Comments

Hi Ashlee, I would like to agree with most comments that your account is an important step in opening up discussions around improving the way we manage international aid. Furthermore you have made sound recommendations towards improving the system. Also on the face of it I would agree with the well-made point by Stephen Howes regarding benefits of a regional program because we could manage that more effectively. However on reflection shouldn’t we be capable of engaging in the increasing connectedness around the globe, including within international aid, without retreating to our backyard because we are not doing it well. Better perhaps to improve rather than retreat. As many have said in country support is critical and problematic. In my case I would have to say looking back, I wanted someone who understood the Australian culture, who I would feel safe in confiding to and going to for support. However I can see the challenge the support team has in locating and retaining such people in country and as Stephen Howes suggested in his reflection piece this is “a challenge to effectiveness for all parts of the aid sector”. I was certainly dissatisfied with my support in this regard on many occasions due to the lack of experience, cultural literacy, and time on the job, of the in country support person. As we were the first volunteers to the region there were teething problems, however issues were generally addressed as we raised them and we made the most of what we had. I believe just as the bad stories need to be told and offer an opportunity to learn, we need to be reminded of the good as they sometimes get less press. I have recently returned from a “capacity building” role with the Dominica Red Cross Society and was asked to present a speech at the Australian and New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management Conference by Austraining, the arm of AUSAID which supported the deployment. The theme of the session was lessons learnt in humanitarian assistance and I was happy to support the program in which I had a completely different experience to Ashlee. After a career in engineering and building maintenance, I returned to study as my children matured, completing a master in Community development/Disaster Management. The studies and my background lead me to believe I had something to offer, but precisely what? I applied for this role to determine exactly what I could offer and to ensure a thorough understanding of grassroots community based disaster management. After completing my assignment I feel empowered and confident of my capabilities. Dominica is a small island developing state, around 750 square kilometres of volcanic, mountainous and rugged terrain. The island has one of the highest drainage densities in the world. The island is prone to many hazards, including hurricanes, volcanoes, landslides, flooding, earthquakes and of course climate change. Organisation such as SES are non-existent in Dominica, with Fire and Police services playing a much reduced role in disaster management. This leaves the Red Cross with a broad task. I focused on increasing staff and community knowledge of natural hazards and potential mitigation strategies, building community disaster response training capacity, the disaster response capacity of the organisation, and forming links to Government and other bodies. My counterpart concept also did not last long as funding for his position came to an end. I moved on to work alongside the Director General (and anyone else who’d have me), while I bought up to date knowledge of resilience and mitigation strategies to the role the DG offered many years of hands on experience. This knowledge greatly assisted my role and development, providing evidence of a two way flow of learning. I gained experience in a broad range of areas including; climate change adaptation, community vulnerability mapping and consultation, school safety frameworks, disaster plans, and disaster response team training. The context of this placement also advanced my ability to lead, mentor, and motivate culturally diverse staff, and, manifest the limitations to this. Together we developed food security and livelihood assessments, media releases, mass casualty exercises, and carried out community assessments’ of homes, shelters and water supply options. The type of experience not readily available in a larger more developed country. We incorporated gender issues, and children in disasters, into community trainings and I co facilitated shelter management, and safer houses training in order to build staff training abilities. I developed community preparedness training modules for many hazards to be used both nationally and regionally by French Red Cross and researched and secured funding for future projects. I also spoke at many events to encourage community participation and worked as project engineer on numerous community disaster mitigation micro projects. I researched and organised GIS Training, using Mapaction volunteers from the UK, to take community vulnerability and capacity mapping to the next level. The move to digital mapping by the Dominica Red Cross will allow a large volume of critical information to be accessed by all Government departments and NGOs when making decisions, not only during and after a disaster, but in planning and other community development activities. It appeared that in Dominica, areas of Government operate with no knowledge of what another department or NGO has been working on. Therefore many examples of wasted effort were identified. With this in mind the World Bank is introducing Geonode into Dominica and some other Caribbean countries with the Red Cross and myself on the steering committee. This platform creates a central location to store data which can be accessed quickly. This will reduce the wasted effort by identifying which communities have had specific programs or funding along with vulnerabilities and capacities during an event. This is a major step forward in sharing of critical information. When placed together with GIS mapping expertise this represents a step which will facilitate a broad range of enhancements to the community mapping process going forward and ultimately save lives, assets and dollars during a response. One of the truly beneficial outcomes of my placement was these links formed between the Dominica Red cross and important partners. The World Bank now sees the Red Cross as a critical partner in the country. The connection to Map action will, I am sure be reactivated as the Red Cross wishes to develop their GIS skills yet again. Funding via GEF which is a UNDP grant has led to a partnership there. While out of left field a PHD student contacted me from UK who heard of our GIS training via a web blog, after some tooing and froing we have her heading to Dominica next month to examine the effects and best way forward of this move into GIS technology. The program also supported my partner and 16 year old son who added enormously to the cultural exchange. While there were frustrations and challenges, and I know not all placements are as beneficial to both parties as my own, I would recommend Volunteering for International Development to anyone. I would like to add Ashlee that your suggestions for improvements are sound and your candour is an inspiration. I was pleasantly surprised at the conference last week with the number of people willing to say there are problems with how we are doing things, and to have open discussions around solutions such as this one. This has not been my experience in other countries and perhaps for this reason we can be confident of fixing it.

Ashlee, I think what you've written is very fair. Sometimes things just don't work out and I know your case certainly isn't an isolated one. Based on what I observed during my time as an AYAD and my own experiences, I would argue having a great in-Country Manager (ICM) is the key factor in whether assignments work or not. Without great practical support centered around an ICM with a particular (and rare) skill set - part diplomat, part linguist, part real estate agent, part HR expert, part emergency evacuator and part local expert - things have a nasty tendency to fall apart. And having an expat Australian with in that role really helps because they can straddle both worlds. At the start of my AYAD assignment, my experience could have gone either way. I was at a relatively small organisation and once I arrived, people were a bit uncertain about the best way to use my skills and what was ok under the agreement held with AYAD. My ICM went above and beyond to help make the assignment a success. Where I couldn't forge a path forward (in part because the assignment rules conflicted with my host organisation's needs) the ICM negotiated a way forward that worked for everyone. Overall, I had a wonderful experience as an AYAD; things weren't always smooth or perfect and I think it's fair to say there was compromise on all sides during the assignment to get a workable outcome with realistic expectations. But by the end of the assignment my overwhelming sense was that I had really made a difference to my host organisation and their partners and that, on a personal level, I had grown from the experience too. Indeed over the years since my assignment I've continued to work remotely for my host organisation on an as-needs basis because my experience on the ground with them and my knowledge of the programs means I can deliver what they need quickly. So the volunteer program can and does work, just not for everyone and not all of the time. Maybe all the organisations involved need to go back and really look at the value they place on their ICMs and work out how to gain and retain the best people for the role. Because finding someone who can fulfill all of those responsibilities is tough. The top ICMs should be recognized and rewarded for their commitment not only to the volunteer program but also to the development landscape in the countries where they work.

Dear Tess and Ryan, Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Tess, while I accept that companies may not have had a business motivation for documenting their development impacts in the past, and did not have the expertise to do this either, I don’t think this is the case any longer. Almost all major businesses investing in developing countries have made public commitments to sustainability and responsibility in their operations, covering their economic, environmental and social impacts. So I would argue that they are obliged to report on these commitments and to do so accurately and comprehensively (rather than selectively and narrowly, as many do). But I don’t sheet home the responsibility for addressing all of the impacts of resource projects to the companies only. Governments, landowners and local communities are parties to resource project agreements and they usually warmly welcome the expected benefits (increased revenues, cash incomes, opportunities for local enterpreneurs). But they tend to pay much less attention to the negative aspects of the structural and societal change resource projects bring, such as inwards migration, increased crime, gambling, prostitution, family violence, and sexually communicable diseases including HIV/AIDS. It is not only the companies which need to pay more attention to these negative impacts, but importantly, national and local authorities. Glenn Banks and colleagues at Massey University have done some interesting work in this area, see <a href="http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/05/11/cdj.bst025.abstract" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Ryan, I skim-read the very interesting research you alerted me to. I wonder whether the findings would have been different if you had disaggregated the components of your primary commodities to separate agricultural raw materials, food and beverages from fuels, metals and ores. The reason I suggest this is that ANU researcher, Dr Mike Bourke, has some interesting analysis of Papua New Guinea which shows that poverty (his proxy is under 5 child mortality) is lowest in urban and rural areas with good agricultural environments, and highest in rural areas with poor agriculture environments and locations where the extractive industry is the only significant source of cash income. Dr Bourke’s presentation at the PNG Institute of National Affairs, “The role of agriculture in a national economy dominated by gas, petroleum and mineral exports” can be found <a href="http://www.inapng.com/pdf_files/Bourke%20-%20role%20of%20agric%20in%20gas,%20mineral%20econ%2021%20Nov%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a> [pdf].

Austraining is strongly committed to supporting volunteers and Host Organisations as one of the Core partners through AusAID’s AVID program, to ensure great outcomes are achieved. Where things don't go to plan, we do our best to learn what we can and apply these lessons to improve things in future. This blog has highlighted a key challenge in the development and volunteer field; that we seek to work with Host Organisations that can support a safe, secure and effective volunteer assignment while at the same time ensuring that we don't preclude organisations that will benefit most from capacity building inputs that Australian Volunteers can provide. There is an inherent level of risk that an individual volunteer assignment will not work out as planned, and this can be for a variety of reasons that may be within or outside of the individual volunteer or Host Organisation’s control. We believe that the Australian Volunteer program plays an important role in supporting developing countries and strengthening Australia’s relationship with them. Of course, we are concerned when any of our volunteers encounter problems or frustrations and we welcome their views and feedback; we all seek a common goal. It is only through such feedback that we can continually test and improve what we do. However the vast majority are satisfied with their volunteer experience and 92% of returned volunteers would recommend the Australian Volunteer program to their friends and family. Furthermore, 83% believed that they made a positive impact on their host organisation and the community.* Volunteers make a real difference in developing countries. Together with our partners, Austraining works to a comprehensive set of standards, which include safety and security, ongoing in-country support, allowances for volunteers and accompanying dependants, and pre mobilisation requirements such as tailored training, including language training. During Ashlee Betteridge’s time in Timor Leste, there were changes in management and Austraining mobilised an experienced staff member from the Indonesia team, as well as the Regional Director and the International Operations Manager, to Timor Leste. To increase in-country support in Timor Leste, Austraining has since increased the number of personnel in the Timor Leste team to three and is currently recruiting a fourth staff member. Austraining is committed to ensuring that volunteers receive support in line with AVID program Shared Standards. Anthony Rologas - Program Director- Volunteering - Austraining International *Orima Research Survey of Returned Volunteers - October 2012

This is a useful contribution to the volunteering discussion. I was a volunteer over a deacade ago and my experinece was very similar. Volunteering in developing countries is a privelage for the volunteers. One thing I remember very clearly in my pre-departure training with AVI was to keep my expectations very low. This was very good advice. Key skills you need to be a volunteer is humily and an ability to deal with ambiguity. How you test this with eager early career professionals in volunteer program is a challenge, particularly when numbers of volunteers is used as a metric of program success. How any organisation (developing context or not) deals with eager early career professionals needs to be carefully thought through and planned. If eager early career professionals are note actively engaged it can quickly become a management issue. Humility and ability to deal with ambiguity are important skills for any work you do in development. A volunteer placement will soon let you know if you have them. I have spent the last deacade working in Development, for this I have my volunteer experience to thank for.

Please let me add the link to this paper to my previous comment, for those interested: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800910003447 This must be one of the most under-cited papers: while it has the usual possible limitations of a cross-country regression study, the intuition and theory is very sound, in my opinion, and quite possible the tip of the iceberg. Un-gated discussion paper version here: http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/mrg/2709.pdf Cheers Ryan

Well said, Margaret - thanks. You final paragraph and the first one in 'what didn't we hear?' hit the nail on the head. After following this literature closely for a number of years I am very glad to at least see some people talking openly about this. There is little to no evidence of improved development outcomes (not solely economic, as you point out), particularly at the macro level. This is even the case if you look at selective and promotional case-studies for benefits to countries and communities (eg. from ICMM). The more important question should indeed not be how do we maximise the development benefits, but what are they? What do they look like over time, particularly beyond the immediate local community? What are the transmission mechanisms? Relative to other private sector actors engaged for development partnerships, is this a more effective sectoral engagement and investment than other sectors (eg. manufacturing, agriculture, services), where we have evidence of of positive human development spillovers? Thanks again and hope to see more critical work on this.

Thanks for this informative blog Stephen. I did not know that Australia and New Zealand had so much sway in the lending decisions of the WB and the ADB. If indeed the case, then your blog says as much about Australia as it does of our international financial institutions (IFIs). The former is worrying for me as an Australian taxpayer and latter is even more disturbing for someone who has a high regard for both the ADB and the WB.

Thanks Margaret for this post which does a great job of framing the wider issues that arise in this space. I particularly appreciate the acknowledgement that the EITI approach is just one part of the puzzle. In terms of a dearth of information about 'development' impacts I wonder if this is because there aren't many or whether it is because what has been missing to date is a mechanism for identifying and documenting them. In other parts of the private sector in developing countries businesses and their owners probably don't document development impacts and outcomes because that information is not what they use to make decisions about the future. But that does not mean there are not development impacts present (of varying kinds) that can be identified, documented, quantified and evaluated. However the methodologies and expertise in this type of activity may not be traditionally present in the skills sets of a private sector entity (and I would largely argue that it is unrealistic to expect them to be in small businesses but it is more appropriate for large entities to include these functions in their team). I noted that during 'mining' week there were some protests about AusAID supporting mining in PNG and elsewhere, it would be interesting to know what responses (if any) there were to this.

Ashlee I think you are very courageous to raise these issues, all of which many have wanted to for so long but have not been strong enough to do so. Well done.

Hi Tim, Thanks for adding your thoughts to this discussion. I agree with you that the way assignments are framed should be re-examined. It sets up all kinds of unrealistic expectations. I also agree with you that there is merit in the program and benefits for the Australians that participate, but perhaps the word volunteer needs to be dropped? The 'youth ambassadors' phrase has a nice ring to it, so I'm not sure why it has been so strongly branded as volunteering when the 'ambassador' qualities are likely the key part of many of these roles. Being an 'ambassador' for Australia comes with responsibilities to behave and engage in appropriate ways and doesn't make it seem like the 'ambassador' is making some kind of sacrifice to participate (like the word 'volunteer' does, or is interpreted as).

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think the point you raise about the expectations and power relations being settled after six months is an interesting one. I think it further reinforces that the ICM needs to be in there visiting the host organisation, checking how things are going in those early days, to help create working relationships that -- while they will still obviously take time to grow and mature and become fruitful -- are based on a mutual understanding of the volunteer's role, a shared purpose and willing participation on both sides.