Job security and advancement possibilities

Posted on: June 7, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

Job security and advancement possibilities More results from the Jordanian humanitarian worker survey. Not secure We live in a world where certainty can be a scarce commodity, and in the Middle East, especially in the Levant, political volatility inevitably leads to rocky and tenuous economic conditions for most people.  Jordan serves as an international hub for many large INGOs, and those employed in the humanitarian sector make up a significant portion of the entire workforce.  In this next section of the survey I examine perceptions about job security and advancement opportunities and, given the overall geo-politics of the region and in Jordan particularly, the results will surprise few. To preface this section it seems relevant to note that among this sample of Jordanians nearly half -44%- had worked for three or more organizations. There appears to be a good bit of lateral mobility within the humanitarian work force, and many…

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Family matters & humanitarians

Posted on: June 4, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

Family matters & humanitarians Married and obligated The respondents to the survey were mostly single -64%, with 70% of the females reporting being unmarried compared to 52% of the males reporting same.  Of minor note, the females in the sample were slightly younger than the males, with 17% reporting being between 18-27 compared to 6% of the males. Early in my research while workshopping drafts of the survey in Amman, marital status came up in conversation, with single individuals indicating they felt an expectation that they should work longer hours, and those married indicating the role strain of being a spouse/parent and humanitarian professional was quite significant. I asked, “To what extent has your marital status impacted your humanitarian aid work experience?” Here are the aggregate results indicating that while most -64%- said that their marital status has no impact on their humanitarian work experience, by a ratio of 2:1 -24%…

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Gender and #MeToo

Posted on: June 2, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

Gender and #MeToo Gender in the Jordanian humanitarian workspace One goal of the survey was to hear both male and female voices. Overall nearly twice as many females than males -65%- found their way to the survey url and responded.  This gender difference has been present in all three of my ‘aid worker’ surveys so far.  Female Filipino aid workers comprised 64% of that sample, and in the ‘mostly expat” survey (with over 1000 respondents) 71% were female.  One obvious question that merits further research is why do females more than males grant the trust and then put forth the effort to respond to survey requests. I asked, “To what extent has your gender impacted your humanitarian aid work experience?”  As with every other question on this survey, the responses below must be interpreted with extreme caution. That said, these results are not what I would have expected. Percentage-wise, males and females had…

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Jordanian voices on relationship between ‘international’ and ‘national’ staff, Part III

Posted on: May 21, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

“The difference between the salary scales for Jordanians and expats is MASSIVE, not to mention the benefits. Expats get -in addition to their basic salaries, which is at least double if not triple what a national would receive- living expenses, transportation compensation -even though most of them live within walking distance of the organization and it’s the nationals who live far from the office- they also have their rent partly covered by the organization, and their utilities and bills paid. There definitely needs to be more of a fair treatment, specially if both employees hold the same position and the same tasks.” -female Jordanian aid worker speaking about compensation disparities Jordanian voices on relationship between ‘international’ and ‘national’ staff, Part III   Context In my previous two posts  (Part I and Part II) I have presented Jordanian voices on the relationship between ‘international’ and ‘national’ staff, and below extend this discussion…

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Jordanian voices on relationship between ‘international’ and ‘national’ staff, Part II

Posted on: May 19, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

Post updated 21 May 2018 with Jordanian-Filipino comparison data. “I would be surprised if any national believes that “expats” don’t see themselves as superior to nationals, regardless of the experience or the grade! NOT all internationals though are the same, some are very humble and natural. However, condescension is very prominent among international staff towards nationals, whether in subtle, patronizing behaviors or rude and explicit ones.” -veteran male aid worker Jordanian voices on relationship between ‘international’ and ‘national’ staff, Part II   Tell me how you really feel Part I in this series of posts explored the results from two questions probing the relationship between ‘international’ and ‘local’ aid workers.  A third survey question in this section regarding the relationship between international and ‘local’ staff asked, “Which comment best describes the way your international (أجانب غير العرب) colleagues interact with you?”  The categories offered forced respondents to characterize the power dynamics…

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Jordanian voices on the relationship between ‘international’ and ‘national’ staff, Part I

Posted on: May 18, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

“Many of my colleagues are non-Jordanians. We get a long very well and respect each other. However, in general, the international humnaitarian/development sector places ‘expats’ at the top of the top of the power heirarchy and values their knowledge most, harkening back to colonial times I find. Jordanian women are often least valued in the sector. It’s a very much neo-liberal sector that discourages fighting back and speaking up especially on the part of ‘national staff.’” -female Jordanian aid worker Jordanian voices on relationship between ‘international’ and ‘national’ staff, Part I ‘Localization’ within the sector Long before the WHS “Grand Bargain” in 2016 and in the years since there has been much conversation about ‘localization’ within the sector.  Any real change in how the sector operates necessarily involves shifts in the loci of power and, at the personnel level, changes to the relationships between ‘international’ and ‘local’ staff. I appreciate…

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Why are you a humanitarian (aid or development) worker?

Posted on: May 16, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

“Probably the reason I stayed in the sector is because I wanted to perform my responsbility towards the marginalized and act as a counter-force to the corruption, mismanagement, and injustices I saw in the sector.” – Jordanian female aid worker employed by a large INGO     Why are you a humanitarian (aid or development) worker? Even a casual read of the large body of ‘tell all’ or memoir books by current or former aid workers leads to an obvious common denominator.  Virtually all of these works address the question, “why I got into this field in the first place.” In the social sciences, answers to most ‘why’ questions are generally complicated and demonstratively non-binary.  For most ‘why’ questions there is typically a hierarchy of answers, some more important than the others. When allowed the opportunity via open-ended comment boxes, respondents will, in various phrasings, say that their reason for…

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Overview of the data from the Jordanian aid worker survey

Posted on: April 6, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

Overview of the data:  Jordanian Aid Workers عمال الاغاثة الانسانية الاردنية   Overview Just over a year ago I began researching Jordanian aid workers with the goal of contributing to the dialogue about and the academic literature on ‘local aid workers’ in general and in particular national aid workers in Jordan, most of whom are dealing with the humanitarian crisis generated by the protracted war in Syria.  See here for more background. My research is based on (1) 23 interviews in person or over Skype with 11 different Jordanian aid workers and (2) an Internet based survey comprised of 43 questions. A total of 86 individuals spent an average 15 minutes taking the survey, 73% completing all questions. Of the 43 questions, 13 were forced choice with no option for comment (mostly descriptive/demographic questions), 27 were forced choice with an option to comment, with the last three questions on the survey…

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Jordanian Aid Workers عمال الاغاثة الانسانية الاردنية

Posted on: March 30, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

(الترجمة العربية ادناه, مع الاعتذار لعدم الدقة في الترجمة) عمال الاغاثة الانسانية الاردنية Jordanian Aid Workers The context The aid and development ecosystem comprises one of the most important industries in the world. Collectively, aid and development organizations impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people in virtually every nation all around the world.  The literature on what some have called “Aidland’ is growing, but there is still a great deal left to be described about what aid organizations do, how do they operate, and who are the aid and development workers that are the connection between the donors and the people that make up the affected communities. The voices that write about the aid sector come largely from the global North, and as one would expect there is a disproportionate emphasis on aid workers that are from the global North, commonly referred to as expats or ‘internationals’. Several…

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Survey results from Jordanian Aid Workers

Posted on: March 30, 2018 | By: Tom Arcaro | Filed under: Jordanian Aid Workers

( الترجمة العربية أدناه مع الاعتذار لعدم الدقة في الترجمة ) عمال الاغاثة الانسانية الاردنية Jordanian Aid Workers The context The aid and development ecosystem comprises one of the most important industries in the world. Collectively, aid and development organizations impact the lives of hundreds of millions in virtually every nation all around the world. The literature on what some have called “Aidland’ is growing, but there is still a great deal left to be described about what aid organizations do, how do they do, it and who are the people that are the connection between the donor and the people that make up the affected communities. The voices that write about the aid sector come largely from the global North, and as one would expect there is a disproportionate emphasis on aid workers that are from the global North, commonly referred to as expats or ‘internationals’. Several years ago…

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