Oh ye of little faith
“I swear, if I hear “pray for peace” once more, I may actually lose it.” –male expat aid worker Oh ye of little faith Faith based NGO’s Faith-based aid organizations are now and have always been a major factor in the sector. Collectively these organizations continue and refine a trend -most especially among the Christian religions- that has gone on for centuries and, historically, is indeed an integral dimension of colonization. These organizations range from the ‘big box’ globally influential mega-NGOs to the classic ‘MONGO’ or My Own NGO based in a specific church. The larger organizations tend to avoid overt proselytization while the smaller ones less so, some being almost aggressively pushing their faith messages. Q17 asked simply, “Which best describes the humanitarian aid work organization with which you are (or were) most recently affiliated?” Of our respondents, 17% indicated they were affiliated with faith based organization. Given the…
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FollowSmiles came across her face as she was reading
Note: This is a beginning to the preface to Aid Worker Voices. Smiles came across her face as she was reading I have spent the last week or so traveling with a few students and colleagues from our university. We are here doing our school’s version of ‘engaged learning’ which in our case ends up being a fairly thoughtful version of development-lite. Having listened to the students and to my colleagues meeting and talking with community partners -in this case organized by Habitat for Humanity-International, Zambia- I can say with conviction that our whole party clearly understands that development work is infinitely messy, complicated on many political, cultural and interpersonal levels, almost necessarily moves at a glacial pace and, at the end of the day, you can never be certain that intended changes have ended up a net positive, all factors considered. As a layover break between my work in Zambia and…
Read MoreA theory-wonkish excursus
[Note: this short note is intended as more background for the Castles in the Sand post.] “Not summer’s bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness, no matter which group may triumph externally now.” –Max Weber “…until we recognize how dependent we are on the oppression and marginalization of others for our own betterment and benefit (i.e. access to cheap disposable goods, foreign foods and fresh imports, temporary foreign workers to fill low-income job vacancies, etc…), humanitarian aid work is just another cog in this bullshit machinery.” A theory-wonkish excursus The view from 35,000 feet Encountering C W Mills’ The Sociological Imagination early in my career provided me with a critical set of conceptual tools. Though the book offers much more, what I emphasis to my students is that the sociological imagination urges us to take the long view both geographically and historically, thus demanding a ‘the global…
Read MoreHow do you explain your job to non-sector people?
How do you explain your job to non-sector people? “I definitely understand why dating within the aid worker population is appealing. Conversations with laymen are hard. I think I only try once in a while, usually when I’m unusually overwhelmed or frustrated and it kind of comes pouring out. But it’s exhausting, because you realize how many words you need to use just to catch the person up on why something is as vexing as it is. It’s such an intricate environment.” – female HQ worker “Entirely depends on the person, and their previous knowledge level and the degree of real interest.” – female expat worker “As long as I return alive, that’s all she cares about. Fine by me. It’s better she does not know.” – male HQ worker Sharing With whom do you share details about your life as an aid worker? Under what circumstances? At what level of detail? How…
Read MoreWhy do aid workers leave this line of work?
“Don’t believe this should be long career.” -female expat aid worker “I think that the aid sector would ultimately benefit from a HR base that has a wider variety of experiences. I don’t think staying in the sector my whole career is healthy for the sector or for my intellectual development.” -male HQ aid worker “I feel that I will always be connected to this line of work in one way or another. If it is not working internationally as an ex pat, then I will most likely be working locally for various NGOs in my home country or city. If not that, then I see myself pursuing a PhD where the topic of research will be related to humanitarian work.” -female expat aid worker Why do aid workers leave this line of work? Overview In my last post you read many aid worker voices about the topic of getting fired. As…
Read MoreYou’re fired! Not a phrase heard often in the sector
You’re fired! Not a phrase heard often in the sector “We do need to become more effective and efficient at what we do…. and get better at firing well-meaning people who are not competent at their work….” — male HQ worker “Ha ha. I work for the UN. Nobody gets fired.” –not-to-be-identified respondent “I have worked with too many colleagues – senior managers included – who were not qualified for the jobs they were hired to do. I wish the development and aid industry would take on a more private sector approach when staff clearly are not performing in their jobs – despite coaching, training, investment etc. It makes me angry that public funds from taxpayers or donors are wasted.” — female local aid worker “Fired? Really? Does this happen? I wish more would be fired, the incompetence in this sector is one of the reasons I will probably lose confidence in…
Read MoreMore than blog posts
Cover design coming soon. Beta version of Aid Worker Voices out by 15 July. More than blog posts What you will encounter on this blog is very ‘unblog-like’ in that most posts are not your typical 4-6 minute read. The end goal of this project is to give voice to aid workers in a book-length treatment of the results from a 60 item survey that 1010 aid workers world-wide responded to in 2014-2015. Many of the posts (or combinations thereof) will become chapters in this book after being further edited, vetted and otherwise made ready for prime time. Though there is much data through which I need to sift, the plan is to have a beta version of Aid Worker Voices: Survey results and commentary ready some time early this summer. Go to this post for a more detailed description of the project methodology and purposes. Here is the poster I…
Read MoreWhat do you like -or not like- about being an aid worker?
“I don’t like that people see what aid workers do as “charity” work. I am not a socialite here for the feel good factor. People don’t actually acknowledge that this field is a “real” career.” “Sometimes you wonder what the hell you’re doing, and why. Sometimes I think that aid is categorically harmful and we should all pack up and go home. Other days I don’t feel like this.” -female expat aid worker “Hate the feeling of inequality, being patronising, being seen as the rich white girl, etc. But like the feeling of being somewhere that matters. And meeting people – the basic human interaction with people across the world – love that.” “Urban cholera outbreak – I am secretly excited. I know it’s wrong but it’s what I do and I’m good at it. Aid workers are macabre like that.” What do you like -or not like- about being…
Read MoreAid worker voices on the future of humanitarian aid
“I really hope it will have more impact on the lives of more and more people. But nowadays it is more and more linked with political and economic agendas of the “powerful” countires so it is loosing its credibility. The use of the army also to bring humanitarian relief is it complicating and confusing people about what humanitarian work is.” –(46+yo female expat aid worker) “We are like the frontier doctors– right now we are “bloodletting” and have no clue how to help people, although we may accidentally have a positive effect. But, our efforts will enable future generations to learn from our mistakes– at least we are doing something!” “Aid is getting smarter. Vast improvements have been made in just 10 years.” “The field is becoming increasingly theoretical and ego-driven. Skills that actually save lives are being drowned out by debates on buzzwords.” Aid worker voices on the future of humanitarian…
Read MoreAcute on chronic squared: more on the future of humanitarian aid
“Unfortunately the world is going to see more disasters in the future, particularly natural disasters related to climate change.” Acute on chronic squared: more on the future of humanitarian aid [Note: I am working on a long post (chapter) on this topic, but I wanted to get this out separately.] Below I continue presenting and commenting on the 311 comments make by our survey respondents in answer to Q60 about the “future of humanitarian aid.” See here for my previous post. In Haiti After the Earthquake Paul Farmer describes this 2010 event as “acute on chronic.” Certainly this description could be used to describe other natural disasters in areas that have a history of marginalization including the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, numerous Afghanistan-Pakistan earthquakes in the last 20 years, and the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines. The list goes on. A contrasting example of acute not-on-chronic would be the…
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