Chapter 15: Here To Stay: How Relationships, Results, and Grit Characterize Exemplary International Aid Workers

The cross-cultural nature of the international aid interventions is one of many factors that makes them vulnerable to failure. According to Roper and Pettit (2002) the complexity of the development process, of accountability, measurement, and self-inflicted complexities like short-term project cycles and staff contracts make international aid interventions particularly unlikely to bring about sustainable positive change. In addition, Lewis (1998), Walker (2004), Luff (2009), Dickmann et al. (2010), and Williamson (2010) identify the following additional issues:

What can we learn from people who appear to have navigated these complexities and become exemplary field practitioners in the international aid sector? This question was the focus of my collective case study.