Interview
‘Development aid is, and will remain, a very difficult area’
Anshu Gupta
Board member Anshu Gupta
Anshu Gupta’s day-to-day job is at Gupta Strategists, an independent consultancy firm for organisations in the healthcare sector. He is also a member of the Board of the Achmea Foundation. In this honest and open interview, he explains what motivates him and talks about his approach to his work. ‘What helps me, is that I take a very calculated approach. What are you trying to achieve? Not as an unquestionable goal, but as a roadmap. And what interventions can I carry out to achieve the desired result?’
‘Around five years ago, I joined the Board of the Achmea Foundation. I’ll be honest with you: I was quite sceptical, and I’m still quite sceptical. Why? Because development aid is a very difficult area. How do you ensure that you’re truly effective? How do you make sure that your investment of work and capital actually delivers the desired result?
But at the same time I thought it was rather lazy just to stand on the sidelines and say “it’s not working”. And I thought I had the duty to at least give it a try. I believe that people have an intrinsic need to help one another. And I’m interested in doing this in such a way that these efforts are effective and actually deliver results.
Working with partners
When I look back over the back five years, I can see that the Foundation has developed strongly on two fronts. On the one hand, we’ve developed a system to make better assessments: before, during and after. On the other hand, we’ve moved beyond just investing and monitoring from the sidelines. We actually get involved; we work with our partners to a certain extent.
'It’s about achieving a return for the target group.'
We’re an “activist investor”, in the sense that unlike traditional investors, we get actively involved in the businesses in which we invest. This means actively contributing ideas to the project. Is there a better way? What do you need? And what can we do for you? For us, the envisaged result is central. We aim to achieve output, a return. That’s what it’s all about.
We assess applications as if they were business cases: I invest X and it generates Y. But the thing is, it’s not about achieving a financial return for the Achmea Foundation. It’s about achieving a return for the target group. If an investment in an agricultural project doubles the harvest, then it is about financial returns, but not financial returns for us. It’s about financial returns for local farmers, which help to improve their livelihoods.
Filtering projects according to impact
But let me return to the first point: assessment and monitoring. We’re very critical in our approach to granting applications. Each year we issue a so-called Call for Proposals. The Call always attracts lots of responses. Our first step is to filter the projects according to their impact. We look at expected returns and feasibility. After that, 10 projects might still be in the running. We then enter into intensive dialogue with those partners. We challenge them about their targets, the impact and what they’ll need from us. This brings us closer together. And ultimately, we only get involved with partners with whom we can jointly create added value.
Despite all our good intentions and efforts, I had hoped we would achieve more. We haven’t achieved the success that I think is possible and necessary. Some projects haven’t achieved the envisaged results. And sometimes unforeseeable obstacles have arisen during the course of a project. We’ve had to adjust the objectives halfway through, invest more or even pull the plug on a project.
What have we learned from this? We’ve developed the discipline and culture to learn from our mistakes. We look very critically at ourselves and at our impact and ask: what lessons can we learn? We’re constantly looking for improvements.
Anshu Gupta
'What would motivate one particular farmer in Kenya to work the land differently than his father or grandfather did for decades?'
Creating a roadmap
This matches my general approach to life. I really believe in being specific about the steps I need to take to achieve a goal and to make life better for the target group. Understanding what’s going on, discovering what makes a difference and why, and translating this knowledge into interventions that enable you deliver that difference. Always remaining focused on that dot on the horizon. Asking: am I heading in the right direction? That’s how you create a roadmap. That’s the analytical side of things. On the other hand, it’s crucial to understand people. Because ultimately it all comes down to human behaviour: is a person or a group of people individually willing to change their behaviour? What would motivate one particular farmer in Kenya to work the land differently than his father or grandfather did for decades? Or why would a mother in Ghana change the way she feeds her child? I feel enriched by the different countries and cultures in which I have lived and worked. I’ve realised how difficult it is to understand – never mind intervene in – the worlds of people who lead totally different lives.’