Challenging the “Helping” Instinct: Why Sustainable Development Begins with Being Invited
- REI
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
by Wendy Moore, Director of Communications
For decades, billions of dollars have flowed into global development.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), official development assistance reached over $200 billion annually in recent years. And yet, across sectors and regions, many development practitioners wrestle with a difficult question: If we are spending more than ever, why do some challenges persist?
The answer is uncomfortable.
Because sometimes, our instinct to help unintentionally creates the very problems we hope to solve.
Challenging the Helping Instinct
In global development and humanitarian work, helping is rarely questioned. It’s assumed to be good and necessary, even urgent.
But at REI, we’ve learned something over the past 35+ years: the instinct to help can cause harm when it isn’t grounded in humility and listening.
The Hidden Risk of Good Intentions
When help arrives with predetermined projects, imported solutions or externally designed programs, it can unintentionally:
Undermine local leadership
Weaken institutional ownership
Create dependency instead of strengthening capacity
Solve short-term symptoms while leaving systems unchanged
What “Working with” Really Means
One of REI’s core commitments is working with governments and institutions.
Here’s what we mean by this: We ask to be invited in.
We don’t assume we understand what a country or community needs. We don’t arrive with predetermined solutions, no matter how experienced or well-intentioned we may be. Instead, we begin by listening.
This posture has shaped REI from the very beginning.
A Question that Changed Everything
In 1991, before REI formally began serving in Vietnam, our leaders sat down with government and community officials and asked a question that felt unusual at the time: “What do you need to achieve the development you want to see?”
The response wasn’t immediate clarity, it was surprise.
These leaders weren’t accustomed to being asked. Too often, outside organizations arrive with their own assessments, priorities and timelines already decided.
When given the opportunity to speak, they did more than answer the question. They invited REI to listen more broadly, across more institutions, sectors and regions, to better understand Vietnam’s own vision for its development.
After that, REI came back home and gathered what was requested, sought appropriate resources and then returned to Vietnam as partners committed to walking alongside local leadership.
The Long View of Partnership
Over the next 35+ years, that listening-first posture shaped everything that followed:
1,325 short-term medical, education and business teams
A focus on teaching and training local professionals
Strengthened medical, surgical, business and English-language capacity
Long-term relationships that outlasted any single project
The goal was sustainability, dignity and capacity defined by those closest to the context.
Vietnam’s remarkable growth and increasing global engagement reflect the leadership and resilience of its people. REI’s role has always prioritized being invited, relational and long-term.
When Recognition Reflects Posture, not Performance
In both 2018 and again this past year, the Vietnam government recognized REI for its humanitarian and development contributions, ranking the organization second only to the World Bank.
For a nonprofit with a small staff and many volunteers, this recognition matters as affirmation that how we work matters.
It reinforces a lesson that applies far beyond international development:
Good intentions are not enough. Listening is not optional. Posture shapes outcomes.
A Question Worth Asking Everywhere
Whether globally or locally, the question remains the same: Are we helping with people, or for them?
Because sustainable development doesn’t begin with answers. It begins with humility. And often, with courage to ask permission.
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