Fellowship honors work of the late Sandra Smithey, former Mott program officer

When Sandra Smithey passed away unexpectedly in 2022, her colleagues in the field wanted to honor her legacy of making positive change on a global scale.

Smithey was an Environment program officer at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for 20 years. She worked with Mott grantees around the world to increase access to modern energy services and reform international development finance.

Much of her work was aimed at meeting the needs of local communities in developing countries that were in the path of large energy and infrastructure projects, which can cause social upheaval and environmental problems. Her colleagues said her intellect and determination for responsive, sustainable growth delivered real benefits to communities, including access to renewable energy and human-centered infrastructure.

To continue her legacy, the Accountability Research Center at American University’s School of International Service recently established the Sandra N. Smithey Fellowship Fund for Equity and Accountability in International Development. The fellowship will support “frontline advocates, organizers, scholar-activists and community leaders whose work advances the kind of pro-poor, socially and environmentally sustainable development that Sandra championed,” according to a description of the program.

“Sandra was the best thought partner for the longest time to many of us in the community of advocates working to transform development finance,” said David Hunter, a professor of international and comparative environment law at American University’s Washington College of Law. “It was her intellectual engagement as much as anything, but she also had the ability to build communities of advocates.”

Mott provided a $250,000 grant to launch the Smithey Fellowship Fund, and the Wallace Global Fund and Marin Community Trust also provided funding. Smithey attended American University as a graduate student, and the university’s Accountability Research Center was already a Mott grantee.

The program will provide one-year fellowships to at least seven frontline advocates from around the world who have demonstrated a commitment to sustainability, accountability and equity in development finance and renewable energy access. The fellowship will support participants and meet their individual goals by deepening their knowledge, skills and networks, and sharing their lived experiences with the global development community. Fellows also will have opportunities to engage with a wide range of policymakers, activists and scholars, as well as to reflect on their ongoing work and long-term goals.

“The Mott Foundation is all about fostering communities for success, and Sandra was especially skilled at bringing people together to form strong and effective communities of practice,” said Traci Romine, a former Mott program officer who worked closely with Smithey. “Supporting individual fellows who will strengthen communities of practice for many years to come is a special way to honor both the Mott Foundation and Sandra.”

The first Smithey Fellow is Sisty Basil, executive director of the ELICO Foundation, a developer of off-grid renewable energy projects in Tanzania. Smithey had nurtured ELICO as she worked with a variety of organizations to bring solar power systems to rural communities in Tanzania. Those communities are now using the renewable energy for a variety of productive uses.

“I can think of no better way to honor Sandra than to support frontline advocates who will continue to pursue her vision of sustainable growth in developing countries and energy access for all,” said Sam Passmore, director of Mott’s Environment program.

Smithey was a tireless advocate for transforming development finance and holding international banks accountable for social and environmental problems caused by development projects they financed. One of her greatest accomplishments was working with Mott grantees to persuade the World Bank Group to stop financing upstream oil and gas projects.

She also worked to increase energy access for remote communities in developing countries. Globally, nearly 800 million people lack access to modern energy services, and 80% of those individuals reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Smithey’s work there focused on giving rural communities in Tanzania access to solar power, as well as providing training that empowered residents to install, maintain and repair those renewable energy systems.

The fellowship will help close the gap between frontline advocates in developing countries and people who lead supporting organizations, which often are based in other countries, said Rachel Nadelman, policy advisor at the Accountability Research Center and manager of the fellowship.

“Everyone is working with the best intentions, but there isn’t always an understanding of what the needs are on the ground and the work that frontline advocates are already doing,” Nadelman said.

Uniting individuals and organizations to pursue a goal — whether it was local, national, regional or global in scope — was one of Smithey’s greatest strengths, Hunter said. He said she also was known for strengthening grant proposals, thereby increasing the impact of each project that Mott supported.

“Sandra was constructively critical, but she also was a positive force for grantees,” Hunter said. “If she was still with us, I think Sandra would be very happy about this fellowship fund, but she also would have some constructive criticism.”