What Makes Someone an Aid Professional?
Posted on November 4, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I’ve had a front row seat to this most current amateur vs. professional debate and have taken part in previous debates on this same topic. I’m starting to see some consensus developing. I’ve tried to summarize below what I think are the points where most people are in agreement. As people have provided feedback and made suggestions, I’ve included their suggestions in italics.
- First and foremost – Do No Harm – whether what we do is right or wrong, we are doing it to the people that can least afford for us to fail.
- There are competent and incompetent people and organizations at every level – local, national, international. Not all volunteers/startups are bad and not all INGO’s are good.
- There is a need for fresh perspectives and a variety of ideas and approaches. However this must be tempered with knowledge of the factors that led to success and failures in the past so the same mistakes are not constantly repeated.
- Every person/organization is a burden in its own way, therefore every person/organization must bring something real to the table so that they are contributing far more than the burden they create. Contributions can come from a wide variety of skills such as fundraising, report writing, program design & implementation, organizational leadership, program evaluation, just to name a few. But enthusiasm alone is not enough.
- Everyone needs to be keenly aware that when we leave, the people we were trying to help are going to be left to deal with whatever problems our presence has created – be humble and honest with yourself and with them.
- Professionalism may have less to do with your job title/organization and whether you are paid staff or a volunteer, and more to do with how you approach aid/development:
- Have a sound basis of knowledge to begin with – don’t just out there winging it and learning as you go. This doesn’t have to be a degree, knowledge can come from past experience, independent research/study, mentoring, or some other way.
- Understand and actively try to follow best practices/standards or have solid reasons for why you’re choosing not to follow them. But know them.
- Work on progressing best practices/standards by constantly working to generate and disseminate evidence.
- Share your knowledge freely, even when you’re not being paid for doing so. Mentor and learn from others.
- Have a system for truly involving the participants in every step of the planning, implementation, and evaluation process.
- Support the work the that the community is already doing rather than duplicating or superseding their efforts. Do things “with” the community not “for” the community.
- Regularly gather feedback – from more than just the project participants – and improve the program based on that feedback.
- Stick around long enough for projects to have a chance to fail. Then try to stop them from failing and learn from your mistakes.
- This is not about us. No individual or organization should be doing aid or development work simply because it’s in their own best interest.
- Always bear in mind that aid may not be the answer.
Anything I missed? Any point where I’m dead wrong?
——-
Numerous posts on this topic can be found here – Amateurs vs. Professionals: A complex issue.
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I would add one point to the ‘approach’ section: work on progressing best practices/standards by constantly considering generation and dissemination of evidence.
Good addition, thanks!
“This is not about us. No individual or organization should be doing aid or development work simply because it’s in their own best interest.”
I think denying that aid isn’t about us is the first major fault. Good social workers/teachers/aid professionals become good social workers/teachers/aid professionals because they DO get something out of their work. Saying “no individual or organization should be doing aid or development work simply because it’s in their own best interest” misses the fact that it IS about us. The first step in becoming a good good aid professionals is in acknowledging that there is personal incentive–personal interest–in getting involved in aid. This kind of self awareness allows those of us who work in aid to then be aware of how our interests (which are ALWAYS there) intersect (or don’t) with those of the community that is the focus of the aid project. It is a constant process of negotiation–we cannot erase our own interests and we most certainly are incapable of making aid all about someone else, for the very reason that our own interests are always in the way.
Dear anon,
I don’t accept anonymous comments on this blog. If you feel strongly enough to comment on something then stand behind what you say.
[...] First: you need to know what an aid “professional” might look like, and the hazards (and potential strengths) of being an aid “amateur.” There’s been a small debate on the blogs recently, and Saundra of Good Intentions has posted a cool summary of the results, here. [...]
1. Bravo! Bringing the threads together is a great service.
2. I linked to you, here: http://www.architecturefordevelopment.com/archives/379
3. Though you refer to sharing knowledge tangentially, I think it is an important issue that might deserve its own sub-bullet under bullet point 6 : “Share your knowledge freely, even when you’re not being paid for doing so. Mentor and learn from others.”
Hi Saundra, I think committing to life long learning about development and aid is key. I described it as a daily commitment and ritual. This means reading, interacting, discussing issues. There is always more to learn. For me this is almost as important as my past experience.
Jane,
Good additions. I’ll see how to work it into the main section.
I totally agree with this! I think a recent reading list should be a part of interviews for positions in development and aid or even a part of the CV. The work and experience and education is only one part of a much larger and longer learning commitment.
My comment on your post is primarily to do with my long struggle with the Do No Harm principle:
I find this, quite possibly, contradictory. Unless I’m misunderstanding it altogether. How can you “do no harm” even if what you are doing is “wrong”? How are those terms being qualified? How do you know if you are doing harm or not? How do you determine if you have “failed” and how do you know? Even when your intentions are good, as this blog repeatedly (and rightly) points out, there can be negative consequences. So how do you execute the principle of Do No Harm, and/or is that even possible? And how do you assess whether you’ve done harm or not?
Further, is it not a problematic approach to see yourself as doing something “to” people? At what point do these people get a say in the projects being pursued in their communities and theoretically on their behalf? I feel like this is something that professionals have a much better sense of, generally speaking. But then it depends on how much time they’ve spent outside of the expat community and how much they connect with the people they’re trying to help. If an academic or an amateur were to be given a chance to be part of these kinds of efforts, if it were me, I’d want anthropology students. What do the people in the communities where you’re working prioritize? What do *they* think is important? How do *they* think their problems should be solved? How can they be assisted with initiatives they are already doing, rather than having outside interventions dictating new solutions? I think “Do No Harm” is way more complicated than it sounds.
Carol,
Thanks for bringing up the issue of doing thing with and not to people, it’s something I write about often and has come up in the debate as well.
I never said Do No Harm was easy, it’s not. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important. One answer to how you make sure you do no harm is by following all the other professional practices outlined in the post.
Carol,
“Do No Harm” is not just a principle. There are practical techniques to guide practitioners to a better understanding of the potential harm of any project. When Saundra says: “◦Understand and actively try to follow best practices/standards or have solid reasons for why you’re choosing not to follow them. But know them.”, one of those best practices is Do No Harm.
Marshall,
Thanks for bringing that up. Here’s a link to CDA’s Do No Harm project, and a quote from their website:
“The Do No Harm Project (DNH), begun in 1993, seeks to identify the ways in which international humanitarian and/or development assistance given in conflict settings may be provided so that, rather than exacerbating and worsening the conflict, it helps local people disengage from fighting and develop systems for settling the problems which prompt conflict within their societies.
The DNH concepts are widely used in the humanitarian and development communities and the project has developed one of the best known tools for Peace and Conflict Impact Analysis: the Do No Harm Framework for Analyzing the Impacts of Assistance on Conflict.”
Saundra and Marshall: Point taken on DNH; and thanks for the resources!
To Saundra and Jane: What advice would you give an aspiring amateur like me? I love this blog and agree with nearly everything I read on it. These issues are not new to me and I feel like I know them inside-out. And yet I have had no experience in the field (well, very little). I really think I’ve got the scholarly background necessary for aid in terms of all the ethical issues, but I can’t figure out how to get out there. I’ve had aid workers, development workers, UN officials and colleagues, and academics all tell me they see me “in the field” and that I should “get out there.” But I’m having a hell of a time doing it. I’ve learned the hard way that being fluent in Swahili means little to organizations like the UN and its agencies. Is my only choice to volunteer abroad first, before I can work? Should I get a PhD in something and teach for a while? I really want to work while I’m still energetic and enthusiastic enough. Do you guys have any advice? Many thanks!
For career advice I always refer people to Alanna Shaikh’s International Development Career’s List. It specifically designed to answer questions like yours. Alanna talks candidly about getting jobs and working in this field. For $2.00 a month subscription cost it’s a pretty good deal.
My own personal advice to everyone is to start volunteering and working for nonprofits in your own community. There are numerous opportunities and many of the issues and approaches are surprisingly similar. This gives you the opportunity to make your mistakes at home where you’ll be around long enough to see projects succeed or die and you’ll understand the cultural context around it. It also begins to build your professional resume. Good luck!
Great, I was looking at the description of Alanna’s career list shortly before I left all those comments; your recommendation has me sold.
I realize that gaining work experience at home is probably my best bet; but I have done three unpaid internships (Amnesty, ICTJ, and UN) and now that I’m paying back student loans volunteering is pretty much out of the question. I’m considering more education, in something like public health or public policy. I’ve even considered going for an MSW. What I’m afraid of is getting trained a certain way and working in the US and then not knowing how to alter approaches to other cultural contexts. (My other problem is that I’m consistently trying to connect the dots between micro and macro; i.e. what goes on at the community level on the one hand and international policy on the other.) Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it!
To Jane: I think I saw that you posted something similar to the comment above on Twitter, if I remember correctly. I totally agree, which is why I’ve spent such a long time in school; I chose to study these things first before jumping into them. I may be one of the few amateurs that agrees whole-heartedly that professionalism is important here. But I’m also struggling to understand what that means and how one obtains it. I’m quite confident I have what it takes to at least give it a shot, but no one seems willing to give me a chance without “3 to 5 years of experience” in “the field”. So what’s an amateur to do?
Hi Carol, I am not sure if I am the best to give advice on this but I will try. I come to this work somewhat through circumstance. However, a number of years ago I did choose to focus on becoming an education “professional.” I trained as a teacher! It seemed clear to me at the time that having a specific skill set would be extremely valuable. I didn’t know where it would lead me but I wanted the flexibility of working anywhere and saw this as a good route. So for me it wasn’t necessarily about lots of formal education but choosing the right speciality to suit my interests and needs. The next step was to get involved in work I was passionate about and not being afraid to take some risk. I worked at a student led university project with little funding and was willing to take the chance there may not be funding to pay for me at times. Finally, I have an entrepreneurial interest so we ultimately turned the university project into something viable so people took interest. I have since moved on from there. So you can see I did not take a traditional aid/ development work route. The learning I have done since has been as I said through reading, discussion etc. Ultimately though my advice would be to think of what skill set you want to have and get training specific to that. And to look for opportunities that will start moving you in a direction that interests you. Yes, unpaid opportunities may be the best place to start. But remember to make the most of them. Don’t get bogged down by the somewhat arbitrary job requirements you read- ultimately it is the type of experience you gain not the #s that count in the end. I agree with Saundra- Alanna Shaikh is very well respected and her advice would be valuable. Good luck. Don’t worry- it always comes together in the end.
Many thanks, Jane, for the words of advice and the encouragement. It actually seems to me that most people that end up in development aid work got there exactly as you say; going into graduate school I wasn’t looking at it that way and I didn’t see how what I was studying (Global Affairs, African Studies) were more academic than anything else. But I think you’re right, and I think I’m at that point where I realize what I’m missing is a specific practical professional skill (like teaching, or public health). At least I can see that now, and it’s good to know that I know more or less what I should be doing to get myself on the right track. And of course it’s always great to read blogs like this one and see that I’m on the same page as a lot of really smart, experienced people.
It may be worth noting here, I realize, that there are amateur idealists and amateur professionals: those that have good intentions and little else, and want to be part of the great Western effort to “save” the “developing” world; and then those that are professionals in the making. How do you tell the difference between the two? Is it not unfair to equate the two? How can the latter differentiate themselves from the former?
Carol: you might be interested in this post that I wrote some months back, in which I addresses exactly this issue (and in which I ran into some problems around the use of the word ‘professional’ in English).
Great, many thanks Michael, I look forward to reading this!
I have followed this discussion across the various blogs with interest, and there seems to be a point that has been missed. What about people who have experience that is relevant to the development world, but not directly of it? Many people who have worked in the nonprofit sector have extremely applicable / transferable skills: fundraising, report writing, program design & implementation, stakeholder management, organisational leadership, people management, program evaluation… I agree that they would also need to have additional attributes like resilience in the face of hardship, cross cultural awareness, and a willingness to upskill and learn about development, but I would not call them amateurs, and I would not agree that they have nothing to contribute beyond a good heart. What do you think?
Katherine,
I agree that these skills you listed are useful, are often transferable, and in fact were part of what I was thinking of in the bullet point on having something to contribute. How would you suggest rewording things so that it does not seem as though those skills are excluded?
I have been thinking a bit more about this one:
This is true for more developmental programmes, but not so much for e.g. emergency relief or many humanitarian programmes, that are by their nature short-lived and rely on surge capacity of a large number of staff who will be there for a relatively short period. Consequently, this criterion is not as universal as it is presented now.
Michael,
Do you suggest removing it or modifying it?
I am not sure. It is definitely important for longer-term programmes, so I would not remove it; but I am not sure how to change it. I have tried a couple of edits for myself, but they all sound rather weak and not very helpful (too many qualifications). I am probably handicapped by not being a native speaker.
Michael, I’ve been thinking about your suggestion for rewording based on the short-term nature of disaster relief with the surge capacity and short staff assignments. I still feel somehow like it’s important for – if not the individuals – then the organization to stick around for a while. I saw far too many projects in Haiti where there was no handover, the organization just left. The villagers ended up with non-functioning or poorly closed down toilets creating a health hazard. Not sure how it should be worded but I don’t think disasters can be a blanket exception either.
I would agree that it is important for the organisation to stick around longer (and the quality organisations do). However, that is not necessarily true for the individuals in emergency/humanitarian relief, and that is what we are talking about here. E.g., MSF has been in Haiti for many years, but everybody on their emergency roster received a message last Wednesday to report whether they could fly out on 24-hour notice for short-term deployment if Tomas would have been as bad as it looked like. You can’t expect all those people to stay around for years without much to do after the first emergency response.
Right, so what if it was worded something like – the individuals or the organization should stick around long enough for project to have time to fail.
I was thinking of that one too, but I rejected it because the whole article is about ‘an aid professional’, not ‘a professional aid organisation’; but it seems that it is the best we can come up with.
Love this post, the discussion below and your blog Saundra! So often I am tempted to send friends or acquaintances a copy of your writing when I hear they are off on some short term “saviour” mission to have them think through the consequences and benefits of their decision. My friend Dawn wrote a piece about this topic as well here: http://fromcongo.blogspot.com/2010/11/do-it-yourself.html that I think brings up some good points.
I don’t think you should remove the part about staying around– but perhaps modify it instead– as it is important in certain contexts.
I especially liked this point “Share your knowledge freely, even when you’re not being paid for doing so. Mentor and learn from others.”.
I am curious to hear your opinions on development as a new form of colonialism– as I’m sure you’ve come across this argument before in your work. I’ve been struggling internally with the idea for some time now.
Thanks, and please keep up the great work!
Carol – Have you seen J’s reflections at Tales from the Hood on professionalism? It’s one of the best discussions I have seen.
I’ve dealt with these issues @ length in my paper (Save the Poor, shoot some bankers), in which I come down on the side of knowledge AND care being critical to useful aid delivery. That excludes a HUGE number of IADs and some NGOs. Read more here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/4671q867115w0030/
Beautifully put and synthesized. Thank you for this!
I have been working in the humanitarian field for 11 years now and the biggest mistakes I have seen in aid delivery is that most organizations are more concerned with method than results. My advice: adapt, adapt, adapt. There is no point in getting bogged down by procedures if they prevent aid from reaching the very people in need. After all, one can remain accountable and still produce results.
Whether amateur or professional (or somewhere in between), I would like to underline a crucial point that you tucked away under ‘professionalism’. Community participation, feedback, and accountability (of the project to the community) are too often seen as a nice side dish, if you can work it in, rather than essential to the main course. In many cases, our energy would be better spent supporting the efforts of local communities, and helping them to adhere to the other great principles you outline (good M&E, using best practices, sharing information), rather than duplicating or superseding their efforts.
Jen,
Agreed, can you suggest some improved wording?
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