The People Behind the Screen - Part Two

(photo credit: julien harneis)

Political advisors

Also known as context analysts, humanitarian affairs officers, and many other more or less fanciful designations. Their aim is to facilitate our programmes by delivering analyses of the cultural and political context in which we work, facilitating our programmes to be as effective and efficient as possible. Conversely, they often are also the ones who develop our advocacy and information policies and strategies. These people usually have a degree in political science, sociology, economics, law, or anthropology. They have highly developed analytical skills, well-honed inter-cultural abilities, as well as extreme communication skills - and many of them speak an incredible array of languages (and seem to have added yet another language to their arsenal every time you meet them).

Often, they are also tasked with promoting active acceptance in the community, and with gathering information about our security context (enabling us to adapt our security practices to the context). However, in this regard they are more and more often trumped by:

Security managers

These guys (a very large majority are men) are the ones who try to keep us safe. Ex-military seem to be the flavour of the day (and of the last couple of years) with a smattering of senior ex-police and highly experienced programme managers. The good ones are good communicators, are very good at context analysis (the really good ones would be able to work without a problem as political advisors) and have in-depth knowledge of security operations, methods, and techniques. The superlative ones know our programmes and are masters at adapting security procedures to our operations. Sadly, superlative ones are in very short supply: the need for security managers has increased enormously, and with it has come a glut of muscle-bound types with no clue of or appreciation for what we are trying to do^[1]. If you do find a superlative one (they do exist), hold on for dear life - literally.

Logisticians

Also known as supply line/chain managers. These are the people who get our stuff where it is needed, when it is needed. I can fill a whole blog writing about global health logistics (in fact, I do), but I will try to be short here. A good health logistician has a head for numbers and how they apply to real life, has a feel for flows of goods and information, knows our programmes and how to adjust to them, and is fluent in the language of health care professionals. The really good ones know the importance of systems and systematic approaches to our work, but are able to come up with brilliant inpromptus when things go wrong (as they invariably do at some stage). As most of our logistics systems are fairly basic, a knowledge of advanced logistics techniques can be useful but is not indispensable; however, I suspect that this might change very quickly over the next few years (at least, I fervently hope so). Increased metabolic levels for ethanol seem to come naturally with the job.