Paper short abstract:

Drawing on my experience as an advisor at International Animal Rescue Indonesia (YIARI), I describe how top-down project models can undermine Indonesian staff’s ability to meaningfully connect with their work, and share the challenges and successes of YIARI’s efforts to better empower its employees

Paper long abstract:

This paper reflects on the effects of different project models on how staff members experience and engage with conservation work. When International Animal Rescue Indonesia (YIARI) first started, high-level staff designed the projects, while the local staff was mainly responsible for project implementation. This top-down model, which distinguishes between project designers and project implementers, is shared by many conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, as YIARI grew, this system increasingly undermined local staff sense of commitment, connection, and ownership. As programme advisor, I observed a lack of loyalty to YIARI and a ‘salary only’ mentality amongst the staff, a true disconnect and lack of understanding between project ideas and the staff implementing these ideas on the ground, and no real sense of unity between staff members.

Consequently, we changed our way of working and prioritised a bottom-up approach in which project implementers simultaneously became project designers. This required project leads to take full ownership of their project activities and budgets, learn how a project matrix system functions, and understand their responsibilities to various relevant stakeholders while ensuring that YIARI’s key organisational goals, as well as donor expectations, were met. The transition has been challenging, in terms of training and mentoring staff, increased workload for high-level staff, translating staff ideas to donor priorities, and ensuring trust and transparency between high-level staff and project leads. Overall, however, these challenges resulted in a more inclusive NGO by enabling Indonesian staff to develop professionally and advance their own visions of conservation.