Successful Approaches in the Field

This is part of an occasional series with first-hand reports from those working in some of the more difficult corners of the world.

This post is by Jon Marino, writing from northern Uganda. To read Jon's previous posts, see here.

Jon is a Fulbright Scholar who conducts research on conflict and recovery, while also serving as country director of assetmap.org, a new initiative that helps communities use the internet to discover and connect the resources they have for their own development.

Lessons from the field: Profile of an aid worker in northern Uganda

The humanitarian aid community has gotten some hard knocks of late. The onslaught of critical books to come out in the past few years are case-in-point (see David Reiff’s A Bed for the Night,  Barbara Harrell-Bond’s Imposing Aid, William Easterly’s The White Man's Burden, and most recently Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid).

Admittedly, I sympathize with many of the arguments advanced by these folks. The unaccountability, paternalism, and incessant jargon (oh, the jargon) make it hard not to. But, I also recognize that underneath these valid criticisms are scores of dedicated humanitarians finding a way to make their profession work.

Jessica Huber is one of these people.

I first met Jessica almost a year ago when I arrived in Gulu to begin fieldwork. Jessica was recommended to me by a colleague as someone who is honest, critical, and effective. In my subsequent interactions with her, this has definitely been the case. More than any other expatriate aid worker I’ve met in the region, Jessica has a sense of the history and culture of Acholiland and the local power dynamics and complexities that exist underneath the humanitarian veneer.

Jessica’s relationship to northern Uganda began six years ago when she was based in New York lobbying the UN Security Council on conflict issues in Africa for the Quaker UN office. She recalls, “When I first started coming (to northern Uganda) I used to think, where is everybody? Now, of course, it’s just the opposite. You see signposts everywhere. Gulu has become an NGO town.”

After four years on the advocacy side, Jessica moved to the region full time to work with the Norwegian Refugee Council as a protection officer. It was at NRC that Jessica really started to struggle with the reality that is the “aid world”.

She recalls how difficult it was to adjust to aid worker coping mechanisms, like spending every night at UNHCR’s bar the Cock N’ Bull. She also struggled with the thick and constant tension between the aid community’s need to advance its ideas of human rights with the local community’s desire to prioritize cultural norms and values. The need for Geneva and New York to dumb down the complexity of the situation on the ground in order to simplify their response options also caused her frustration.

After a year at NRC, Jessica became Country Director for the Uganda Fund, which provides small grants to community-based projects in the region. Jessica recognized that northern Uganda is now in a transition that “requires organizations to get out of their silos and take a step back so that local actors can take the lead.” Her job at the Uganda Fund is to identify exciting locally-led initiatives and support them with the seed funding they need to grow.

Jessica’s multiple vantage points on the humanitarian endeavor give her a unique perspective into what works, and what doesn’t. When asked to reflect on some lessons she has learned, Jessica rattles off things like the need for a greater appreciation of complexity and political dynamics in conflict settings, and the need for international organizations to give greater flexibility to local staff.

But, I think the biggest lesson Jessica has to offer is simply the way she has approached her humanitarian work in northern Uganda. Contrary to many in her field, Jessica has dedicated herself to one conflict area and has developed a varied skill-set with which to address it—from international advocacy to protection of victims to back-end community building. As a result, Jessica has acquired a deep understanding of the social and political contexts surrounding her work, the culture and values expressed by the people she intends to help, and the precise ways that her work can do good—and perhaps harm.

With more Jessica Hubers working in conflict zones around the world, at least some of the many worthy criticisms leveled at the aid profession would certainty lose some steam.

[Photo from Jon Marino - Jessica chats with a young girl from Amuru district in northern Uganda]