created commitments towards reaching environmental sustainability. The badge serves as a milestone to reward achievement and a positive signal to partners of the values and priorities of NDI. NDI’s Serbia and Malaysia offices are the first two country offices piloting the initiative to receive the badge, which staff have proudly added to their email signatures.
“The most impactful thing for me as a co-chair is to watch the creativity of ideas grow. What I originally thought would just be us providing an environmental checklist has turned into a creative free-for-all! The ideas that our field teams are coming up with to be more environmentally friendly – and to encourage our partners to follow suit – is inspiring.” - Jill Watkins, NDI Asia Program Manager, Sustainability Initiative Co-chair
A domino effect
The NDI Malaysia office works with many youth partners, who encourage the team to be environmentally friendly in their collective activities, for example, opting out of individual water bottles for a shared water jug during events. The team wants to show their partners that they are also committed to the same values. A highlight is how the checklist allows them to add their own unique twist to the effort. Excited to be able to walk the talk, staff are already looking at how they can next distribute the checklist to partners.
Through the holistic approach, teams are leveraging sustainability priorities in their day-to-day as well as weaving them into long-term thinking and valued leadership opportunities, for example, for youth staff passionate about this work. The initiative has had a ripple effect of positive influence, beyond the scope of the offices. Staff have felt a personal impact in their lives at home and with others. They see a potential for this to create a shift in the approach to NDI programming. Staff are proud to be an example in this work and will continue proactively initiating the domino effect by reaching out to NDI partners, donors, and teams to share lessons learned.
“what’s [...] important is how closely this aligns with our institutional values - accountability, responsibility and respect... We assume responsibility for addressing the needs of the current and future generations. And we show respect - for nature, ourselves, and each other.” - Olya Catto, Chief Operating Officer, NDI
One aim of the initiative is to learn from each other’s examples of innovations, failures, and successes, and measure institutional progress. The pilot teams will move forward next in data collection and analysis as they implement their action plans and will hold quarterly reflection sessions to pool lessons learned, workshop solutions, and catalog progress. Knowledge transfer is built into the process, allowing for teams across the Institute to learn from each other at various stages of the process. The iteration and democratic implementation at the core of NDI’s Sustainability Initiative is its strength. Through its commitment, the Institute is taking another step in living its values of equity and accountability.
Author: Madeleine Nicoloff, Program Officer, Democracy & Technology
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NDI is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization that works in partnership around the world to strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, processes, norms and values to secure a better quality of life for all. NDI envisions a world where democracy and freedom prevail, with dignity for all.
