Interview with Ajay Barai, Regional director Europe and North Africa, about ODIG successes
In the fall of 2025, the ODIG team sat down with Ajay Barai, who leads strategy for the Europe and North Africa region. Ajay told us about the impact of ODIG across the region, shares examples individual fundraising examples from Armenia and Croatia and spotlights initiatives in corporate engagement from Azerbaijan.
Q: Ajay, thanks for sitting down with us. First, what is ODIG to you?
A: ODIG is a critical programme to support offices where there are market opportunities to be able to seize those opportunities and grow through additional capacity, support, and funding. It is also about empowering offices to be stronger, locally visible and influential, and more financially independent and sustainable.
Q: Was there a (breakthrough) moment in the last years that ODIG has been running when you thought: ‘Yes, this is really working’? What achievement triggered it?
A: Two examples come to mind.
1) the individual fundraising pilots in Armenia and Croatia went better than expected, showing the genuine potential for these countries to have face to face fundraising programmes to generate unrestricted funds within a relatively short timeframe, and
2) A new corporate partnership in Azerbaijan with Carlsberg for 50,000 Euros which was publicly signed in front of participants of a session at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. This was many times larger than any previous corporate partnerships in the Caucasus region and established a completely new level of ambition.
Ajay Barai, Regional director Europe and North Africa
Q: Any ODIG successes that you know of that you love sharing?
A: As mentioned, Armenia’s individual fundraising programme is a great success - with relatively small investment, they have developed a self-sufficient individual fundraising programme which will quickly begin to generate unrestricted funds for the conservation strategy. I am constantly amazed by the capacity and entrepreneurial approach of the team!
Q: What would you say to other leaders in the network about (investing in) ODIG?
A: This is a great opportunity to help offices grow and become more financially sustainable. It is based on deep expertise of what works and doesn't from more developed markets and the experience of the GDC team, which can be applied in newer markets where we have opportunities to grow our fundraising and supporter base more quickly and with greater returns on investment than from investing in saturated markets. Please join in!
Q: And, anything else you'd like anyone in the network to know about ODIG and its impact?
A: I'm very grateful for WWF-Switzerland's support and belief in this programme, it demonstrates what can be achieved with goodwill, planning and carefully selected investments. The opportunities are real, and the risks can be managed!
