Why We Don't Believe in Silos: SEI's Cross-Sectoral Approach to Development

Published by SustainEdge Innovations Limited | Development Insights

There is a question we are asked often, usually early in a conversation with a potential partner or client: "So what sector do you work in?"

It is a fair question. The international development world is largely organized around sectors. There are health organizations and agriculture organizations, energy specialists and education programs. Donors often fund along these same lines, and governments structure their ministries accordingly. The system, in many ways, rewards specialization.

But here is what four decades of combined field experience has taught our founding team: the communities we serve do not live in sectors. They live in households, in villages, in districts where a mother is simultaneously a patient, a farmer, a learner, and someone who cannot charge her phone because there is no reliable power within five kilometers. Her challenges do not arrive one at a time, neatly labelled. They arrive all at once, deeply intertwined.

This is why SustainEdge Innovations was built on a cross-sectoral foundation.