Make It Flashy

Some social problems take years to address. They involve institutions, behaviour, inequality, infrastructure and politics. Their progress is rarely visible in a single photograph.

CSR programmes can face pressure to produce something tangible and easy to communicate. A new structure, event or campaign can make for a much cleaner story than long-term systems work.

The result is an incentive towards visibility. But a project being easy to photograph does not make it more valuable. Sometimes the most important work is precisely the work that produces no dramatic before-and-after picture.