According to Kate Schecter, president and CEO of World Neighbors, the nature of development work has always been somewhat remote, with staff often managing programs from afar or mobilizing community volunteers who don’t have an office base. World Neighbors, which supports remote and marginalized communities, has staff in Peru’s capital, for example, while its programs are in the Andes, Cuzco, and the Amazon. Across the organization, 20% of positions are fully remote, depending on the country.
While humanitarian coordination staff were historically focused on the country where they were based, remote work now allows some of these experts to assist multiple crises. It’s a role that can be well adapted to distance work, said Savage, who is operating out of Denmark but supports teams across the MENA region in times of crisis. “When you’re in a coordination capacity, you are coordinating actors who are inherently in multiple different places all at the same time.”
Even while stationed in Syria for two years, the team was so scattered that Savage said she “would never have been able to cover all the ground individually.” Recognizing the value of global roving roles, she believes more aid organizations are creating such positions.
The remote model is also beneficial for development organizations, according to Temple, including donor and business development functions.
“Having the ability to work from home and a flexible schedule to support … different locations, especially some of our global services, has been really crucial,” Temple said. It enables a staff member to liaise with a donor in Australia in the morning and perhaps West Africa in the afternoon, she added.
Opportunities for local staff
Where a role has a remote option, it expands the pool of potential applicants, said Calum Stokes, who is based in Bangkok and works for an NGO headquartered in the United Kingdom. “There’s quite a few Thai people I know with remote contracts from Geneva, for example. Even a few years ago that wasn’t a concept.”
Family for Every Child, a global alliance of civil society organizations working to improve the care of children, went fully remote a decade ago as part of an effort to move away from “the head office and field model,” which CEO Amanda Griffith views as an “old fashioned way of seeing development.”
“It’s important that no particular part of the globe dominates and has privilege over others. Remote working really encourages that,” said Griffith.
At a time of budget cuts, this model can also help organizations reduce office overheads and adjust salaries to reflect local contexts. “Instead of having a function … in the middle of Manhattan, you can have the same corporate function in a different location,” Haine said. However, remote positions can still preclude applicants from areas with poor internet connectivity, he noted, particularly in Africa and Asia.
New risks for staff and organizations
A remote workforce comes with its own cadre of challenges, said Nathan Ackerman, CEO and president of Riley Risk. These stem from individual office and technology setups that are often less protected against cyberattacks, he explained, as well as the loss of a secure space to conduct sensitive work.
“I’m worried remote working is being seen as a cost-saving device … when actually it is a cultural choice,” said Ackerman. “And if you’re going to make a people and culture choice through embracing remote working, you need to assess the risks properly and collaboratively with your people and you need to think about how those risks vary across the demographic of your staff and your contacts.”
Ackerman shared the example that a staff member based in a restrictive country while working on sensitive issues, such as LGBTQ+ rights, fair elections, or peacebuilding, could be at risk if operating from home or a public place without a virtual private network — or VPN — rather than an office where adequate risk assessments have been carried out. He recommended that all remote staff be trained on cyber hygiene, VPN usage, and proper data storage.
Similarly, Oli May, founder and principal of risk advisory firm Koala International Development, cautioned that even when someone is working from their home and what they perceive to be a safe place, that might not necessarily be the case. “We’ve got to think about handwritten notes we’re creating at home, particularly when talking about recipient data and calls. Who can hear us as we talk, and are we talking about visiting sensitive areas that could be an issue?” he said.
Temple believes that, if managed properly and supported with the right tools, remote work can help the sector enhance its impact, though whether it will remain as popular a working model is unclear. Haine said he wouldn’t be surprised if people wanted to return en masse to offices eventually, or if an entirely new working trend evolved in line with technology advances. Either way, he said, as development professionals, “We will evolve with the job market.”
This article originally appeared on Devex.com on May 27, 2026.
