Monthly Archives: August 2026

Forget pursuing a magical number of years of experience: here are things that will distinguish you when applying for humanitarian development jobs.

Leave a reply
two shadows of humans talk together, with a globe behind them.

Most of the posts on subreddits like r/UNPath, r/InternationalDev (International Development) and r/Humanitarian are from people that want to know the magic number of working at a particular United Nations agency, or the magic number of internships, or the magic university degree that will land you a job at the UN or other big INGO.

Here are better ideas for distinguishing yourself when applying for these jobs:

  • Have experience doing locally what you want to do internationally. Want to work with refugees? Work, professionally or as a volunteer, with immigrants and refugees in your own geographic area/country – not just with food delivery, but with helping them enroll kids in school, helping a family member find a job, helping someone navigate enrollment in a government aid program, etc. Want to be focused on emergency housing? Work on initiatives in your own community that address emergency housing – not just after disasters, but also for people experiencing homelessness. Public health? same. And represent this work on your CV explicitly.
  • Have experience addressing community pushback or hostility or skepticism to ANYTHING. Could be a new housing development, the closing of a school, a proposal for a data center, the opening of a clinic providing abortion services, the opening of a mosque, the elimination of a program at the local school, changes in zoning laws, and on and on. Show that you have at least witnessed this kind of pushback / hostility for yourself and the efforts to address it – but having been a part of a committee dealing with such, or part of an advocacy group pushing for change, is even better.
  • Show experience where you have raised money, mobilized in-kind resources and/or saved money for a cause, a public school, a local nonprofit, etc. Even raising money for a for-profit endeavor is worth mentioning.
  • Show your experience to make and stay within a budget, stretch resources, etc. at a company or organization.
  • Show experience where you have worked with local elected officials, local unelected government officials, local business owners, etc. to change a rule, or introduce a rule or law, or to get them to collaborate on something.
  • Show experience working with programs that address the needs and challenges of a diversity of people and people who are particularly at-risk: people with disabilities, immigrants for whom your local language isn’t their native language, people leaving incarceration, people with HIV/AIDs, people who are in a religious minority in an area, seniors/the elderly, etc.
  • Survived a program or department or agency restructuring, downsizing or moving from one place to another? Or a radical rehaul of all software your agency used? Talk about it: were you involved in communicating layoffs? Organizing the packing up and moving of an office? Helping staff transition to the new system or new place?
  • Be able to work in at least one language other than English. Having proof, like passing the B2 DELE in Spanish, is really helpful. Being able to work in three languages is particularly attractive – even if you cannot communicate with a local population, being able to communicate with donors in their native language is very, very attractive.
  • Have designed and led a successful project: overseen the revamp of a web site so that it is mobile ready and fully accessible for people with disabilities, overseen and expanded a volunteer engagement program that supported literacy activities, expanded a children’s summer theater program, led a successful Women’s Build for your local Habitat for Humanity, researched and made recommendations regarding the walkability of a neighborhood or community, including with regard to people with mobility issues, helped lead a petition drive to change a local ordinance or law, led a successful voter registration drive, and on and on.

No one can have ALL of the aforementioned experience (and I laugh when someone tries to tell me that they have done ALL of the above). But any one of those things makes a person stand out when applying for jobs. Doing any of those things shows what you are capable of far better than a number of internships, or number of years in a role.

For those of you who have been on hiring committees, or reviewed applications for INGO jobs, what would you add?

And also remember: it is absolutely the worst time ever to pursue a career in international development. Foreign aid budgets have been slashed around the world. Many countries are impossibly behind in their United Nations dues. There is no amount of individual or corporate philanthropy that can make up that massive, devastating funding gap. You are competing for far, far few jobs than there were before 2022, and with far, far more people, many of them seasoned professionals. Have a backup plan.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Keys to Success in a Court-Ordered Community Service Program.

Leave a reply
image of a panel discussion

Court-ordered community service, where a person convicted of a crime is ordered by a court to provide a certain number of labor hours to a nonprofit, community of faith or government agency. is common in the USA and, as an Internet search will show, is growing in popularity in other countries such as Malaysia, Ghana and India.

According to a 2019 survey of those involved in such sentencing in the USA, the potential to reduce the negative impact of monetary sanctions was the most commonly identified benefit of such mandated community service.

“When we asked courts to identify commonly recognized reasons for using community service mandates, the majority of participating courts responded that community service mandates should serve as an alternative form of payment for court fines and fees (76 percent) or as a means to reduce the imposition of court fines and fees altogether (54 percent). Another half (49 percent) of respondents endorsed the idea of “repairing harm to the community” as a reason for community service mandates, while 42 percent reported that community service mandates are, or should be, used as an alternative to jail sentences.” (See footnote at the end)

It’s worth noting that none of the respondents in this survey said that the reason for court-ordered community service was because nonprofits, non-government organizations (NGOs), religious groups and charitable organizations need the time and labor of such people, nor that these programs are asking for such volunteer placements.

For a court-ordered community service to be successful, in my opinion,

  • the nature of the service and its completion needs to satisfy the court,
  • the program must not be over-burdensome to those charged with administering it,
  • the program must have written, well-communicated policies and procedures in place to keep it free of corruption (such as people ordered to do community service being able to make donations to the nonprofit in lieu of actually doing their community service hours),
  • the program needs to have a variety and abundance of community service roles, so that a variety of schedules, availability and skills or limitations can be accommodated and the person can complete their community service within a reasonable time frame,
  • the program needs to be done in full partnership with the nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations that are expected to engage these court-ordered volunteers, providing all the training that’s necessary, offering real-time assistance, not over-burdening host organizations with paperwork, etc.

In my opinion, to make all of the above possible, these are the keys to success in court-ordered community service programs:

  • There must be clear guidelines on what a person that is sentenced to community service may, and may NOT do, as a part of that service. For instance, some jurisdictions prohibit people from performing court-ordered service with religious communities, while others allow it. Some allow online volunteering to fulfill court-ordered service and some do not.
  • Those sentenced to court-ordered community service should be given a list of organizations they could contact about performing their service, and told explicitly if they are limited to only this list or if they could seek placement with other organizations not on the list, but that meet the court’s requirements.
  • Those sentenced to court-ordered community service must be given ideas for community service that are easy to reach from their home or before or after work, that can be done at a variety of different times and on different days (as people’s schedules vary), and that provide childcare.
  • There must be a way for an officer of the court to verify community service hours, in terms of where the service was performed, how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature on a form: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service.
  • Those sentenced to community service should be able to count hours where they are interviewed by the agency expected to involve them in community service and for any training they have to undergo for this service.
  • The court must be explicit regarding whether or not someone who is to do community service can make a donation to a nonprofit, NGO, charity, community of faith, etc., in lieu of some or all of his or her hours. Is it allowed that someone sentenced to community service could pay the nonprofit or NGO $10 for every hour he or she needs for community service? This is a growing, controversial and unofficial practice in many parts of the USA, one that courts are struggling to address.
  • If online volunteering is allowed to meet community service requirements, it must meet all of the same standards as onsite community service: there must be a way to verify community service hours, in terms of how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service. Someone needs to ensure it is real online volunteering and actual labor, not an AI automation doing the work, or a nonprofit or NGO that, in exchange for a fee and a claim that the person watched some videos and wrote some essays about them, gives a person a certificate claiming a certain number of hours completed.
  • The nonprofits, charities, NGOs, communities of faith and others expected to engage court-ordered community service people must receive:
    • training in how to create volunteering activities for court-ordered community service
    • training in how to work with people doing court-ordered community service
    • training in the basics of volunteer support and engagement
    • support for their questions and concerns when working with someone doing court-ordered community service
  • There should be a survey of nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations who engage community service volunteers for them to share their experiences with such with the courts, so that challenges can be identified and problems addressed.
  • Nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. have the right to say no to court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer. No organization has an obligation to engage with a court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer, unless they have signed an agreement that they will do so. Organizations may say no because they don’t have time to supervise and support an additional volunteer, because they have nothing for that particular person to do as community service, or because of a negative experience with court-ordered community service volunteers.
  • The best way to increase the number of organizations engaging court-ordered community service people is to fund those nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. to do so. Creating activities for someone to do takes time. Supervising and supporting someone takes time. Filling out paperwork takes time. That time should be funded.

I base all of the above on:

researching court-ordered community service since the late 1990s.

working with court-ordered community service folks myself.

You can see other things I’ve written about court-ordered community service here.

What would you add? Or what do you think is actually not that important?

(Footnote) Court-Ordered Community Service: A National Perspective. by Sarah Picard, Jennifer A. Tallon, Michela Lowry, and Dana Kralstein, July 2019, Center for Court Innovation, New York, New York.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

The ICT4D subreddit has been restarted!

Leave a reply
nine reddit emojis

The ICT4D subreddit (an online community on Reddit) was started in 2011 by someone – not me. But it was abandoned in 2017. Nothing has been submitted to this posting for posting since 2018 – until now. I stumbled upon it a while back and went through the official process to take it over as moderator.

The ICT4D subreddit is being restarted as of today, June 15, 2026. It’s new description is this:

ICT4D stands for Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) for Development. ICT4D refers to the application of ICT to economic development, humanitarian aid & development, & to causes that help empower a particular demographic or all people to address challenges, have greater access to education, protect their environment, etc. It is a term popularized by various United Nations initiatives.

Examples of ICT4D:

  • Activities to help build the digital literacy skills of an underserved group (seniors, women living in rural areas, etc.).
  • A computer lab open to the public at a public library.
  • An app to help refugees navigate various challenges.
  • Farmers working with drones and GIS to gather information that can help estimate crop yields with real-time satellite data.
  • An app that allows people to track and report on birds in people’s yards.
  • Producing IT materials in local languages.
  • Smart phones used to organize activists in real time.

Are you applying ICTs to economic development, humanitarian aid & development, &/or to causes that help empower a particular demographic or all people to address challenges, have greater access to education, protect their environment, etc.? This subreddit is a place to talk about that. Please write your testimonial yourself & remember that AI should assist your writing, but not author it here.

Up-to-date statistics about the digital divide and recent information about ICT4D-related initiatives are also welcomed.

I’ve had a focus on ICT4D since before I knew it had an acronym. And was it really 25 years ago that I was in my first year working at a United Nations agency, directing the UN Online Volunteering service and helping to manage the United Nations Information Technology Service? Wow.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.