Yes, November 8th happened.

We have a new President-elect here in the United States by the name of Donald Trump.  Reading about his recent meeting with President Obama was a challenge for many, perhaps acutely so for Vice-President Biden. Though many here are jumping on the #notmypresident bandwagon, the democratic process will move forward and on January 20th, 2017 Trump will be sworn into office, having already moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Yes, I get the irony. Pennsylvania was indeed part of the ‘blue wall’ that crumbled.

My personal and professional responses have been many, but I find myself wanting to know how aid and development workers around the world see this event.  In the last few days I have talked with colleagues and friends on four continents and the near universal reaction to the Trump “upset” is stunned fear.

Some blog sites have some very insightful posts up right now that are very good reads. Aidleap.org poses some good questions, and  WhyDev.org adds good points of departure for thought, discussion and possible action, for example.  Just after the election Goats and Soda published From AIDS To Zika: Trump On Global Health And Humanitarian Aid.  This IRIN piece  “Who’s afraid of Mr Trump” contains some valuable insight and useful hard numbers.  Spoiler: the answer to their rhetorical question is the entire sector.

Those are other’s thoughts, but what are yours?  What do aid and development workers like you think about how this election result will impact them in their work and in their personal lives?  I hope to get many more answers to that question with a short survey.  Please take the time to respond, and I’ll be posting results as they come in.

Preliminary survey results
From the results thus far here’s what one industry insider said,

“The immediate challenge I see is the potential impact on safety and security of aid workers. Particularly if Trump’s rhetoric about Muslims doesn’t change, American aid workers will be at significant risk when traveling in the Muslim world. For instance, I have a trip planned to Afghanistan which was supposed to fall over the inauguration weekend and I’ve already been asked to change the dates to reduce risks in country.”

Another aid worker noted,

“This may be a bit short term and a bit long term but my biggest concern overall is around funding and funding restrictions. Does Donald Trump even know what USAID does?? His isolationist, “care for the Americans first” attitude will likely have negative effects in relief and development spending from USG. He may bring back a reversion to the played out idea that it’s a zero sum choice to address issues at home and address poverty abroad. The current administration made considerable progress in ensuring gender mainstreaming, climate sensitivity, inclusion, and LGBTQ issues were addressed in programming. Without the push from the funding agencies, I think most NGOs would have continued their programming as usual. Without this pressure (or at worst, with pressure to the contrary), we may see a back sliding in the quality of programming and attention to address deeper root cause issues.”

Agreed, the idea that aid and support are not a zero sum choice is hard to comprehend for many people and the incoming Trump administration’s rhetoric is clear in supporting “American first.”

More updates as data roll in.

Click here to take the survey.

 

Some questions about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as it relates to a more comprehensive picture of aid and development efforts

What does assistance look like from the recipient’s perspective?

In 2012, MSF published In The Eyes of Others:  How People in Crisis Perceive Humanitarian Aid, edited by Caroline Abu-Sada.  I have used selected chapters from this book in my classes in recent years and it is recommended reading for all students in our Periclean Scholars program.  In the very last chapter author Antonio Donini states, “Humanitarianism started off as a powerful discourse; now it is a discourse of power, both at the international and community level (p. 190).”

Indeed.  At play is the control and flow of resources, both human and material, inexorably complicated by cultural (mis)understandings and (mis)perceptions.

It might be useful to revisit the question of what comprises the aid and development sector from a more comprehensive “in the eyes of others” perspective, i.e., from the view within the villages and communities across the world that are the focus of aid and development efforts.  One critical question is whether all those who seek to partner and ‘help’ are part of a confusing and dysfunctional cacophony or comprise a healing, harmonious set of responses.  What comprises the array of people and organizations seeking to help? A comprehensive list of all the entities and actions intending to support economic and/or social equity initiatives in any given location would be long.  [Note:  I recognize that aid and development are inherently different but argue that frequently they far are from separate categories of response and rather lie on a very fluid continuum.]

Below is my effort listing major categories:

Corporate

• CSR-International
• CSR-national
• Domestic regional/local corporations (CSR)

Education 

• High school and university/college ‘service’ trips, local and national community outreach
• Fulbright exchanges
• In country educational institution outreach

Self-help

• Remittances
• Neighbor to neighbor support
• Local community groups
• Local philanthropic support

Traditional aid and development organizations

• Big box NGO’s such as OXFAM, World Vision, MSF, etc.
• Small “boutique” NGO’s (aka MONGOS)

Governmental organizations

• United Nations
• National government schemes (the US Peace Corps, for example)
• In country nation/state/municipality government schemes

Faith efforts

• Faith communities-local
• Faith communities-national
• Faith communities-International

Given this long and likely incomplete list, it is almost inevitable that there will be a high degree of redundancy in terms of support with various well-intended schemes covering the same needs.  That said, the call for more communication and coordination seems both obvious and impossible.  How can we move the needle toward a more effective system?

On that note, what is known about how one main player -corporate CSR- operates?

Some questions related to CSR efforts
Detailed answers to most of the questions below will be difficult to get, and then only on a case by case basis.  The suggestive list below may allow useful research to move in a positive direction.

• What is the typical pathway to become part of the CSR teams?
• How are CSR staff recruited?
• What training and/or background is required?
• What steps are taken to maximize cultural sensitivity?
• How does CRS staff attrition/retention compare to other divisions within the corporation?
• How are non-CRS staff recruited, trained, and placed with regard to volunteer activity related to CSR?
• To whom do senior CSR staff report?
• Are there professional development opportunities for CSR personnel related to aid and development work?
• Are there standard measures of community impact used?
• To what extent is branding emphasized by CSR staff when messaging their outreach?
• Are there internal corporate standards/rubrics for ethical and/or effective aid and development?
• Are there CSR policies for dealing with corruption w/in countries of focus?
• How do corporate CSR leaders in various locations around the world coordinate with other aid and development organizations (both domestic and international) and with host governments?
• How do corporate CSR leaders communicate and coordinate with their counterparts industry-wide?
• Is there a need for a set of guiding principles for all corporate CSR similar to the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) that exist within the aid and development industry?
• What are some of the more difficult challenges with regard to CSR outreach?

Getting objective, systematic and thorough answers to the above questions for any one corporation is a place to start, and perhaps that might be a useful next step to get us closer to a world where aid and development efforts are -and are perceived to be in the eyes of those for whom these actions are intended- to more effective, coordinated, and ethical.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or feedback to the above.

A quixotic next chapter?

Aid Worker Voices is now published, and I am ready to start a new chapter.

Next steps?
Having just come off of my work on the lives of aid workers I know that there is much research work to be done that can serve the goal of better coordination and cooperation among and between all organizational entities sharing the goal of addressing pressing humanitarian and development needs on a global scale.

Beyond what I have been referring to as the “aid sector” are many other entities devoting considerable humanitarian oriented energies, perhaps the three most important of which are corporations, higher educational institutions, and the faith community.  That all entities sharing the mission of addressing social justice issues and the short and long term needs of the marginalized should coordinate and cooperate at a much higher level than exists presently cannot be disputed.  How to move the needle in that direction is the question.

One answer lies here, I think.

The Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) are now recognized by the majority of entities within the aid sector and provide a benchmark for sound ethical practice with regard to interactions between aid and development organizations and their object partners and populations. Though an admittedly quixotic goal, I propose that not only should all of the major humanitarian players mentioned above have their own CSR-like standards, but that there should be a universal guide to humanitarian outreach to which all major -and ‘minor’ (e.g., small NGO’s sometimes euphemistically referred to as MONGO’s as in My Own NGO)- entities adhere.

Corporations have the B-Corporation designation, and for nearly a decade this movement, begun in the US, has spread internationally.  The general premise is that B-Corporations function with an eye toward the ‘triple bottom line of  people, planet and profit.’  Higher education neither in the US nor internationally has any comparable generally recognized philosophy of action.  The faith community (writ large), though there are strong efforts at ecumenical cooperation, is in the same boat.

For me personally, one question that is both fascinating and critically important was phrased best by James Dawes in the beginning pages of his book That The World May Know: Bearing Witness to Atrocity.  He asks, “What is the line that separates those who are merely moved and those who are moved to act?”  The inference is that he is referring to individuals but I take license to expand that to organizations as well.

My interest in this general research topic is simple.  Using my skills as a researcher and writer I want to be a meaningful and useful part of the conversation as we move forward in our collective attempts to respond to humanitarian needs locally and globally.

CSR and Cargill
Many agree that the line between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and more traditional ‘big box’ aid and development organizations (OXFAM, World Vision, MSF, etc.) has been blurred for a long time and that in the future these two forces will follow the progressive lead represented by, among others, the long partnership between Cargill and CARE.

My research on CSR tells me that there are many –Cargill perhaps a leader- connections between INGO’s (like CARE) and corporations, but that this connection is not studied in any detail.  There are tons of articles about why corporation should do CSR, but most are from the business angle.  I also know that Cargill-Honduras is very progressive in working with the local communities and that a majority of Cargill employees volunteer in some way.

As one possible path forward, I think it may be useful to proceed with a case-study,  using the Cargill CSR efforts San Pedro Sula as the focus and go into the question of how the communities see Cargill and vice versa.

I am sober to the fact that any outside study would need vetting by execs at Cargill (and IRB here at Elon) but here is the bottom line.  As the world gets ever more complex the lines between ‘traditional’ aid and development entities (e.g., Peace Corps, World Vision, CARE, OXFAM, MSF, and so on) are clearly blurred -especially in the eyes of the community members.  There is an increasingly compelling set of reasons why the corporate world and the aid world should communicate and coordinate even more in the future.  This future needs to be informed by a clear set of rubrics and ‘best practice’ examples, and what I propose is preliminary groundwork for this be laid by careful and objective study.  That study could –should?- begin in a location that has both challenges but also much in the way of progressive success, namely San Pedro Sula.

What could come this effort?  More voices heard, more issues uncovered and more bringing together of thought leaders are all possible positive outcomes.  Let’s see what the future holds.

Contact me if you have questions, suggestions or comment.

Responding to Terrain

Along with (as of this writing) 2,623 others, I have signed the “United Nations, International Organisations, World Governments – Protect Aid Workers Now!” petition.  In response to the events at Terrain in South Sudan, the aid community came together in many virtual fora, perhaps most dramatically so in the Facebook group “Fifty Shades of Aid.”   One outcome of those responses is the petition.

The discussions in that group continues to be a rich mixture of passion, compassion, insight and measured analysis of not just the events near Juba but others like it all over the humanitarian space.

If you have not done so, sign the petition.  Now.

In the preface to Aid Worker Voices I offer the thought that, collectively, aid workers are the conscience of our growing global consciousness.  That this segment of humanity needs to be heard from and listened to is indeed the premise of my book.  Most immediately, though, the issue is the protection of the humanitarian space.

A couple years ago I wrote the short piece below, sadly more relevant now.  It is pointed at a mainstream American audience, so take that into account as you read.  Share with me if you have any thoughts or feedback.

Supporting those on the front lines of support
By Tom Arcaro – arcaro@elon.edu
 
Spin the globe in the last decade and disasters pop up like so many ugly weeds:  the tsunami in Sri Lanka, the earthquake in Haiti, the famine in the Horn of Africa. Now we are faced with a massive humanitarian crisis in Syria where multitudes of children and innocents -“collateral damage” in a civil war – seek refuge in makeshift camps.
 
All of these events evoked strong emotion and then an outpouring of financial support. Americans, compelled by a basic sense of common humanity, give a great deal to organizations that care for victims of humanitarian crises. Indeed, various estimates put the dollar figure given by Americans at more than $300 billion per year.
 
Humanitarian aid workers use our donations to provide frontline care to millions of our world’s most desperate populations and, critically, connect those of us who donate money to those who are suffering in the countless ragged encampments on the borders of disaster zones. Their job is as risky as it is critical.
 
Estimates are that last year alone, 272 aid workers were victims of violence, including 91 kidnappings, 115 injuries and 66 deaths. These numbers from the Humanitarian Outcomes international consulting group do not include the additional psychological trauma that can lead to depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress syndrome, and, yes, even suicide.
 
Aid workers put themselves in harm’s way every day – look no further than the seven people from the Red Cross/Red Crescent just kidnapped in Syria – and for that, for being our point of contact and the human expression of our financial and material donations, we owe them our thanks.
 
Here’s how we should show our respect for the job they do in our name:  
 
First, we must begin by seeking to understand more deeply the complexities of these humanitarian crises. We need to have an insatiable desire to know the world around us, far outside of our comfort zone of the United States. Spend 15 minutes each day reading international news, and be sure to check out foreign news sources. I recommend the BBC or Al-Jazeera, both of which give perspectives you won’t find in the American press.
 
Second, we need to understand that some giving can be toxic, especially if it is done paternalistically, in a way that is culturally inappropriate, or inefficiently. We must vet on a regular basis any aid organization to which we donate. Some organizations are not much more than well-run scams, doing little to actually make a positive impact as they promise. We should give, but ever mindfully.
 
Third, by understanding more deeply, we can avoid giving inappropriate or unnecessary material items known in the humanitarian aid world as “stuff we don’t need.” Examples are many and can be found when looking at the history of the response to the earthquake in Haiti where crates of expired medicines sat on the tarmac of the airport for weeks.
 
Finally, and most importantly, we can support aid workers – and thus help them better serve those caught in the humanitarian crisis – by not remaining neutral in the face of extremism.
 
The international medical organization Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, withdrew this summer from Somalia when it concluded that its workers could no longer be assured of safety. Unfortunately, the new normal in the humanitarian aid world is that in some locations local political factions or religious fundamentalist groups can basically abuse aid resources for political purposes, manipulate humanitarian space, and even directly target aid workers in violent attacks, more or less with total impunity.
 
This threat to the sanctity of humanitarian space is made possible by the inaction of those who consider themselves moderates, both here and abroad.
 
We must be more aggressive in our challenge to extremists – both political and religious – and show an aggressive intolerance toward, well, intolerance.
 
Our points of contact, the humanitarian aid workers now on the ground in hot spots around the globe, need all of us to be more mindful in our giving, our knowing and our responsibility to help regain the sanctity of the humanitarian space.

AWV Interlude (re-edited and enhanced 3Aug16)

Interested in aid worker fiction?  Check these out!

Aid worker fiction?
That we can -and should- learn much about the world through art, to me, is self evident, and the sub-set of art represented by fiction writing is certainly no exception.  Using the vehicle of fiction, writers are frequently able to tell compelling stories that capture and convey essential truths about complex subject matter.  They present these insights in a way that resonates with and informs readers in a manner that makes an impact beyond what is possible through non-fiction alone.  Good fiction writers do not simply spin tales that merely amuse or detract us from reality.  Quite the opposite, with their words they sometimes present a more textured and nuanced view of life, love and sociocultural complexities.

And so it is with the humanitarian fiction of J, the consummate sector ‘insider’    Out now or coming soon is some excellent fiction from J, my colleague and partner in crime (read: researching aid workers).

Needed in your library now!
I was a happy beta reader for HUMAN – the world’s first humanitarian science fiction novel is now available for purchase on Amazon!

From the Amazon page:  Aid work was never “just a job” for Nassandra. But on Planet Earth, as head of the Inter-Galactic Aid Programme relief response, she found herself tested in ways she’d never imagined. As the last Native Earth tribes fought for their survival against the savage Rtulan who plundered Earth’s very substance, Nassandra found herself caught in a drama of passion, struggle and an unexpected search for the essence of humanity.

I have been on a lifelong quest searching for answers to the question “what does being human mean?” and HUMAN certainly gave me new points to consider.  Through the character of Nassandra, J brings the reader face to face with with her own humanity and through her we encounter many dilemmas faced by aid workers everywhere.  Strongly recommend!

More than just a “dusting off” job
J put a great deal of effort into a re-issue of his first novel, Dangerous Passions: A Humanitarian Romance, and it is a must read for aid workers everywhere.

From the Amazon page: “They sacrificed everything for the poor… but was there enough left for their love?” 

Mary-Anne and Jean-Philippe come from different worlds. She’s a simple girl from America’s conservative deep south, trying to break free of the societal bonds that hold her back. He’s a hardened, cynical man of the world haunted by a dark past. Both are thrown together in the chaos of a disaster response after a massive earthquake in Haiti. Can Mary-Anne ever love a man like him? Can Jean-Philippe ever find a soul-mate in a woman like her? Will stress and the danger of a disaster zone ultimately keep them apart? Or will their love smolder into a white-hot flame of passion? 

A rollicking, thought-provoking, hilarious, and sometimes somber story of humanitarian workers trying to make sense of work and life (and maybe get a little action) in the aftermath of a massive natural catastrophe.

You can follow the adventures of Mary-Anne and Philippe in J’s more recent fiction books.  In recent years I have used with great success Missionary, Mercenary,Mystic, Misfit  as a companion reader along with J’s non-fiction work Letters Left Unsent in my Elon University class “Being and Becoming a Global Citizen.”   My students find Mary-Anne to be accessible and her story a great vehicle for understanding what aid work “is really like.” The latest installment of Mary-Anne’s work with World Aid Corps (WAC) is Honor Among Thieves.  All of J’s fiction is page-turningly excellent and despite some insider language and humor is easily accessible for all audiances.

Next time you’re caught in airport purgatory or otherwise find yourself with some rare down time on your hands…download any of J’s books for some entertaining and informative diversion.

You can find out more regarding these books by going to J’s publishing web site Evil Genius Press.

 

[Note:  an extended and edited version of this post will become part of the introductory chapter to Aid Worker Voices.]

Using the Interwebs:  networking and blogging sites hosted by or geared to aid and development workers

Impact of the Internet
Of the many functions of the Internet there is no doubt that it has made developing lines of communication between like-minded persons fairly routine.  Not long after the beginning of the Internet there were “bulletin boards” were people could post comments and have others respond, and this basic pattern has remained, becoming more sophisticated and far reaching over time.

With some searching you can find niche webs sites, blogs, Facebook pages for nearly any interest imaginable, many of them functioning as places for those who share the same views to meet, exchange information and generally connect on various levels.

Indeed, it has become routine for US Peace Corp volunteers to blog about their experiences, some of which showing depth and maturity, others perhaps being quite banal.

Aid and development workers were fairly early adopters of these vehicles of communication and there are hundreds (thousands?) of blogs, etc. written by and for aid and development workers.  The co-founder of this blog, AidWorkerVoices, the mysterious J, among the earliest and most active.

Examples include
Below is a sampling of web locations where you can find sites hosted by or geared to aid and development workers. Given the huge number of sites added every week a truly comprehensive and up to date list would be impossible.  We are indeed a species that thrives on communication.

Blogs and web sites:

• Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like (SEAWL)
• Shotgun Shack
• AidLeap  Team blog, anonymous, easy to read at a level that will appeal to veterans and advanced practitioners
• Aidmamas Fairly new blog focused on the tension between family and work
• IRIN for serious coverage of the aid world
  
• Womeninaid  Self explanatory
• Sleepless in Sudan (inactive)
• Aid Worker Support
• International Rescue Committee Aid Worker Blogs
• Borgen Project
• DevEx
• Expat Backup
• Rusty Radiator Great good-“Golden”- and bad-“Rusty” examples of aid and development related public service announcements

The Tiny Spark podcast site

News sites:

• The Guardian Global  Development Professionals Network 
• Bistendsaktuelt (in Norwegian)
• Aid Worker Daily

Facebook pages

• Fifty Shades of Aid
• The Accidental Aid Worker

[Many of the sites mentioned above also haver Facebook pages associated with them, some open to everyone and others membership by request from page administrator.]

If you have a favorite site that I should add to the lists above, let me know.  Lucy from AidMamas (above) gave me a heads-up on “Development blogs you should read” that may be worth a look.

Positive use of the Internet
The examples above are just a tiny portion of sites out there.  All serve to affirm, inform, amuse and facilitate networking of all manner and, in some cases, to amplify snarkiness in an echo-chamber fashion. I believe that the sector is well served by these means of communication; the impact is a net positive. As humans we all have a strong need to feel that we are not alone in our experiences, emotions, perceptions and struggles, and on the whole these sites serve in affirming that we are not alone.  A sector that knows itself better can function more efficiently, one might assert. That said, the various moments of ‘vetting’ can get quite snarky at times and can contribute to self defeating cynicism in some cases.

You will notice in the list above a very northern/Western/expat bias that represents the privileges held by aid and development workers from those parts of the world.  You’ll note that with only one exception all of the sites are in English, further indication of a skewed list. I am particularly interested in how local aid workers network and otherwise communicate and commiserate, though I am sure there is no ‘one size fits all’ answer. One question I pose is how can this technology be used to be more inclusive and hence useful for all.  Suggestions?

A note on technological determinism
What does the future hold for communication within the aid sector and for the men and women who toil every day in cubicles, the ‘field’ and across the globe who want to hear and be heard by their far-flung colleagues?

Time travel to 30 years ago and then imagine explaining Skype, FaceTime, Facebook and Google to the average person.  Hard or even impossible, right?  The rate of technological innovation is increasingly fast; the next thirty years will bring many more innovations and changes than the last thirty did.  You and I are literally unable to image what the future will bring in terms of various technological innovations.

When he first imagined his networking tool Mark Zuckerberg had no idea as to the long term social and cultural impact that Facebook would have. History is full of examples of similar technologies the inventors of which also had no idea of the changes that would come from their ideas and actions. The social impacts of technological changes are staggeringly complex and impossible to accurately foresee. This is the idea of technological determinism.

We can only hope that the changes to come will have a net positive impact on the aid sector and the rest of humanity, hence the usage of the word ‘determinism.’  Let us enjoy the ever expanding blogosphere and Twitterverse and continue to offer insight, succor and support to each other.

Comic relief as a critical element
Just as my colleague and silver back sector veteran J has found an eager audience for his aid worker fiction lately (HUMAN, and the series of books starring Mary-Anne), anthropologists have done the same almost from the very beginning.  I am reminded of the classic anthropological novel published under the name Eleanor Smith Bowen written by Laura Bohannan in the mid 1950’s.  Though this novel is mainly about the intersection of two cultures -something all aid workers know something about- in the last part of the book she illustrates beautifully words from Shakespeare’s King Lear, namely “The worst returns to laughter…” and from there she gets her title.  After a devastating epidemic comes through her fieldwork community (in Nigeria among the Tiv) she describes how they quickly return to being able to laugh at the situation, putting voice to the age-old truism that the difference between tragedy and comedy is the passage of time, and that healing from trauma is most quickly done by the social bonding (and re-bonding) that comes from laughing together.

And perhaps for some (most?) aid workers, social media and the Internet allow for just that, bonding with their peers through smirks, giggles and outrageous belly-laughs.  A very human need, that.

Finally, for those those U2/Bono fans out there you might take a look at this if you haven’t already.  Wait for it.

As always, please contact me with comment, question or snark.