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Paper short abstract:

Does the UK international development profession reflect society? Using existing evidence, and new studies on NGO workforce monitoring, and the background of international development students, to ask far under representation of lower socioeconomic groups impacts on the performance of the sector.

Paper long abstract:

International development is delivered by organisations in the public, charity, NGO, educational and voluntary sectors. There is no single source of data on the background of those working in field, but such evidence that does exist suggests significant under representation of those from lower socio-economic groups.

The paper will briefly review this evidence, and report two new studies undertaken by Diversity in Development, a new charity formed to promote inclusion in the sector. The first, undertaken jointly with BOND, involved responses of 120 NGO’s about their policies for monitoring diversity amongst their staff. The second looked at the background of those studying international development in UK universities, using data supplied by JISC. Both surveys reinforce indications from the wider literature that under representation by socio-economic background is more marked than for other potentially categories as gender and ethnicity.

Finally, the paper will pose three questions for discussion. The first is whether this underrepresentation matters, in terms of wider public support for development or the ability of the profession to do its job. The second is what particular barriers, if any, do those from lower socio-economic groups experience in seeking involvement in the sector. The third is what the sector can do to influence the position, and what particular role the development research community can play.