WHO Decisions - Staffing

From Peacebuilding

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Time 3 Participants 4 Materials 5 Process 6 Note 7 Handout 1: Hiring and Managing Local Staff in Conflict 8 Handout 2: Hiring and Managing International Staff in Conflict

Purpose

To explore how decisions about staffing of field programmes can impact on conflict; To devise ideas and strategies for hiring and managing local and international staff in order to reinforce local capacities for peace.

Time

At least 40 minutes.

Participants

Any number.

Materials

• Copies of the Handout1: Hiring and Managing Local Staff in Conflict (see below);
• Copies of the Handout2: Hiring and Managing International Staff in Conflict;
• Papers;
• Pencils;
• Flip chart papers;
• Markers.

Process

I) Divide the plenary into work groups of 4-6 individuals.

II) Introduce the activity by saying that you are going to distribute two handouts including witnesses related to decisions about staffing and managing local and international staff for field programs in conflict.

III) Distribute handout 1 to half of the groups and handout 2 to the other half. Groups’ task is to answer the three questions at the bottom of the page – after reading the witnesses. If needed distribute papers and pencils for taking notes.

IV) Start group work; assign sufficient time.

V) After group work ask all groups to split and switch half of their members with another group working on the different handout. Ask the new groups to share their findings.

Example: Abel, Babel, Cherry and Donovan compose group one and have worked on handout1 (local staff). Egon, Frida, Gina and Herbert compose group two and have worked on handout2 (international staff). The facilitator asks them to switch half of the participants between the two groups. Thus, Abel and Babel from group one move to group two; and Egon and Frida from group two move to group one. Members of the new groups are now invited to share their findings from working on the different handouts.

VI) You can now introduce what the Do No Harm project discovered in order to do better with hiring and managing local and international staff. For this content you can use Anderson, Mary B. (ed.), cit., pp.31-41.

Note

Alternatives to this process,

• After the V step you can invite representatives from the groups to present their findings to the plenary and discuss these. Eventually you can introduce findings from the Do No Harm project during the discussion.

• During the V step you distribute flip chart papers and markers to the groups and ask them to write down their findings. Then, after having hanged these papers on a specific section of the room, you can invite participants to walk the gallery.

Source

The witnesses included in the handouts are from Anderson, Mary. B. (ed.), Options for Aid in Conflict: Lessons From Field Experience, Cambridge: CDA Inc., 2000, http://www.cdainc.com/publications/dnh/options_for_aid_in_conflict_lessons_from_field_experience.php pp. 31-41.

Handout 1: Hiring and Managing Local Staff in Conflict

“The fact that we hire people who speak English turns out to send a political message. People say that it reinforces the identity of this area with the English-speaking neighboring countries to the south rather than with the other areas of the country with which this area is at war.”

“We have been hiring English speakers to work with the IDPs here, but this is now evoking a lot of grumbling from the local people. We provide services to people from the surrounding area, and they are offended by what they see as our favoritism to English-speakers when they, too, need jobs.”

“After the war, refuges who had resided in exile in neighboring English-speaking countries returned to their home country which was francophone. When agencies required English language skills for local staff this favored this ethnic group over others.”

“In this post-war context, we are not even allowed to mention the different groupings that fought. Neither the government nor our local staff wants us to designate who belongs to which group. This makes it impossible to know whether we have a mixed staff or whether we are hiring only from one group.”

“When we began to ask about DIVIDERS in this society, the local staff assured us that, since the war’s end, there are none! They said that talking about the old DIVISIONS could possibly do more harm than good in that it could re-awaken them.”

“We discovered that all of our staff come from one ethnic group. When we began to try to hire more broadly, however, our current staff were insulted and threatened. They could not understand why we thought it important to have other groups represented; they say they are working with all the communities.”

“Even though our local staff come from both groups, we have realized that there is some mistrust and resentment on both sides. Some of this comes from the fact that they operate as virtually two separate staffs with almost no interaction with their counterparts, even though they perform very similar functions on both sides of the line of conflict, sometimes mere kilometers apart. They almost never meet face-to-face because of travel restrictions and the difficulty of getting permits to cross lines. So, although each side is aware of the aid going to the other side and of the work of their "fellow staff," we have found that each group feels that the other receives a disproportionate share of the aid. (Even DO NO HARM is seen to "belong" to one side rather than to both groups!).”

“Our hiring constitutes 90% of all paid local employment in the entire region. Years ago, the controlling militia established its "right" to appoint all our local staff as well as the staff of all other international agencies working in areas under their control. One result of this has been that the military can put lots of pressure on our staff to use aid for their own purposes (such as "borrowing" the radio equipment, getting rides in our vehicles, using our petrol for their own vehicles or, even, taking food supplies when they need them). In addition, we pay income taxes on our local staff salaries directly to the military.”

Questions for group work:

1. Based on these witnesses, how hiring local staff can exacerbate conflict? Be specific and make a bulleted list.
2. In which other ways - that are not emerging from these witnesses - hiring and managing local staff can exacerbate conflict?
3. Based on your answers on questions 1 and 2, what ideas and strategies for hiring and managing local staff could mitigate conflict and reinforce local capacities for peace?

Source

The witnesses are from Anderson, Mary. B. (ed.), Options for Aid in Conflict: Lessons From Field Experience, Cambridge: CDA Inc., 2000, http://www.cdainc.com/publications/dnh/options_for_aid_in_conflict_lessons_from_field_experience.php pp. 31-34.

Handout 2: Hiring and Managing International Staff in Conflict

“We made a lot of mistakes in hiring our international staff! First, we hired a field director who had known the country before the conflict. He arrived and immediately hired his former (peace-time) employees because he knew their skills. He also felt sorry for them because they had lost so much as a result of the war.”

“Very soon, open demonstrations by people of another subgroup showed that his first decisions had not taken into account the changed circumstances and the increased intergroup TENSIONS since his pre-war experience. This director had to be replaced and our programme suffered.”

“We then hired a person well experienced in other warring societies, but his previous experiences had been with governments that were completely unreliable so he felt justified in acting like a "lone ranger." His failure to consult with local authorities and with his local staff resulted in a concerted move to frighten him away from the country.”

“Finally, we hired a person with long development experience in the region. His style is to integrate expatriate and local staff, to employ local staff representing different groups in the society and to work with all of them to build a team with a common concern for humanitarian action. So far, he has survived a record number of years in this context and our programme, of course, is greatly improved.”

Questions for group work:

1. Based on these witnesses, how hiring international staff can exacerbate conflict? Be specific, possibly make a bulleted list.
2. In which other ways - that are not emerging from these witnesses - hiring and managing international staff can exacerbate conflict?
3. Based on your answers on questions 1 and 2, what ideas and strategies for hiring and managing international staff could mitigate conflict and reinforce local capacities for peace?

Source

The witnesses are from Anderson, Mary. B. (ed.), Options for Aid in Conflict: Lessons From Field Experience, Cambridge: CDA Inc., 2000, http://www.cdainc.com/publications/dnh/options_for_aid_in_conflict_lessons_from_field_experience.php pp. 38-39.