In May 2017, Motive CEO Morgan Keay was a featured panelist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at an event entitled “The Role of Multi-Sector Partnerships in the New Development Era.” CSIS hosted this half-day event at the start of the Trump Administration when U.S. foreign assistance budgets faced significant cuts. The panel Morgan spoke on was asked to explore creative options to better leverage capital – financial or otherwise – through cross-sector partnerships, specifically in conflict-affected and fragile states.
Moderator Greg Huger, former USAID Mission Director, Assistant Administrator, and current Regional Director for the U.S. Peace Corps, facilitated the group of expert practitioners from civil society, the U.S. military, and the private sector. Morgan’s fellow panelists included retired U.S. Army Special Operations Commander LTG (ret.) Charles Cleveland, Simon Lowes, former manager of Global Social Performance at Chevron, and Bill Guyton, founder of the World Cocoa Foundation.
Opening her remarks with the statement, “Conflict affects all sectors of society and therefore takes all sectors of society to address." Morgan confronted an idea considered to be heretical by many in the international development and diplomacy communities: expanded partnerships with the military can advance development and humanitarian goals. To make the case, Morgan offered a story about a real-world case study: a World Bank-funded road construction project through the heart of extremist-affected territory in West Africa’s Lake Chad Basin. This example illustrates what happened when local civil society, the host country’s military, and the U.S. military came together around a violence-plagued infrastructure project to transform human security in the region. Listen to Morgan’s story here:
Among her suggestions to re-think cross-sector partners, Morgan contemplates an idea. What if, when militaries are operating in intensely conflicted affected areas -- where few private sector entities do business, and where NGOs struggle to access — security forces had with them embedded economic scouts. Scouts looking for investment opportunities responsive to specific social development needs and then channeling that information back to networks of private sector actors, the investment community, and traditional development donors? A step further, Morgan suggests that such partnerships could also strengthen community bonds between citizens and security forces. By facilitating security and logistical access for intrepid investors willing to pursue such opportunities, security forces viewed with skepticism by citizens in conflict-affected areas, have a chance to fundamentally improve the strained relationships they often have with local communities. Who would have thought something like a road construction project could be a vector for civil-military trust-building and resilience?
Watch the full discussion: