Comments

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.

Hi SvM, Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Your reference to the Peace Corps made me wonder what the assault rates are on Australian volunteers? This info is not publicly released as far as I can find and I have (once again anecdotally -- I know a lot of volunteers) heard of this happening among the Australian cohort. Like you, I found the 'pastoral care' offered by Austraining to be lacking and unresponsiveness to feedback, particularly when it came to safety and security of volunteers. Often if you were involved in an incident you were scolded instead of supported -- no matter if you had been doing the right thing or not. There also seemed to be a lot of buck passing to the on-call Australia-based psychiatrists -- while that is a useful service for volunteers to access professional counseling to deal with emotional fallout/stress/etc, it isn't a substitute for in-country assignment support -- both are needed.

Hi, Thanks for your comment. So much of it comes down to the in-country management team. My housemate was an AVI in Dili and thankfully I received the information I wasn't receiving from my own ICM on security and other issues via her, because she was being regularly updated by AVI. She felt much more supported than I did and had a successful assignment. This lack of support is particularly concerning because Austraining looks after the youngest cohort -- the youth ambassadors -- so they should be providing the most support. In Dili at least, most of the AVIs were older and their assignments seemed to have more focus and clarity. But all this is only anecdotal.

Ashlee - you're correct. It costs approximately $70,000 per volunteer for 12 months.

Hi Ashlee, Great piece. Being a returned volunteer myself and reading your proposal points for improvement, I thank God that I volunteered through AVI and not Austraining. Almost ALL of your proposed changes are being implemented by the AVI ICMs in Indonesia (we still have a problem with the time lag between ad and assignment though). We had a joint AVID conference in Bali last year and heard the experiences of many AYADs and AVIDs and I'm more than convinced that when I volunteer again I will only ever go through AVI. Now I know that this sounds like a plug for AVI but it really shows when you consider that AVI has been around since 1951 and Austraining only since the 2000s. It's all about support!!! 🙂

Hi Ashlee - Very good article. I was caught in this orphanage tourism con/scam, it is a major issue in Cambodia. We have to look at what the Khmer Rouge period did to this people and the societal loss of parenting skills, the abject failure of the UN in the eighties and nineties in dealing with rebuilding Cambodia and basically handing the nation over to a gangster and his cronies. In receiving aid the Cambodian Government is held to very little accountability from the large NGOs or the wealthy nations that give money. The orphan industry is not only a Khmer issue but one of Westerners who establish orphanages for nefarious reasons, or just because they are looking for a place in the world themselves. I have actually just published <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cambodia-Orphan-Tourism-Me-ebook/dp/B00CR0N1JI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1369474713&sr=1-1&keywords=ron+hawkins" rel="nofollow">an ebook</a> on my experiences in Cambodia, I spent a year there and I was taken to school and received an education. I would implore all tourists to refuse to go to these places, children are not for performance or dollies to be played with. We do it with the best of intentions but the issue is that we are supporting a system that is essentially slavery, that is enforced institutionalization (even the so-called good Western run ones), that is not supportive of Khmers learning ongoing parenting skills that are handed down through generations. I'm starting to get angry again at myself and at Cambodia, so I will finish. Please all, do not support orphan tourism in any part of the world. Regards Ron

I'll echo the thanks to Ashlee. This is a brave piece, I'm glad you had the confidence to write it. I'm about to finish a year as an AVID with a national NGO in a developing country. I've been similarly disappointed. I had high expectations that I would be able to use my skills and apply them to real problems.The first few months were quiet, and because I'd been advised that the country I've been posted to has a rather laid-back way of doing things, I didn't really push for changes; though I asked for more work, and ability to engage, nothing was forthcoming. By the time 6 months had rolled around, things hadn't improved greatly, and my excellent counterpart (who supplied me with most of my work) had left for a government position. Unlike Roger O'Halloran's claims above, at this stage I felt even less empowered to negotiate after half a year; expectations had been set and power relations determined. My country manager was overwhelmingly positive, in line with the propaganda we'd been given prior to departure. I was quite depressed about everything at that stage, but decided to stick it out - unlike some other people, being early career in this field (though with some experience from a previous one that helped in this position), I doubted my ability to jump ship successfully. I felt trapped. I also felt that dropping out would turn this from a tick on my CV and a wonderful recommendation (which will happen anyway, my counterparts get well with me) into a black mark. I'm in a narrow field where experience is valued, and interviews are hard enough to get in any case. I'm coming to the end of this program now, and definitely feel like this has been a program of small victories. Every day, I ask what I can help with, and what projects need assistance. In between occasional requests to translate a document into English there's been a lot of teaching people how to do simple things like attach a document to an email. While this isn't anything at all relevant to my skills and background, it's something, right? In the last couple of months I've been mostly without work in my office, and instead have taken to learning skills that could conceivably be used in this job were I ever asked to do so, but will be useful in future positions I take. This week's work has been writing a large grant application - for a different organisation, and helping a member of management write his masters thesis. My next job is in another developing country where I'm taking on an *actual* $0 volunteer position, funded through savings from this assignment, and living on rice and beans in the cheapest housing possible. And hopefully I'll be building on and using the skills I didn't get to exercise in my current role. Any achievements made in this role will be the legacy of my AVID position.