Development Practitioners Strategise For Increased Productivity

Development practitioners have convened in Jere, Kaduna State, to discuss strategies for increased productivity in their work and life.

The three-day retreat, the second of its kind, organised by The Development Conversations (TDC) Global, reoriented 25 female development practitioners on the importance of rest, transition and true effectiveness to enable them do their jobs and to live a meaningful life.

At the event, founder, TDC Global, Tobi Ransomed, said development practitioners do much of the heavy-lifting work driving social change in Nigerian communities that they have forgotten what it is like to rest.

Rest, she said not only gives them opportunity to reflect, but to recharge, reconnect with themselves and renew their purpose for the work they do.

“What we are doing in these three days is to give them the opportunity to look at 2025, identify lessons that they’ve learned and things they want to do better in 2026. They are also looking at their own careers. As a development worker, you do not take away your person out of your work. Your work is an expression of who you are.

“Well rested development practitioners are comfortable, they are full and they’ll be better able to pour out of themselves into others. It is really a more effective way of reaching the needs of the people we serve,” said Ransomed.

Reiterating the need to instill a culture of rest in Nigerians, humanitarian and development specialist, Ransomed Chibueze, said Africans in general have a tendency of working until they drop down sick at the hospital.

He said coming through a year chockful of transitions, taking a rest when needed, and investing in one’s mental health is crucial.

“Transition is a part of reinventing, of rediscovering who are you beyond your work. It can be heartbreaking and it can be disruptive, but it is necessary to get you to the next phase. Since COVID 19 pandemic, it’s been one thing after another in the international development sector. The sector got even more disruptive when Trump came into power, leading to lots of funding cuts. It’s been an overwhelming year for the sector.

“So, this retreat enables practitioners to leave their working hats at home and come here to unwind. It’s also part of mental wellbeing where they pause, reflect, and do something outside the normal.”

He urged that Nigerians learn to use the designated breaktimes at work to rest, ensure they get the recommended seven to eight hours daily sleep, or ask for additional time to complete assigned tasks where necessary.

On his part, the country director of PLAN International, Mr Charles Usie, disabused the participants of the idea of ‘doing more as being productive’, and the importance of community.

“Many people think wrongly of effectiveness as having to do more and more, even if you don’t think of the results. Rest means a time to stop, to think and make new decisions. True effectiveness occurs when one stops, and recalibrates by analysing the purpose of their work and life.

“It helps sharpen your decisions so that when you return and continue in this whole game of effectiveness, you are sure of what you are producing,” Usie said.