DEVELOPMENTS Page 37 the Latest Issues and Trends in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance
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Check Out Our JOBS MONDAY Section! DEVELOPMENTS Page 37 The Latest Issues and Trends in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance My Boss Doesn’t Get It! Why Good Management and Staff Well-being Matters Insights From Peer Support In a Novice Humanitarian Gardener Organizations Staff Counselling In the UN System The Importance of Psychosocial Intervention With National Staff Staff Working In Care HIV/AIDS Projects September 2008 Vol. 26, No. 9 InterAction MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS Managing Editor/Art Director Chad Brobst Copy Editor Kathy Ward Advertising & Sales Michael Haslett Communications Department Nasserie Carew, Public Relations 19 Tawana Jacobs, Public Relations Tony Fleming, New Media 21 Chad Brobst, Publications Michael Haslett, Publications Margaret Christoph, Admin Associate Editorial Committee 10 InterAction Communications Team ContentsSeptember 2008 • Vol. 26 • No. 9 InterAction 1400 16th Street, NW Suite 210 FEATURES Addressing Stess In Walking the Walk | 28 Washington, DC 20036 National Staff | 21 World Concern introduces “Know Tel: 202.667.8227 Why Bother With Stress Secondary traumatic stress Your HIV Status Day” for staff. [email protected] Management? | 10 and burnout can affect national ISSN 1043-8157 Ignoring stress in the staff too. Helper’s Fire II | 29 workplace leads to inefficiency, Conference works to build ineffectiveness and turnover. USAID and Staff Care | 23 resilient communities for Monday Developments is published 12 Task force establishes agency- humanitarian and development times a year by InterAction, the larg- Staff Counselling Within wide procedures. assistance field staff. est alliance of U.S.-based international development and humanitarian non- the UN System | 13 governmental organizations. With more United Nations staff and If You’re Not Infected, Taking Care of Each than 160 members operating in every families benefit from a You’re Affected | 24 Other | 31 developing country, InterAction works to well organized system of Psychosocial intervention Peer Support in overcome poverty, exclusion and suffer- psychosocial support. Humanitarian Organizations ing by advancing social justice and basic benefits national staff working dignity for all. in HIV/AIDS projects. • Peer Support Network Social Support | 14 • “I No Longer Feel Alone” InterAction welcomes submissions of Is staff care an individual or an Lest We Reinvent the • Staff Care in CARE Lesotho- news articles, opinions and announce- agency responsibility? South Africa ments. Article submission does not guar- Wheel | 27 antee inclusion in Monday Developments. Guidelines do exist for good We reserve the right to reject submis- Insights From a Novice practice in managing stress in The Power of Presence | 34 sions for any reason. It is at the discretion Gardener | 17 humanitarian workers. Sometimes just “being there” of our editorial team as to which articles When it comes to nurturing makes all the difference. are published in individual issues. staff, consider growing a All statements in articles are the sole wellness garden. opinion and responsibility of the authors. DEPARTMENTS Articles may be reprinted with prior per- My Boss Doesn’t Get It! | 19 mission and attribution. Letters to the Why good management and Inside This Issue | 3 editor are encouraged. staff well-being matters. Letters | 4 A limited number of subscriptions are Washington Update | 4 made available to InterAction member agencies as part of their dues. Individual Inside Our Community | 6 subscriptions cost $80 a year (add $15 for airmail delivery outside the U.S.) Southern Voices | 8 Samples are $5, including postage. Additional discounts are available for 17 Career Developments | 36 bulk orders. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Advertising rates are available Employment on request. Opportunities | 37 INSIDE This Issue Understanding Staff Care fter three days in El Fasher, Darfur, I realized that the coordination and stability of the NGO humanitar- ian effort in this insecure environment depended on the well being of a small group of NGO professionals. AEveryone had a story to tell. Staff in all twelve organizations I visited mentioned attacks, fear, frustrations, burn out, and concerns for the safety of colleagues. In Darfur, I saw first hand the staff care needs of people working in that difficult environment. This is an extreme humanitarian context where NGO staff are under ongoing and severe amounts of stress, and our community needs to find ways to intervene. The being national, special consideration should be given to their problem is not just in Darfur; staff care is essential for na- needs when designing staff care programs. The stressors on tional and expat staff throughout the world, as humanitarian local staff may be different from expats and there may be dif- work has become ever more challenging. ferent cultural approaches to stress reduction. The leadership of major NGOs understands that employ- Poor or unresponsive management in field offices or at ees are their most valuable asset. Investing in staff, and in headquarters has been identified as one of the largest factors particular staff care, is not only the right thing to do, it is contributing to the stress experienced by staff working in cri- also the cost-effective thing to do. It improves staff retention sis situations. Better management is often synonymous with rates and the completion of assignments, and it decreases better staff care, and simple actions such as including staff the costs associated with frequent staff turnover. care in job descriptions and performance evaluations of field Government donors and the United Nations have staff de- and HQ managers, can help us reach this goal. ployed to many of the most difficult humanitarian environ- There is an existing community of professionals that are ments throughout the world. Donors recognize the risks as- available to support NGOs as they attempt to incorporate sociated with working in these environments, and they are staff care into the work that they do. Some members of In- working to improve their staff care procedures in the field. Ky terAction have institutionalized their commitment to staff Luu, the Director for USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster As- care, some hiring full-time professionals, and finding more sistance (OFDA), has repeatedly stressed the need to find bet- demand for these services than they ever imagined. ter ways to care for staff in the field. In this issue of Monday InterAction is committed to promoting staff care among its Developments, he has included a call for NGOs to do more, to members, and has applied for funding to address the imme- take on the care and well being of their own staff in the field. diate concerns in Darfur and eastern Chad through a series Ky has offered OFDA’s support for these interventions. of “stress reduction and self-care” (SSC) trainings; to develop Investing in staff care is not a big-ticket item. There are a training module on “Management in High-Stress Environ- low-cost and high-impact interventions that NGOs are easily ments”; and to facilitate an interagency process among In- incorporating into their day-to-day programming. Examples terAction member NGOs to improve staff care provision, with of these interventions appear throughout this issue, whether the aim of developing a set of staff care guidelines. it is taking a group of staff members to be tested for HIV/ At InterAction’s annual CEO retreat in December I will AIDS, setting up peer support networks, or even something raise the profile of staff care with the leadership of our mem- as simple as ensuring staff posted in the field have access to bers, and I hope to impress upon my colleagues the impor- television and DVD players to watch movies and relax. Men- tance of incorporating staff care into their programming tal health care is often covered under an organization’s pre- throughout the world. MD existing insurance policy, both for staff at HQ and overseas, so it is worthwhile to review these policies to see what kind of interventions might already be covered. Often, when discussing staff care issues, individual staff Sam Worthington are able to come up with creative solutions to relieve stress President and CEO Photo: Christina Moore Photo: specific to their context. With the majority of staff in the field InterAction MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS September 2008 3 Send your letters to: Letters Chad Brobst at [email protected] Security and Partisan Goals Require tives? Someone outside these domains is often the best advo- cate for such activity. Partnerships for Effective Aid Delivery At a November 2007 speech at Kansas State University, Sec- JIM BISHOP’S PRESENTATION ON THE “MILITARIZATION OF retary of Defense Gates articulated a conviction that economic Foreign Aid” [July 2008] follows on the heels of a concern over development, rule of law, provision of government services, and the militarization of foreign policy. Such fears arise when a be- the like are necessary to meet our goals in Afghanistan and hemoth enters one’s own area of expertise. I would recommend Iraq. More recently, USAID Administrator Henrietta Holsman another look at his observations and perceptions. He notes Fore has pointed to an emerging realization of how fundamental that in November 2005, the Defense Department raised the security is to her agency’s mission in fragile and failed states. profile of stability operations, but he calls the tasks “spanning Bishop faults the Bush Administration for providing insufficient … peace