Hello readers! How are you? I hope you are well. I thought I would drop by to let you know that I have been working on a new travelblog over at Wordpress, check out my about page here. Currently I am blogging about my recent walk along El Camino de Santiago in 2015, from St. Jean de Pied Port in the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela and beyond to Finisterre and Muxia in Spain. It was a 900 km trek of profound beauty, inspiration and significance for me. I hope you will drop in to take a look. Click here for the home page. I will continue to blog about my travel adventures there when I join my partner Brett and we set off to sail around the world, co-creating plenty of adventures on the high seas as well as a few on dry land. I have also posted up some "Confessions of an aid worker", drawn from my last 20 years in the humanitarian and development sector, so feel free to take a look at this too, click here. If you are feeling tired, burned out or in a phase of transition and need to boost your wellbeing, take a look at my intuitive healing page here, perhaps I can help you in some way. Thank you for reading and journeying with me so far. I look forward to hearing from you on my new site soon. Peace, love and light, B.B.C xxx
And she said, "We're all just prisoners here, of our own device",
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast,
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast.
Last thing I remember,
I was running for the door,
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before,
"Relax", said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive,
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave."
- Eagles.
Hello readers!
I'm back on the blog again....just when you thought it was safe to open your laptop and boldly venture into your virtual life. Into the jungle Today, we will take a foray into the wilds of the bureaucratic jungle. Mind where you step, its a dangerous place and often resembles the hazardous, yet somewhat magical ecosystem found in 'Lost', in which creatures seem out of place or terrifying monsters tap into the psyche of crash survivors to create 'cages of fear' that they cannot seemingly escape.
Perhaps you are one, two or even three steps or more away from front line field action, and like Alice, you are following the white rabbit down too many twisty-turny rabbit holes into the Wonderland of Kafka-esque futility. The further you are from walking in solidarity with disaster affected people the worse it gets. You might be in a capital city trying to 'remote manage' multiple teams in field locations or you might be even a few more steps up or down the food chain depending on how you look at it. You might be doing back office work (groan). (Looks good on the CV though doesn't it?) You might be a desk officer, a programme funding officer, or seconded as a technical adviser into an enormous NGO or donor organisation (for your transgressions in a past life). The insatiable beast There, we know, it can be even more frenetic in some ways but on a completely different level. Not only are you trying to make a success of your emergency response by meeting those humanitarian needs as quickly as you can, mobilising resources, keeping your public supporters happy, delivering the best value for money to keep the donors happy, (i.e. upstream and downstream accountability), but you happen to be feeding the humanitarian hydra - that insatiable beast that has many heads.
Perhaps your organisation is an NGO that keeps getting bigger and bigger in a bid for world domination (you know who you are). If so, a whole culture and subculture has grown out of its own desire for survival, so there are lots of processes and policies to follow, fundraising and communication to do and the ever decreasing circles of accountability mechanisms. The layers of bureaucracy resemble the layers of an onion (each time you peel back one layer you find another and it brings tears to your eyes in the process!). Yes and on top of that you have a whole cottage industry of coordination mechanisms, policies, processes, tools and resources that have been churned out by that old chestnut 'humanitarian reform'. The humanitarian hydra with many heads has a voracious appetite and goes into full throttle in emergency response. There are multiple needs assessments, cluster coordination meetings at national and international levels, teleconferences, project proposals, logframes, cluster coordination forms and sitreps to name but a few. You have to spend more and more time writing information products to satisfy multiple audiences, including briefing papers and endless updates for the people, who don’t know much about humanitarian aid or how to do it well and effectively and are very far removed from front line field action. You end up having to feed more answers to yet more questions, conduct more media interviews or enable those to give interviews on subjects they no very little about so they can have a seemingly intelligent conversation in public. The hamster wheel spins ever faster as you spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with this than tackling the front line urgent field questions that shape what you do to serve the very people you are there to assist. You are in for an indefinite stay at the Hotel California of hellish, humanitarian hegemony. Welcome people, we are programmed to receive, you can check out any time you like but you can never leave...
A Herculean task So while trapped in a Hotel Californian style wonderland, humanitarians are faced with the enormous task of fulfilling the twelve labours of Hercules, one of which is to kill the hydra. As many of you may well know, if you try to cut the head off the hydra two more heads grow back in its place! Just like Hercules you are faced with a multiple headed monster that doesn't want to die!
You may know the story, if not you can read it here. Hercules faced the apparent impossible task with bravery and remained unbowed. He put on some protective gear, wielded a large, heavy weapon and brought in some help in the form of his nephew Iolaus. There are a few lessons we can learn from this myth.
We must be brave
Collaboration and cooperation is key
Use a sharp implement, metaphorically speaking of course, (so get your leatherman or Swiss Army knife out at the ready - it's listed in the top ten aidworker essentials)
Cauterise the wounds of the severed hydra necks to seal off the blood vessels and prevent the heads from growing back again.
Building trust Oh, if only it were that easy! Don't you find it odd, how the move towards greater humanitarian accountability, transparency and the transformative agenda has increased suspicion and eroded trust? This is ironic considering the business model approach to humanitarian assistance was purported to do the very opposite. Meanwhile, it is interesting to notice that in the business world itself there is a greater move towards building circles of trust to add value. Trust is currency today! If you don't believe me watch this interesting video about trust in business by Roger James Hamilton, below.
I wonder what the humanitarian system would look like if we followed a similar approach. Surely, we would then have a licence to lop off the numerous hydra heads at will, strip out superfluous layers of bureaucracy and cease the perpetual navel-gazing that goes on? Instead we would focus on the tasks of preventing and responding to humanitarian disasters and crises and saving lives, no? This reminds me of a tale similar to Hercules and the Hydra that seems somewhat apt. Like a brave Alice in Wonderland we would go forth to face the Jabberwocky. According to Lewis Carroll the Jabberwock is the "offspring of much excited and voluble discussion", which sounds about right.
Jabberwocky
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. - Lewis Carroll
And on that note, good luck in slaying the many-headed hydra and Jabberwockies, wherever you may find them.
I'd like to hear from you so feel free to comment below or on the Blondebombshell in Crises Facebook page here or Twitter here.
For now, thanks for reading and if you liked this, pass it on.... I wish you all a frabjous day! Peace, love and light, Bravo, Bravo, Charlie....out xxx
I just want to apologise to all of you readers out there for my absence from my blogsite these past few months. I’ve been away for a while. You know how things are at times. Life is not a straight line. Things come along that you just have to deal with... Well, I've now been able to reach a point where I can unleash my creativity on you all once again...look out world...On that note I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to comment on blog posts or if you’d like to engage with me on my Facebook page then click here or on my Twitter page clickhere. I dare you to give me some suggestions on the humanitarian or development issues you’d like me to explore! Come on people, get creative. For now thanks every so much for reading the Blonde Bombshell in Crises (b.b.c.) journey so far. Do get in touch, keep reading and spread the word by Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or however you like. Let's grow this tribe!
"One love, one blood One life, you got to do what you should One life, with each other Sisters, brothers
One life but we're not the same We get to carry each other, carry each other One One"
- U2
The term 'dao' may refer to a Chinese philosophical concept meaning 'The Way'
or alternatively a Chinese type of sword used for slashing and chopping. In UN-speak it is an acronym for Delivering as One. The purpose of the Delivering as One initiative is to make the United Nations system more coherent, efficient and therefore effective and focusses on four key principles namely one leader, one budget, one programme and one office. DaO could be construed as 'The Way' forward to slashing budgets and chopping off unnecessary bureaucratic bits.
It came out of a High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in 2006 and was piloted in eight countries - Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay and Viet Nam. Subsquently, the UN adopted the approach in several 'self-starter' countries and is gradually creeping across the globe.
How noble and novel a notion it is to imagine that the UN system could deliver on its humanitarian, development and environment objectives in harmony as though it is one entity. Afterall the very name 'United Nations' conjures up the illusion that nations are in agreement and forging ahead towards global oneness, working tirelessly together to achieve joint goals, underpinned by core values and principles. In reality, the work is carried out by a plethora of UN departments, entities and organisations, which have mushroomed over the years to include numerous committees and commissions, 21 departments and offices, 11 programmes and funds, 6 research institutions, 15 specialised agencies and a handful of other entities and related organisations. In reality, dare I suggest that the UN system could be the largest and most dysfunctional family in the world? Shhhh...did I say that out loud? (No, you must have imagined it...time for some R&R). Don't get me wrong, I'm all for humanitarian agencies and their like working together, sharing resources and expertise to achieve common goals. It makes pragmatic sense. However, having spent a brief period seconded into UN agencies in two UN Country Teams that recently wandered down the DaO yellow brick road, I offer up a couple of reflections into the humanitarian ether.
My first reflection concerns the UNDAF (UN Development Assistance Framework), a strategic programme document between a UN Country Team and a national government that guides collective actions of the United Nations in pursuit of national development priorities. I observed a stage in the UNDAF drafting process, which was very illuminating. Judging by the speed of progress through the various stages of consultation, drafting, re-drafting and validation I estimate that it could take up to two years to actually complete a UNDAF document, which is nearly half of the period of time an actual UNDAF strategy covers. I wonder if the UN has hired any consultants to study the impact of the UNDAF drafting process itself has on delivering ongoing development programmes? Talking of external consultants, the UNCT concerned, employed one to write the country situational analysis offshore, with one or two actual visits thrown in to finish off. Now, I don't mean to be funny (oh but I do cries my alter ego, because that is the sole purpose of this blog...) but wouldn't you have thought it more expedient and practical to have in country personnel to draft the SitAn, especially staff who have been there for a while and have picked up knowledge about the socio, political and economic situation, who have built up good working relationships with fellow agencies and Government Counterparts? Not surprisingly the SitAn had to be re-drafted by a small editorial committee drawn from, yes you guessed it, in country UN personnel.
Part of the UNDAF document describes the UN System's comparative advantage in delivering development outcomes. Now, you'd think that if the UN had been present in a country for about 20 years or so, it would be able to articulate its comparative advantage fairly easily but not necessarily. This was an especially painful part of the process not dissimilar from extracting haemoglobin out of a hard piece of the earth's surface. Do I hear the distant, shrill vibrations of alarm bells? I pose the question if the UN cannot articulate its comparative advantage clearly, succinctly and expediently in a given situation, then why is it there? Might it have outstayed its welcome I gingerly suggested as diplomatically as I could manage, in one of the many in house consultative meetings? Going on to dig and even deeper hole for myself, I alluded to the importance of having an exit strategy and suffered the incredulous glares of one or two international career civil servants, whose gast was completely flabbered.
My second reflection, from DaO in a different country, which shall remain nameless, concerns aid architecture. No, I don't mean designs for transitional shelter or avant-garde plans for constructing a UN House but organisational structures that are supposed to help us get the business of aid done. In this particular country the UNCT had set up at least 16 committees to create an enabling environment for the UNCT to work with National Government Counterparts to implement the UNDAF. It occurred to me that this could even be a greater number than the total of UN entities present in country. Of these 16, 10 were task teams on particular themes. As you can well imagine a number of UN staff and their respective counterparts would be required to participate in more than one task team...and so the meetings add up. In contrast few or, in some cases, no implementing partners e.g. NGOs were invited to the task team meetings and invariably there would be additional meetings laid on to engage with civil society. On top of these, 5 humanitarian cluster groups were formed to be 'on standby' in parallel to the existing Government national disaster coordination mechanism, which was already in place at national, regional and district levels. How daft one might say, the whole caboodle has the makings of one gigantic clusterf*@?k doesn't it? Delivering as one charlie foxtrot could never be easier... Time to join the UNDAFT instead.
If you are reading this you have probably experienced the pain and frustration of being on a dysfunctional team either at home in an HQ environment or in a remote location somewhere in the field. The humanitarian team.... probably the most dysfunctional family in the world, well one of them anyway. No doubt you can clearly recall the inflated egos and insecurities, the abundant emergency elephants-in-rooms and concurrent pussyfooting around them as well as the exaggerated control-freakery that plays out in a drama worthy of a Shakespearean tragicomedy.
Well, in the spirit of capacity development, allow me to let you in on a secret. I stumbled upon a simple tool that can help to bring a smile to the face of the most hardened micro-manager and lift the spirits of downtrodden comrades... subversive cake-baking. Subversive because it is a cunning yet subtle way to change an atmosphere and move things along towards a shared goal with minimum casualties. After all you can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar...
Yes believe it or not cupcakes and coordination go hand in hand. Tray bakes and team building were made for each other. Gateau and gung ho is a match made in heaven.
Go on try it. Suss out your colleagues favourite flavours and plan your culinary attacks to coincide with the stickiest of team meetings. Not only will you have the advantage of the element of surprise, the consequential sugar rush will conclude business faster than you can say fondant fancy. Fancy that?
And team mealtimes like this...
...will be a thing of the past and you can look forward to this instead:
So put your pinnie, get whipping and you'll be cooking with gas in no time!
Talking of Gok Wan and "How to look good naked" in the last post reminded me of how essential it is for a humanitarian to look good in the Buff, anytime, any place, anywhere. One has to always be ready for anything and this little inspirational garment will keep you ahead of the game and the envy of your colleagues and counterparts. Hippy chic meets surfer/biker/skateboarder cool in multiple colours and fabrics for all weathers and climes, ideal for that photo opportunity or media interview when you want to be taken seriously. Never again will you be a vision in beige or suffer a bad hair-field-day.
And speaking from a risk reduction point of view, just in case you are puzzling over how on earth to wear it without strangling or suffocating yourself or even knocking yourself out take a look at this handy video manual.
