A (second) note on faith and aid workers
A (second) note on faith and aid workers Overview I recently presented and commented on our survey data relevant to faith and aid workers. Just before this post went live EvilGenius was putting out two mini-polls on that topic. As with our longer survey, many respondents were generous with their time and offered extensive and thoughtful comments. EvilGenius asked first for the respondent’s views on the net impact of religion as a force for good or bad in the world. Though this question is clearly very complex, there is precedent for asking it. The Tony Blair vs Christopher Hitchens debate that took place in Toronto, Canada back in 2010 examined the same question, specifically, “Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world”. The second mini-poll is a bit more specific and probes into the question “does being faith-based impact the efficacy of aid organizations.” I’ll present some data on both of…
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FollowA note on faith and aid work(ers)
“Besides [being a] calling it was also a sense of adventure.” -41-45 yo female HQ worker “None of the answers above describes why I because an aid worker, but I did choose the ‘closest’ response. It was never a life-long dream to provide aid to those less fortunate than myself. I’m not sure if I really have a strong, concrete answer. Compassion? Righteous anger? Indignant injustice? Fighting against “The Man”? God’s calling?” -36-40 unspecified gender HQ worker “I think it is a bit disrespectful to ask about the level of idealism of aid workers. Aren’t people working on a 9-5pm job idealists too thinking they will have a better life and get promoted? I think aid workers have an aspiration, something guide them and do not lack a sense of realism.” -26-30 yo female expat aid worker A note on faith and aid work(ers) Inferences from the data We did not…
Read MoreWould you recommend this line of work to young people in your life?
Would you recommend this line of work to young people in your life? To state the obvious, being an aid worker can be dangerous physically and mentally; many deployments can be existentially challenging in all senses. The career trajectory of an aid worker can generate hinderances to ‘normal’ home and family life. For many aid workers, the early career bloom of idealism soon withers and turns into rock-hard realism and even cynicism. In other words, being an aid worker ain’t no walk in the park. Given the nature of this line of work, the responses to Q39 are very interesting and perhaps speak to the deep conviction of many aid workers that what they do is valuable and meaningful. We asked, “If someone you are close to (a child or mentee) wanted to become a humanitarian aid worker, would you encourage him/her, or would you try to discourage him/her?” and the response was…
Read MoreWhy do you remain in this sector?
“At this point, I have seen too much as a emergency aid worker and feel it is unlikely I would be able to get a job outside of this field.” –31-35 yo female expat aid worker “Not sure if I can do this work forever but don’t know how to turn my back on those that I committed to work alongside in their fight for justice and survival.” –18-25 yo female working in HQ “Injustice merits a response and the longer I work as an aid worker the greater I see the injustice, particularly the ways in which aid and the UN perpetuate and cover up injustice.” Why do you remain in this sector? First this In a recent post I presented and then commented responses to Q’s22-24, with an emphasis on examining reasons people gave for getting into the humanitarian aid and development sector. This post expends that conversation. Q22-24 ashed…
Read MoreOur survey had 1,010 respondents. Only one was The Lord.
Our survey had 1,010 respondents. Only one was The Lord. Our survey was live for many months and when we finally deactivated the link we had 1,010 respondents completing at least some portion. I was pleasantly surprised that with 61 items -including 19 open-ended and/or follow-up questions- so many people gave their time to do the survey and took the effort in many cases to compose very thoughtful narrative responses. Some respondents were more serious than others. None more so than The Lord. Below are some of His responses. Q1: Which best describes your current situation? I am currently employed by a humanitarian aid organization. Q2: Which best describes your current situation? Local aid worker Q3: Which best describes your history of experience doing humanitarian aid work? I have been doing humanitarian aid work for ten or more years. Q4: With which gender do you identify? Male Q5: How old are you? 71 or older…
Read MoreWhy did you become an aid worker?
“To make the conditions present for a life of human dignity for all.” -36-40yo female expat aid worker, white “It comes down to this: there is serious injustice in the world, and that makes me really fucking angry.” -18-25yo female expat aid worker, non-white I think it’s a mixture of accident, the lure of adventure, and (self)righteous indignation over how messed up the world is combined with an (arrogant) sense that maybe I could make things suck slightly less. -31-35yo female expat aid worker, white Why did you become an aid worker? An overview Our personal lives seldom unfold in a linear, logical, preplanned fashion. We rarely know exactly what external forces will push or pull us in various directions. Even the assumption that we are sole masters of our fate, unfettered by cultural currents and eddies, can be called into question. Perhaps anthropologist Miles Richardson said it best…
Read MoreThe Crisis Caravan: Inter-agency coordination
“Interagency coordination is far from functional and effective – it will never work as long as agencies exist in such disparate ways and they have their own funding, programs, priorities, personalities. Territorial and personality battles take up far too much of my time. I have to constantly undertake delicate diplomacy to get things done – but where is the shared vision and clarity of purpose?! ‘One UN’ is a far-fetched fantasy as long as agencies continue to obsess over branding, turf-wars, and pissing contests.” –46yo male expat aid worker The Crisis Caravan: Inter-agency coordination (updated 9-15) Q56 touches on what has been euphemistically called the “crisis caravan.” The results below indicate that well over half (53%) of our respondents thought that there were frequent or even constant problems related to inter-agency coordination and cooperation. Here’s the data on Q56: Yeah, well, yawn. The world is a complex mess and, of direct relevance to…
Read MoreNot so good: The relationship between the “home office” and the “field”
And now more on the survey results… The relationship between the “home office” and the “field” “Well, HQ is HQ and the people there are just different. Not necessarily ill-intentioned or stupid (although it seems that way at times), just different.” –26-30 yo female expat aid worker Yes, we are aware of the increasing blurring between what can be called “home office” and the “field” and also that many aid workers are neither and both at the same time. That said, here are some interesting results from our survey questions that simply asked for an overall perspective. Below we look at both the quantitative and qualitative results from three questions, Q50-52. Q50 results below indicate a pretty negative view of the relationship. Our results indicated a microscopic 1% indicating that “The field and the home office are completely in sync regarding important matters like priorities and processes.” A hefty 40%…
Read MoreYou are as you are seen: race/ethnicity/cultural identity
Written in response to Q7: “Why does it have to be white as point of reference?” Indeed. You are as you are seen: race/ethnicity/cultural identity Branding is for all of us Branding is important. Indeed, organizations spend a great deal of time, effort and money to “get their name out there” and to have their logo be recognized as something desirable or positive. The vast majority of all social entities -be they for-profits, political parties, social clubs or, indeed, non-for-profit humanitarian aid organizations- worry about public relations and will make efforts to “spin” what is known about them using social media, press releases, advertising and a myriad of other techniques. You and I do this as well constantly albeit not always consciously. Sociologist Irving Goffman‘s work on impression management remains part of the canon, and his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life could be useful reading for aid workers at…
Read MoreFemale aid and development workers: how is gender a factor in their work?
Female aid and development workers: how is gender a factor in their work? Context I have previously written two posts having to do with the male-female differences in our survey responses. Check here and here for these posts. I turn now to the results from our specific questions about the impact of gender. Two questions Which of these four factors is the most important in influencing how we see ourselves: race/ethnicity/cultural status, social class/relative wealth and power, gender or age? Which of those four factors is the most important in influencing how others perceive and react to us? Certainly every one of these factors is critically important for all of us no matter where we are in the world or what our occupation might be. Indeed, that is a basic truism in the social sciences. Though Max Weber was referring more narrowly to wealth and power when he first used the term, his concept of “life chances” can…
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