Tag Archives: humanitarian

Why Work for the United Nations? & What is Working the for UN really like?

Leave a reply

Three years ago, someone on Reddit wrote on the subreddit UNPath, “Why Work for the UN?” Their post said:

What is the appeal? It seems very difficult to even get in at all, regardless of qualifications. So why try? I am studying a field that would probably be perfect for the UN but I’m not sure why it’s actually even appealing or worth trying to get in.

Here’s my reply from then, with some edits for clarity:

A lot of people want to work for the UN because they believe all sorts of myths – UN employees get to travel the world, you get paid a huge salary, you get a special passport, everyone is impressed that you worked at the UN and will want to hire you, etc. In fact, most UN employees don’t travel for work, don’t get a “huge” salary and don’t get that special passport. And some people, including employers back in your home country, view working at the UN as some weird thing – or will say to you, “But you worked at the UN, so why are you now applying for a boring normal job?”

Spoiler alert: a lot of UN work is really boring and normal.

I’m suspicious of anyone who says, “I want to work at the UN” on this subreddit or in a cover letter and leaves it at that. It’s like saying, “I want to work for a mega huge software company.” It doesn’t tell me anything about what work you actually want to do. It sounds like you just want a certain company on your CV. But what kind of WORK is it you want to do?

The nature and atmosphere of work for a UN employee in Bonn, Germany working on government policy recommendations for climate change is nothing like the nature and atmosphere of the head accountant that’s been brought in from abroad to work in the UNICEF office in Afghanistan. They might as well be working on different planets. Most UN jobs are administration – you’re sitting at a desk, not driving orphans to safety.

Why do I like working for the UN as a communication professional or project manager? Because the work feels very much like it matters and is making a difference on a scale far bigger than just in one community. Because I love reading country strategies and program strategies and interviewing a diversity of staff to try to represent their work. Because I love taking photos of the work my colleagues are doing and then sharing those photos in a variety of communications materials. Because I love helping people understand the benefits and impact of development projects, from earthen dams to repaired bridges to work training programs to HIV AIDS education programs to micro loans and on and on and on. Because I love working in multi-cultural environments or in an environment filled with local people staffing most of the posts in a developing country and getting to help build their capacities. And, indeed, the pay is competitive, far more than doing that exact same work for a nonprofit.

My UN job in Bonn, Germany was mostly at a desk. I met a ton of interesting people from all over the world, but I rarely traveled for work. Most of my colleagues didn’t travel for work. My jobs in Afghanistan and Ukraine were spent mostly at a desk, trying to rapidly prepare material for very demanding funders from various foreign governments – in one I had to be taken to work in an armored car and couldn’t leave the work campus except to leave for the day, nor leave my home except with approval. In the other, I could walk to work, go out with colleagues after work, go to street markets and live life like anywhere – except on the days when there were potentially violent protests. But even on “boring” days, the work always, always felt like it mattered. But note: a lot of colleagues, doing very similar work, didn’t feel energized by it – it was just a job.

As for it being difficult to get in – I have to say, most of the people I see here wanting a job in the UN don’t offer anything to show any qualifications at all for working at the UN. They seem to think there’s some sort of magical master’s degree or PhD that gets you “in”. Or some magical way to phrase things in a cover letter. And as a person that often was the person who went through a stack of CVs to pick who would get interviewed, it was soooo easy to disregard 80% of applicants, because they so clearly did NOT have anything in their CV that showed they had all – and I mean ALL – of the skills and experience asked for in the job description.

End of my reply on Reddit.

A lot of this could be said for why I prefer working for nonprofits or government agencies, rather than in the private sector: because it feels like the work matters, even if it’s at a desk most days. I like helping a specific community, including the one that’s all around me currently. And the differences between rural Oregon and rural anywhere else aren’t as great as you might think.

Also see:

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. 

Yes, you CAN get experience for entry level UN positions in your own community

Leave a reply

A frequent lament of people on online groups who want to work for the United Nations is “It’s impossible because there’s no way for me to get the experience needed.”

Bollocks.

I’ve addressed this before in blogs such as

These aforementioned blogs are about how to get expertise that can be applied to UN positions, usually at the P level and above.

But a lot of people want to work at a headquarters or break into UN work at the administrative level. They claim the aforementioned doesn’t apply to them and then, again, say, “It’s impossible for me to get the experience necessary.”

I spent an hour going through G-level positions currently being recruited at some UN agencies. I then made a list of some commonalities in the positions, which I have listed below, stripping out UN-specific references. And as I read through these, it was obvious to me that:

  • If you have been a longish-term leadership volunteer in your community, managing other volunteers, in any project – Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, an NGO that helps refugees, a children’s theater camp, a hospice, a food bank, etc. – you have probably done most of these activities.
  • If you have been a successful Girl Scout leader for more than two years, and been on the board or core organizers of your service unit in that time, you have probably done most of these activities.
  • If you have been a leadership volunteer at a local farmer’s market or artists cooperative for an entire season, you have probably done most of these activities.
  • If you have been on the board of a nonprofit for at least a year, you have probably done most of these activities.

Often it’s how you frame and phrase your responsibilities on your CV and applications as to whether or not you look qualified for a position.

I was part of a hiring committee that hired a guy with extensive hotel management experience for a G level administrative support position: his procurement skills, his experience in dealing with conflict, his organizational skills, his multi-language skills, his client-focused mindset and his experience with international clients were all represented on his CV , explicitly. He was an incredible and perfect fit for the job (he did also have a Master’s degree – I think it was in business).

Job responsibilities that show up on a lot of G-level positions that you can learn through leadership volunteering and through most administrative jobs at nonprofits and local government agencies as well:

  • Schedule internal and external meetings and events, and communicate these dates, or possible dates, to the team/partners.
  • Assist in organizing events, workshops, webinars, launches of publications, seminars, conferences and campaigns.
  • Support the team with planning and implementing of operational activities.
  • Gather relevant and corresponding data (socio-economic, gender, etc.) needed for project development, proposals, reports, presentations, etc.
  • Support activities contributing to the regular communication with project partners to monitor deadlines, commitments made, actions taken, etc.
  • Support in mapping and identifying relevant stakeholders or desired audiences or potential partners.
  • Populate and maintain a database of potential partners, or area NGOs, or area small businesses, or some other needed data set for a project.
  • Review and proofread drafts of reports, drafts of online materials, etc.
  • Closely follow up with other staff, consultants, partner organizations, etc. regarding collaborative projects, data, etc.
  • Review reports developed by others and edit/contribute as needed.
  • Verify the accuracy and validity of research conducted or feedback provided by others.
  • Continuously monitor and collect all data indicators relevant to the project.
  • Provide support in the dissemination and sharing of relevant data and lessons learned.
  • Keep pulse on emerging best practices nationally, regionally, and internationally that relate to the work.
  • Regularly read knowledge networks and communities of practice related to the project/program area.
  • Support program-related knowledge building, management and sharing activities for both external and internal audiences.
  • Assist in preparation of official correspondence to all relevant project partners, HQ, etc.
  • Provide inputs in the development and producing knowledge products, i.e. case studies, success stories, lessons learnt reports, press releases and etc.
  • Contribute to the creation of content for specific stakeholders, including presentation decks, photos videos, programme briefs, webinar/event cards, literature.
  • Monitor online platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc. regarding mentions of the program and activities by partners/stakeholders.
  • Assist the Project Manager/other staff in preparation of the regular progress reports in line with reporting schedules, as well as any other reports requested by management, donor, government, press and/or other stakeholders/audiences.
  • Support other staff in implementing project M&E activities and providing on-going feedback and technical backstopping.
  • Make logistical arrangements for HQ staff visits and external visitors, preparing briefing kits and background materials.

Quit complaining that “the fix is in” and you can’t get a UN position unless you “know someone on the inside.” I’ve worked for the UN three times, at three different UNDP offices, in three different countries, and I knew NO ONE in those offices that hired me. I’ve been on several UN hiring committees and only one time in all those times was I pressured to hire someone who someone on the hiring committee knew – a practice common in the private sector! (I refused to change my score regarding her interview and qualifications, but she did still get hired somehow). Every other time, we hired the person obviously most qualified.

Get busy taking a hard look at all you have done to date and think about how to better frame it. And if you lack needed skills for the jobs you want, get busy with volunteering or working locally to get them!

Also see:

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. 

Abilities you need to work in humanitarian development successfully

Leave a reply
image of a panel discussion

I’ve been working on this for a while: a list of abilities that I believe a person needs to work in humanitarian development successfully – including to work at the United Nations. For my purposes here, I define such success as meeting the requirements of your job and the goals of your program and getting along well with others while also staying personally satisfied.

These are the skills I’ve seen that have made the difference in success, as I have just defined it, for oh so many people – and myself. Many would call them “soft skills.” These skills usually won’t be listed in job requirements. You can’t major in any of these skills at a university; you get them from working, volunteering and collaborating on anything with others (co-workers, neighbors, family…), and you can do all of that (and gain these skills) no matter where you live.

Also, it’s good to approach at least some of these as job interview questions: “Tell me about a time when you needed to adapt and improvise regarding a strategy you had planned out but you realized wouldn’t work as planned…” or “tell me about a time when you broke down a process into smaller steps so that it was easier to understand by co-workers or community members…”

To work in humanitarian development successfully, you need the abilities to:

  1. read large amounts of text, and to understand what you have read and apply it to your work.
  2. memorize.
  3. manage time effectively.
  4. speak comfortably in front of audiences, including those that may be hostile to your subject matter.
  5. shut up, listen and learn from others (and I am using “shut up” because too many don’t understand “listen quietly”).
  6. adapt and improvise when you realize a strategy has to be altered or something unexpected happens.
  7. negotiate.
  8. write words to educate, persuade and influence others.
  9. cultivate trust quickly and on an ongoing basis with others.
  10. make decisions based on facts and not on emotions or just your “gut” – and be ready to do that despite what you wanted to believe in your gut.
  11. break a process down to smaller steps.
  12. reframe complex ideas into plain language.
  13. delegate tasks appropriately and frequently with an eye to building the skills of others.
  14. build the skills of someone to eventually take over a process you currently undertake.
  15. guide without micromanaging.
  16. work with co-workers, community members and others you don’t like.
  17. know how to quickly tell your boss what you are doing and why you are doing it, what you are achieving and what is challenging you – and make sure your boss’s boss knows all of this too.
  18. not let an insult of you derail the work you need to do.
  19. read the room, to be aware of the feelings and opinions of those you are talking to, and to be able to alter your approach if you realize it’s not going to work or be inappropriate in that circumstance.
  20. keep trying and experimenting, and learn from failure.
  21. do self-analysis and let go of ideas when it’s clear they won’t work.
  22. stay positive and hopeful – and get that back when you lose it.
  23. understand what others feel, even if you disagree with their values.
  24. ask for advice and help and know how to seek and find the expertise you don’t have.
  25. recognize situations that are unnecessarily dangerous or when you are personally at risk and react to keep yourself safe.
  26. process your own stress, anxiety, and other negative feelings, and address feelings of loneliness in a healthy way.
  27. balance priorities with personal needs and know when it’s time to take a break.
  28. pick your battles.
  29. know when to ask for permission and when to do it without prior approval and be ready to ask for forgiveness.
  30. own your mistakes.
  31. know who you are working with that has your back and those who do NOT.
  32. how to get back up when you stumble and fall.

No one person can have all of these abilities all the time, by the way.

And, yes, it’s helpful to have abilities like being able to learn another language so that you can work in a language other than the one your own family and neighbors speak – your native language. And you need the abilities to obtain a university degree and a lot of work experience and on and on. But you need these “soft skills” as well – and just as much.

For those of you who have worked in international development, what abilities would you add – abilities that might not ever be named in a role’s Terms of Reference?

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, 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. 

Ending Orphanage Volunteering (Webinar presentation – about 7 minutes)

Leave a reply

Sinet Chan of Cambodia shared her lived experience in a Cambodian orphanage, where she was placed when she was 10 years old after her parents died of AIDS in a presentation, about 7 minutes, that was given as a part of the “Beyond Institutional Care: Rethinking How We Care for Vulnerable Children” conference addressing the issue of care reform.

While at the orphanage, she was “badly neglected.” The orphanage was set up to attract foreign volunteers and donations, but the children rarely benefitted from this – children were denied food, medical care and education. She and other children were forced to do manual labor, and she and other children were regularly raped.

Sinet Chan’s own words are so powerful:

During this time, we had many volunteers and donors coming and going. We would always entertain them, singing them a song, and playing games with them, to encourage them to donate money… the volunteers were nice people trying to help us, but now I realize it was a form of exploitation: using children to generate funding.”

All the other children in the orphanage – they all had parents who were alive and they missed their families… all the coming and going of the volunteers and visitors then compounded our feelings of loss and abandonment. The love and affection we feel from the visitor initially feels nice. Some visitors and volunteers would come for one day, some for a few weeks, and some for six months or more. It was always very traumatic when it was coming time for them to leave. We would be very (unintelligible) and cry a lot. I think it is a trigger memory of the loss and separation we have all suffered already. Having adults coming in and out of our lives feels like we were constantly being abandoned. They would always say they were coming back but, they never come back.

I think the uncomfortable truth behind the reason why white people feel like they need to participate in voluntourism is they have a white savior complex. The white savior complex is caused by the unconscious belief in the incompetence of the people they are trying to help. That belief justifies why they feel they must come and do it for us, like building our house, digging our wells, saving our children…

So, in order to combat voluntourism white people must examine their unconscious bias and learn how to be a white ally instead of a white savior.

You can hear her entire presentation on YouTube:

Also see:

Theater as a Tool for Community Development

Leave a reply

For my Master’s Degree in Development Management at Open University, (the degree is, as of 2021, called Global Development) my last course was TU874 The Development Management Project, completed in October 2005. This final course involved my researching a development-related topic of my choice, and producing a 10,000 word paper as a result of this research. My research project was an investigation of what elements need to be in place before an organization produces a live, in-person performance, or series of performances, as a development tool, excluding performer training and theater techniques. The goal was to identify the systems and atmosphere that need to be cultivated in order to ensure the success of a TfD initiative and to tie these to the concepts taught in OU Development Management courses.

There are numerous organizations using theater techniques as part of their development activities, and there are also numerous initiatives, publications, web sites and individuals that promote and chronicle successes regarding live, in-person performance as an effective tool for development. Even in our current age saturated with multi-media and podcasts, live, in-person performance/TfD is a popular and effective tool for education, outreach and capacity-building regarding a variety of development issues, such as HIV/AIDS prevention, domestic violence, evolving gender roles, or good sanitation practices.

However, at least as of 2005, there was little information on what has to be in place before these techniques are used, excluding performer training, to better ensure that these techniques will be well-received by an audience/participants, and to better ensure that the desired outcomes will be generated. I saw a need for more information on how to cultivate support for and trust in such an initiative among staff at the lead agency, among partner organizations, and among those for whom the theater-for-development techniques will be used.

This project included a review of key literature on TfD, and semi-structured interviews with 12 TfD practitioners.

You can read online:

I know this is old research, but I still think it’s relevant, and I like to make sure people know it’s available.

Those of you who know me were all expecting me to do something regarding either volunteerism, specifically online volunteering or the vital role volunteers play in community technology initiatives, or mission-based organizations and technology, as that’s been the focus of my professional work for decades. Well… surprise!

Live, in-person theater has always been a love of mine: I was always involved in theater in some way during junior high, high school and then my undergrad at university, and for five years, I worked in public relations and marketing at various professional theaters, including the Tony-Award winning Hartford Stage and the internationally-acclaimed Williamstown Theater Festival. The power of theater to reach people fascinates me. There is nothing like it, no experience that matches it. Writing my Master’s Degree final project on a theater-related topic was my opportunity to get back in touch with something that started me off professionally, and something I believe in personally.

Also see my related blogs:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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 ethics of volunteering abroad during a global pandemic

Leave a reply

I am regularly reading posts and getting emails from unvaccinated young people who want to “get away” from the lockdowns in their own country by volunteering abroad. And these people are stunned that I respond with my very strongly-worded assertion that this is a horrific, selfish idea.

If you are being told by health authorities in your own country that you shouldn’t be gathering with others because it’s not safe, why do you think you should be allowed / approved of to go abroad?

The main office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA sent out this tweet at the end of March 2021:

When you’re fully vaccinated for #COVID19, you can start doing some things again, like gathering indoors w/ other fully vaccinated people. Still protect yourself & others in public places – wear a mask, stay at least 6ft apart, & avoid crowds. More: https://bit.ly/3btJaFU.

The CDC’s guidance here goes for volunteering abroad too.

For people who want to volunteer abroad now: please, please note that there is a global pandemic happening right now. As of the end of March 2021, around three million people were counted as having died from diseases associated with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), primarily COVID19, and not only is that death toll probably a gross underestimation, it also doesn’t count the many more who have died because they could not get the medical care they needed because of how many resources have had to be diverted to treating COVID-19. In addition, there is no number regarding how many people have been permanently disabled from the disease.

Travel by non-vaccinated people spreads the disease, and spreads the variants of the disease to new areas. In short, travel by non-vaccinated people kills people. And that includes people traveling abroad to “volunteer” because, you know, lockdowns are such a bummer.

The Peace Corps is NOT sending volunteers abroad right now, both because it wants to keep volunteers safe and because it wants to keep communities abroad safe. There is no ethical, credible volunteer hosting or volunteer sending organization that is mobilizing foreign volunteers and sending them abroad for any roles except for critically-needed services, like medical care or public health education, such as through UN Volunteers.

If you are eying a company that says it is sending volunteers abroad right now to rescue turtles or build water wells or lead English classes, that company is unscrupulous and reckless and just wants your money.

And if I’m looking at candidates for a job and I see on a CV that someone went abroad with one of these companies during a global pandemic, I’m going to put that candidate aside, because no way would I consider someone so reckless for a workplace I’m in charge of.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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. 

Rethinking ethics of volunteering abroad medical missions

Leave a reply

I am a HUGE fan of m NPR’s Goats & Soda program. This is an excerpt from a recent article:

In 1969, volunteer teams of doctors and nurses from a U.S. charity called Interplast began flying to poor countries to do reconstructive surgery. They operated on children with cleft lips, cleft palates or burn scars so thick their limbs were immobilized. It sounded like a great idea. The team members donated their time, paid for their travel and lodging and sometimes their supplies, and got to do good…

Today, missions are sponsored by churches, universities and charities. There are for-profit missions as well that collect fees from volunteers, mostly students. A 2016 estimate put the annual cost of getting doctors and other health care workers to sites around the world at $3.7 billion, paid for by donors or health personnel themselves.

But today there’s some real soul-searching going on about this kind of fly-in. At conferences and in academic papers, health professionals are asking: Is this really the most effective way to provide health care to the developing world?

This article from NPR’s Goats & Soda program explores the ethics of this volunteering abroad practice. There are growing concerns about what happens when these volunteers leave, and there’s a lot of concern that the care they’re providing may not be culturally appropriate or even wanted by the people on the ground. Sociologist Judith Lasker, author of the 2016 book Hoping to Help, worked with the Catholic Health Association on a study that showed that about half the money spent on medical missions goes for travel costs for the teams. “It doesn’t seem like a very cost-effective strategy,” she says. After she told a local health provider in Haiti the cost of the airfare for bringing in a single American doctor, the Haitian said to Lasker, “Imagine how many antibiotics that could buy.”

Please read the article before commenting!

And if you are not following NPR’s Goats & Soda on Social media, you really, really need to be. I follow @GoadsandSoda on Twitter. It’s terrific for people that work in humanitarian interventions or development abroad, or want to understand them – but it’s also good for anyone involved in nonprofit work in their own countries to read. There are a lot of issues that bring up that are local to any charitable activity locally – not just internationally.

Update: This September 2019 article from the American Medical Association explores ethical implications of international medical volunteering, such as scope of practice, continuity of care, and erosion of local health systems, and offers a personal perspective from a related field.

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.

Also see:

Humanitarians explain their jobs – badly

Leave a reply

I thought it would be fun to start the New Year off with some humor.

A currently popular meme circulating says:

Explain your job badly.

A Facebook group that I’m a part of, for humanitarian workers, started a thread around the meme and I found the answers hilarious.  So, to kick off 2019, here are my favorite responses, sometimes with explanations or commentary by me in parenthesis jus to make sure you get the joke.

Aid & Development Workers explain their jobs… badly:

Conflict bad, peace good.

Making bad better.

Saving the world one report at a time.

I align little figures on power points. Also, I give detailed input on the banner for pointless events. Once in a while I sit up and suggest we publish brochures.

Angering doctors, engineers, government workers and others by making them explain their work.

Saving lives. After I’ve finished the paperwork.

Ensuring measurable results.

I try to communicate to people who don’t know how to communicate why better communication will be of help to them

Pretending to change the rules by following them.

Attending *all* the life-saving meetings.

I ask adults to play games and write on colourful cards explaining to me things I just told them. (this also works for consultants teaching volunteer management)

Fitting 200 pages report titled “Climate change and its effects from last century to nowadays in developing countries” into a 2 page folded brochure, obviously including infographics and pictures

a friend did it for me once “So basically you give soap to rapists and murderers in prisons?” (ICRC Detention Delegate).

I help sex workers and gay men get drugs. (HIV/AIDS public health worker)

Trying to convince local administration that the governor / mayor / prefet home is not the best location for a handpump.

I tell people things they don’t want to hear.

Assisting 80 y.o. receive their first passport (statelessness reduction and prevention).

Parting money from fools – and handing the cash to other fools.

Glorified travel agent arranging travel for old white men whom I babysit and train on how to talk to people.

In response to the responses to someone saying they are a “Cash Adviser” – “No, it’s nothing to do with finance; no, I’m not a cashier; no, I’m not an accountant”, and, occasionally when you say Oxfam, “No, I don’t work in a shop.” (note – humanitarian agencies provide cash assistance in crisis response, giving cash directly to local people so that local markets can quickly be rebuilt, so recipients can prioritize their needs, and because cash can be faster and cheaper to deliver than goods)

Reinforcing systemically weak capacity using antiquated, broken and ineffective systems and doing so with systemic capacity gaps yet expecting and reporting positive outcomes.

Cleaning up after global leaders who sell weapons in one hand and give aid with the other and governments who care more about their pockets than their citizens.

To be fair I think those last two explain humanitarian work quite well.

Would managers of volunteers dare to do this exercise? I challenge you… 

More nonprofit / NGO  humor blogs:

What it is like to be a consultant

If nonprofits were brutally honest with funders

More Than Me scandal in Liberia: a lesson to all who “just want to help”

2 Replies

Katie Meyler of the USA wanted to save girls in Liberia from sexual exploitation, to educate them, empower them, keep them safe. She founded a charity called More Than Me and quickly raised more than $8 million for her efforts. The first More Than Me project multiplied quickly to 19 schools teaching 4,000 students. When the Liberian president, who had won a Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for women’s safety, was asked what she wanted from those keen to help her country, she answered, “To expand Katie Meyler’s initiative to as many communities as possible.” Meyler rubbed shoulders with Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, and even get invited to the Obama White House.

Yet many of the girls in the program were regularly raped by a high-level MTM staff member, who was never vetted and rarely supervised in his interactions with girls. Victims told authorities and the media that he threatened to take away their scholarships or even kill them if they reported him.

The first school launched byMore Than Me was staffed in large part by year-long American “teaching fellows,” volunteers who were each asked to fundraise or pay $10,000 to participate. Except for one position, teaching experience wasn’t required, nor was a criminal background check – applicants just had to show they were an “innovative, out-of-the-box thinker and risk-taker” and include a video demonstrating they were “on fire with passion.” And, of course, have the money to pay. One of the first volunteers tried to sound the alarm and mismanagement and lack of appropriate safety systems at the organization, drafting a document highlighting the risks the organization was taking regarding financial management and children’s safety. The organization did create a written policy which said staff members were required to report child abuse to the organization, but in a country where sex for grades and other school-based exploitation were prevalent, the charity had no procedures for how to do so, and did not train staff about what reporting would look like.

Instead of helping girls, this program has irreparably harmed many. It put girls into the path of a serial predator and ignored warning signs about such. And many thousands of dollars are unaccounted for.

If you want to go abroad, with no experience, just a good heart, to help others, and you don’t yet know about the horror show that is More Than Me in Liberia, you need to read up. The ProPublica piece that exposed More Than Me is worth your time.

As this article from the Nonprofit Quarterly notes about the More Than Me scandal:

Cases like More Than Me’s underline the importance of context and relevant experience. Anyone with the most basic understanding of the social dynamics in Liberia or any other post-conflict situation would have known that sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) was a huge problem and not taken it for granted. The inexperience of Katie Meyler has been remarked upon and shows clearly through her handling of this crisis. White saviorism also thrives on the porn of poverty that freezes affected countries into essentialized images and relations of dependence from which they struggle to recover. But equally dangerous is its instrumentality as a facade for the less than honorable activities of some so-called humanitarians. There can be no sustainable reform of humanitarianism unless the world puts heads together to block the unintended consequences of humanitarianism.

Why am I so hard on people that post to forums or write me directly and say, “I have a good heart and a love of adventure and want to help poor kids in other countries!”? Why am I even harder on organizations that say, “Pay us this amount of money and we’ll let you help in our orphanage abroad – no need for any special skills or a criminal background check!”? This is a perfect example as to why. Yes, I am abrupt and demanding with people that posts such messages to fora or directly to me – and I will continue to do so.

And it’s not just abroad: I frequently come into contact with programs right here in Oregon that do not have any written policies about preventing and reporting inappropriate behavior by staff, volunteers or clients, and have no training for staff, volunteers or clients on what inappropriate behavior is and what reporting looks like. And when I try to bring this up, however gently, prefaced by lots of compliments to the program for producing such great results, I hear “We haven’t had any problems with inappropriate behavior.” And my response is always the same, “How do you know?”

Four things I wish every person knew who wants to go abroad and help, and every organization knew that wants to fund efforts to help people abroad:

  • Having a good heart and passion for a cause will not make your organization immune to corruption, mismanagement, harassment of clients or sexual abuse.
  • Any nonprofit, charity or government effort to help people should always put the clients, their priorities and their safety FIRST, below whatever organizational, program or personal brand you are trying to establish.
  • Local people that you want to help, even children, get a say in how you are going to help them, a say in what the organizational and funding priorities should be, and a priority for when they complain about something that threatens themselves, their family or their community.
  • Your goal, as much as possible, is to build the capacity of those local people to eventually lead and staff these activities themselves WITHOUT YOU.

The backlash against humanitarians working abroad with children, including volunteers (voluntourism), is coming. Are you ready? Also see: Nepal’s children at risk: Sexual abuse in the aid sector.

Also see:

Reporting impact should be EASY – why do so many struggle with it?

Leave a reply

I think the work of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is one of the most important that my country, the USA, does.

I think foreign aid by the USA, or any other country, is vital to world economic stability and security. I believe foreign aid prevents wars and reduces human migration fueled by violence and poverty. I also believe foreign aid is just the right thing to do, to help people and our world.

Because I think USAID is so important, it’s difficult to see it stumble so badly, especially in a country I dearly love, Afghanistan. And that seems to be the case with Promote, an Afghanistan-based initiative that is USAID’s largest women’s empowerment program in the agency’s entire history. The Promote web site says:

The aim is to advance opportunities for Afghan women to become political, private sector, and civil society leaders and to build upon existing and previous programs for women and girls.

Three years after it launched, a USA government watchdog agency has reviewed the program and cannot find any concrete data that it has helped any women become political private sector or civil society leaders.

The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) was established by Congress to monitor spending by the USA in Afghanistan. In its report released last week, SIGAR cites a letter from USAID saying that the Promote program had “directly benefited 50,000 Afghan women with the training and support they need to engage in advocacy for women’s issues, enter the work force and start their own businesses.” The letter added that Promote had helped women “raise their voices and contribute to the peace and prosperity of their country.”

But the SIGAR report notes that these USAID claims for the program are not backed up by any measurable data, such as actual jobs, internships or additional trainings made possible because of Promote’s work.

The SIGAR report notes that:

  • The Promote program changed its performance indicators substantially in its first two years, greatly reducing the number of people it committed to serve.
  • Because it did not complete a baseline study early in its implementation, Promote lacks a starting point from which to monitor and evaluate the program’s progress over its first 2 years and to measure its overall impact in Afghanistan. In other words, evaluation was not baked in right from the beginning.
  • The Promote program delivers much of its programming through contractors, and SIGAR found that USAID/Afghanistan’s records on the contractors’ required deliverables were incomplete and inaccurate because management did not give contractors enough guidance on record keeping and tracking important information about deliverables in a consistent manner. In addition to such records being absolutely fundamental to being able to evaluate impact, the report notes that complete and accurate records are critical to documenting and maintaining institutional knowledge in a mission that experiences high staff turnover.
  • The report also notes that the program didn’t have feedback from contractors on the potential negative impacts of the proposed programming.

In some cases, attendance at a single gender empowerment class organized by Promote was counted as a woman benefiting from the program. One target was to help 20 women find leadership positions in the Civil Service, but none have so far, according to the SIGAR report. One of the few concrete results cited in a study of the Promote project was the promotion of 55 women to better jobs, but the SIGAR report says it is unclear whether the Promote program could be credited for those promotions.

Two people associated with the program that I have seen on social media have been very upset about the SIGAR report and the article in The New York Times about it. They are saying the data IS there – but neither could give me any links to it, say where the data is or how it was collected, etc. One said that the kind of data SIGAR is asking for is impossible because of two things out of the program’s control: the security situation in Afghanistan and because of the conservative nature of the country. To which I say: NONSENSE. Neither of those factors are reasons not to have the data necessary to evaluate this program – if those issues didn’t prevent activities by the program, then they would not prevent data-gathering about such.

Program results are not meetings, not trainings, not events, and not the number of people that participated in any of them. Those are activities and mere activities can rarely be reported as program results. What happened because of the meeting or training or event? What changed? What awareness or skill was gained? What happened to the participant at the meeting, or because of the meeting, that met the programs goals?

Here is just how easy it can be to evaluate a program: Create a survey to be delivered before or at the start of a meeting, a training or event for attendees. You can get answers to that survey as one big group exercise, as a series of small group exercises or in one-on-one interviews if its a low-literacy group or if you don’t believe the target audience will fill out a paper survey. Ask about their perceptions of various issues and challenges they are facing in relation to the issues you want to address. Ask their expectations of your meeting, training or event. Then conduct a similar survey weeks or months, with the same group, and compare the results. TA DA: YOU HAVE DATA FOR EVALUATION OF YOUR RESULTS. This is a very simplistic approach and just scratches the surface on all that the Promote program should have been gathering, but even just this would have been something. It would have given some indication as to whether or not the program was working.

Now, let’s be clear: this SIGAR report does NOT say the Promote program isn’t doing anything and should be ended. Rather, as the report itself says:

after 3 years and $89.7 million spent, USAID/Afghanistan has not fully assessed the extent to which Promote is meeting its overarching goal of improving the status of more than 75,000 young women in Afghanistan’s public, private, and civil society sectors. 

And then it makes recommendations to the USAID Administrator “to ensure that Promote will meet its goal in light of the program’s extensive changes and its mixed performance to
date.” Those recommendations are:

1. Conduct an overall assessment of Promote and use the results to adjust the program and measure future program performance.

2. Provide written guidance and training to contracting officer’s representatives on maintaining records in a consistent, accurate manner.

3. Conduct a new sustainability analysis for the program.

Here’s some tips regarding number 2:

  • give the representatives examples of what data should look like
  • explain the importance of reporting data that shows an activity has NOT worked in the way that was hoped for, and how reporting this data will not reflect poorly on the representative but, rather, show that the representative is being detailed, realistic and transparent, all key qualities for a program to actually work
  • engage the representatives in role-playing regarding gathering data. Have staff members do simple skits showing various data-gathering scenarios and overcoming various challenges when interviewing someone and how to address such. Then have representatives engage in exercises where they try these techniques, with staff playing the roles of government officials, NGO representatives, community leaders hostile to the program, women participating in the program, etc.
  • emphasize over and over that evaluation isn’t a separate activity from program delivery, done at the end of a project, and provide plenty of examples and demonstrations on what evaluation activities “baked in” to program delivery really looks like.

I developed this comprehensive list of questions to answer in preparation for reporting to donors, the media & general public with a colleague in Afghanistan, to help the local staff at the government ministry where we worked know what information donors and UN agencies regularly asked for, and what we anticipated they might start asking for; what subjects the media regularly asked about or reported on, and what we anticipated they might start asking about or reporting on; and what information could be used for evaluation purposes later. It was part of our many efforts to build public sector staff communications capacities in countries where I’ve served. We needed a way to rapidly bring staff up-to-speed on reporting – on EVALUATION – needs, and I think we did with these kinds of efforts. I hope Promote will develop something similar for those delivering their services, and make sure the lists are understood.

Also see: