Guest Blog: In praise of small ‘b’ bureaucracy
Guest blog by Oli Brown Associate Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources Department, Chatham House. Former UNEP Senior Programme Coordinator, Disasters and Conflicts sub-programme. Originally published here. Stick with me here, but I’m going to try to argue that for those working in international development, bureaucracy is something to lean into, rather than reject. I realise this is a hard sell, as bureaucracy is the one thing that everyone agrees they hate. Frustration at the time wasted through infuriating processes, jumping through hoops, needless form-filling and endless signature hunts are one of the biggest causes of work stress worldwide. Fairly or not, the United Nations has become a byword for bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is not unique to the UN, of course. People I know who’ve worked in the private sector and in government say that bureaucracy can be just as bad, or worse in other sectors. Nevertheless, there has been much discussion ...