Whose Reality Counts? Power, Incentives, and the Missing Local Layer in Development Decisions
Hosts: DevelopMetrics, United Nations University, Columbia University
Whose Reality Counts? Power, Incentives, and the Missing Local Layer in Development Decisions, explores how data, AI, and reporting systems shape development decisions, and how they can unintentionally sideline local knowledge.
This is a participatory session, and participants will contribute their own perspectives and contribute to an activity. Using concrete examples, we will examine how AI-generated project designs differ when they rely only on global data versus when they incorporate a locally governed evidence layer. The session also draws on funder perspectives, including reflections on how AI is changing grant applications and decision-making dynamics.
There is a persistent gap between lived local realities and where decision-making power actually sits. Even when local knowledge exists, funding, reporting structures, and now AI systems often privilege standardized, English-language, and globally legible data, reinforcing incentives that pull organizations away from contextual nuance. We aim to surface that structural misalignment and explore what’s missing.
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how AI systems interact with power and incentives in development, a practical lens for identifying where the “local layer” is missing in their own work, and concrete ideas for redesigning data and decision pathways to better align funding with lived reality.
Jill LaLonde, Columbia University, is a nonprofit executive and strategic advisor with nearly two decades of experience in global development and mission-driven leadership.
Lindsey Moore is the Founder & CEO at DevelopMetrics, a professor on AI and Policy at Georgetown University; researcher at UNU-MERIT focusing on AI governance and evidence use, and former USAID foreign service economist.
Third speaker, potentially a funder who can bring a community-led development and funder lens to the framing.
This venue has a capacity of 90.