Info Call – Development Cooperation

🌍 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?

Last week, the Ashoka Visionary Program hosted an honest conversation with four alumni from the development cooperation sector, who’ve been quietly doing exactly that. Here’s what they shared 👇

🛑 Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is stop. Step back. Think together.

💬 “The benefit the Visionary Program gave us was to simply take the time to step back from our daily struggles and daily to-do, to exchange on those topics with peers from other organizations on the meta level. […] I applied the whole system change Ashoka course to a concrete project. And that helped us a lot to test and refine our system change approach. That was very useful.” Kristina Kroyer, Program Coordination & Knowledge Management, horizont3000

💪 For Nicole, the program gave her something rarer than a new framework – the courage to push for real change on her return.

💬 “It gave us really the time and the colleagues to reflect deep and the strength to come back to my organization and say: we go from lip service to concrete action, to really transforming the organization.” Nicole Stolz, Head of Development Cooperation, SWISSAID

🔄 At Missio Österreich , the shift wasn’t just strategic, it changed the fundamental texture of how they work with partners.

💬 “Because of the Visionary Program and all this reflection, we remained intentionally lean more trust-based project development, less paper, more visits, more exchange on site. A project is a learning journey for us now. […] You get addicted to this behavior, to this mindset.” Monika Ségur-Cabanac, Regional Manager Central & West Africa, Missio Österreich

🧭 And for those who sometimes wonder whether staying inside a big institution is even worth it Ursula had a clear answer.

💬 “The Visionary Program confirmed for me that I’m in the right place to try and change a system from the inside. It really helped me to stay on track and not get distracted to be a little bit persistent in what we were trying to change.” Ursula Miller, Partnership Expert, Light for the World

🙏 Thank you Nicole, Kristina, Monika, and Ursula and to Olga Shirobokova for hosting a conversation that felt genuinely real.

If you work in development cooperation and recognize yourself in any of these words the 12th cohort of the Ashoka Hashtag
Hashtag#VisionaryProgram is open.

It’s a year-long leadership journey for changemakers who want tools, frameworks, and a peer community that takes the long view on change.

📹 Full recording in the comments: https://lnkd.in/dGMeBdWa
📝 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/e_PN7WQ3

Linkedin Post by Ashoka Austria