Comments

Loved this Jo, thought provoking and challenging. Thank you. The difference in conditions between between local staff and international staff is an ongoing challenge in development - and one we find it hard to find a solution to. Would love to know more about how you've addressed that. Gender and cultural diversity remain big challenges.

Another piece of work worth noting is ACFID's report: The Real Story Ends in Landfill, drawing on DFAT funded research undertaken by The Behavioural Architects. Following a analysis by Australian Red Cross on UBDs (2017), this research looked at using behavioural insights to reduce the amount of unrequested goods sent from Australia during humanitarian crises in the Pacific. You can read the report here: https://acfid.asn.au/sites/site.acfid/files/18594%20-%20ACFID%20-%20Landfill%20Pub%20-%20V7.pdf

Hi Jo, Thanks for the post. Lots of good ideas, but I do think there is a fundamental tension between two of them: hiring more national staff as advisers, and working more with national groups. Especially in small countries, the more national staff you hire as advisers (on very attractive salaries), the fewer you are going to have working in local groups, including governments but also NGOs. The aid sector - government, contractors, and international NGOs - need to be far more alert to this "brain-drain" type risk, and prioritize supporting and strengthening local groups.

Andy Fapa you hit the nail on the head. AusAid funds gender issues and classrooms. China builds a massive new airport terminal. https://www.thenational.com.pg/goroka-to-the-world/ Hand mark is biggest eye catcher. China builds it with PNG money but allows the politicians to get paid off. Aussies don't understand Melanesian way and shake their heads. New Chinese military base? Who cares which country builds it. Just give us something big! Other countries better wakeup and understand our customs!

Thanks for this article Cindy - very thought provoking, and timely. There is some work to be aware of: http://www.ligainan.org/ https://hamutuk.tl/en/ The challenge for DFAT is to build on the momentum of pilots, mainstreaming BI approaches into standard programming. I would hazard a guess that it is coming.... Ben

Could you provide a link or source? Haven't seen that.

All family and sexual violence is real family and sexual violence though. Yes there's clearly huge unmet need in rural areas of PNG and more solutions need to be devised and implemented to address that, but for the person being abused, they still need assistance and support, whether they are in a rural or urban setting.

They did arrest and bring in for questioning a Caucasian member of an Indonesian NGO because he didn't look Indonesian. He was released after the questioning.

MK good point. The family and sexual violence is not that serious in the workplace, its more than that in the rural village. The violence in the workplace is amount to loss of big money, that is replaceable, however, in the rural village its life -non replaceable. Bel Isi is urban, workplace related than rural-where the real family and sexual violence is born.

It’s good to know Bel Isi PNG taking such an innovative approach. I hope something can developed to address violence against women in rural areas, where it’s prevalent. Cultural norms (where women even accept that being hit for fulfilling her household duty is acceptable, for instance) facilities GBV. That is the difference between working class women and women in rural areas. Education women in urban areas not only have access to Bel Isi PNG but they are educated and can seek other alternatives. But, good initiative nonetheless.

Thank you for your valuable insight and clear explanation. By reading the article, it seems you have experience communicating with local people in Indonesia and didn't fall in local stereotype in mind by foreigner. I agree that communication should be improved and complaints can be managed accordingly and I think BNPB has acknowledge it. Your last paragraph is a little bit straight, but it's true 🙂 : "And for the rest of us, without any useful skills in disaster recovery to offer the good people of Palu and Donggala, we should just give money."

A really good piece, which makes the case for Indonesian sovereignty and competence in handling a most difficult situation. The shemozzle that was Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 was (perhaps) the low-water mark of such situations, as the good the bad and the ugly among foreign NGOs and agencies piled in to multiply the havoc.