c’nect - ifhv8_c´ nect c´ nect_9 thoughts from places edited and collated by c. travers aix:...

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c’nectAugust 2014

Professionalising the Humanitarian SectorThe struggle for expanding humanitarian education

Thoughts from Places The best tips from NOHA cities

NOHAs in the Philippines

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CONTENTSCredits

WITH THE SUPPORT OF iN PARTNERSHIP WITH

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Upcoming Events

Abbreviation Bingo

Professionalising the humanitarian sector

Thoughts from NOHA places

NOHA Students Reflect on Their Motivation and Driving Forces

NOHAs in the Philippines

Georgia

My experience at ECHO

Trends and the future with Roy Williams

Soldiers are not social workers with guns

The Joint Programme Committee

AUGUST 2014N° 17

Co-Editors: Brook duBois and Claire Louise Travers

Designers: Victoria Retondaro and Natalia Elosegui

Contributors: Nebojša Ratković, Delphine Tyč, Janne de Jong, Mariana Messner, Magdalena Dahla, and Anna Görs

Writers: Kristian Rocafort, Claire Louise Travers, Iñaki Borda, Maria-Charlotte Tribaudeau, Simon Stermann, Brook duBois, Keith Mattingly, Alice Vantournhoud Siân Cook, Lina Eriksson, K. Rasool

Cover photo: EC/ECHO/ Anouk Delafortrie (front) and EC/ECHO/ Martin Karimi (back)

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upcoming events

2014-2016WARSAW: SEPTEMBER 6-14_ 2014 NOHA Intensive Programme Berlin: October 10-11_XVI. Humanitarian Congress Berlin

Brussels: October 20-24_NOHA Fall SchoolBrussels - November 12-13_AidEx 2014

Istanbul - May 11-12, 2016_World Humanitarian Summit

And don’t forget to always check the NOHA Alumni website and Facebook for upcoming NOHA Out Loud events!

The world of humanitarian aid is littered with abbreviations. So many that a report’s executive summary might look like an eye exam. Here is a non-exhaustive beginners list of some abbreviations and acronyms that might come up at the IP. Consider it a form of bingo. Or a drinking game. Or try to make a secret message with them. Abbreviations are fun.

abbreviation bingo

AUAPCAPCESCR

CHAPDDRDPADPKODRRECHO

ECOWASEUFEWSNETHAPIASC

ICCICCPRICJICTRICTYIDPIMFMDGNGONFIOCHAUNUNICEFUNFPAWASHWFPWHO

African UnionAdditional Protocol Consolidated Appeal ProcessInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural RightsCommon humanitarian action planDisarmament, Demobilization and ReintegrationUN Department of Political Affairs UN Department of Peacekeeping OperationsDisaster Risk ReductionEuropean Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection departmentEconomic Community of West African States European Union Famine Early Warning Systems NetworkHumanitarian Accountability PartnershipInter-Agency Standing Committee (for humanitarian action)International Criminal CourtInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights International Court of Justice International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yogoslavia Internally Displaced Person International Monetary Fund Millennium Development GoalsNon-Government Organisations Non-food ItemsUN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian AffairsUnited Nations United Nations Children’s FundUnited Nations Population FundWater, Sanitation and HygieneWorld Food ProgrammeWorl Health Organisation

©NOHA International Association of Universities

©NOHA Alumni ©NOHA International Association of Universities

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Professionalising the humanitarian sector: Education for the global south?

Op-Edby K. Rocafort

Going to the field, supporting the local population, and managing national colleagues all seem too familiar for a Western aid worker. This has been the trend since the post-Cold War era, where the humanitarian sector has increased in number and weight, coherently dealing with issues of professionalization. Professionalization means being able to alleviate human suffering and bring assistance to the people in need in the most efficient and effective manner. Education, meanwhile, is a growing component to enhance and professionalize the humanitarian sector. However, one can rightfully scrutinize where it stands in terms of coverage and availability particularly for people coming from the global south.

Statistics from Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELHRA), 2010 shows that the majority of degree programmes relating to humanitarian action are concentrated in the Western hemisphere. Just by simply browsing the web, different universities from Europe, North America, and Australia are the apparent concentration points for these studies. In addition, one should be cognizant of the amount of fees that some universities charge is beyond affordable for normal students coming from developing countries. Fortunate are those awarded with scholarships and grants. But for other aspiring humanitarians from the developing world this can be quite demotivating. The skills and knowledge coming from these students can be an integral part of a multi-disciplinary and international learning process. However, with the aforementioned challenges, the risk is high that students just do not pursue studies abroad.

Currently, there are still few statistics available about how many students from developing countries are joining these academic programmes focused on humanitarian action. Based on conversations with this writer and different people who have done similar programmes in the past, it is a common trend that the composition of students are international, but mainly coming from the Western hemisphere. If the humanitarian sector is indeed serious in providing local capacity building, one part is to realise that both education and experience are necessary.

Having a standard curriculum is essential, while expanding the coverage of the humanitarian action academic programmes is another. It should serve as an awakening call for different stakeholders that there are people coming from developing countries that want to help and shape the sector too. To be fair, there are growing initiatives to expand the scope of humanitarian education, such as the NOHA Master’s programme which has increasing ties with universities outside Europe such as: Colombia, Indonesia, South Africa, India, and Lebanon. These programs should take more initiative to be inclusive and accessible to prospective students regardless of location or fees.

If there is a global vision to revolutionize the humanitarian sector towards professionalization and institutionalization, one step is to open up educational opportunities and broaden the scope with a specific focus on developing countries. Although the core humanitarian principles were born in the West, more and more people from around the globe have started to become interested and involved in the desire of helping themselves and their communities.

©EC/ECHO


THOUGHTS FROM PLACES

Edited and collated by C. Travers

AIX: M.C. TRIBAUDEAU

Aix is a cute tiny city, in the warmest part of France - here, in the beautiful landscape of Provence. Here the sun will shine 95 per cent of the time.

The NOHA course in Aix is focused on law, taught in the French way. Don’t expect to receive 6 hours a week of class and submit some papers. In-stead, you will have to take notes from a number of diverse classes, and keep those in mind to accomplish some exercises. You will also have a 72 hour group simulation to integrate a project in a CAP, and a five day training with the French army to pre-pare you for the field and kidnapping realities. You will have to process a mock asylum seeker in France, and will get good preparation on project management with professionals who have worked in Haiti, the Philippines, Afghanistan, and Burkina Faso. It is intense, but you will learn a lot.

Be flexible and adaptive as (any hu-manitarian will be) regarding the timetables (which can changes a lot from week to week). You will be a mi-nority in the class of approximately 60, but don’t be uncomfortable. After long days of classes (sometimes from 9 am to 8 pm), you will find plenty to do and see with your new peers. As we say in France, “après l’effort, le ré-confort” or “Work hard, play hard”.

Student life is very alive in Aix. You will probably live 10-15 minutes from the centre, so rent a bike, and be your own guide. La Place des Quart d’Heures is a place where you can find nice restaurants, bars and ter-races, but also the cheapest beer of the city. This is a NOHA student fa-vourite. Your class will be one of the smallest in the network, if the past is anything to go by, so you’ll go out regularly.

The city offers typical French Pro-vençal-Mediterranean food markets and flea markets on almost every day of the week, appearing in different squares of the city. The Place de la Mairie is a favourite.

Go further afield and take a walk on the Mount St Victoire, for great views of the countryside around Aix. Or take a covoiturage (covoiturage.fr) to Lyon for the Festival des Lumières, Montpellier, Nice, Nimes, Menton or St Tropez. All make a nice mini-city-break to escape on a weekend. And 30 minutes away you will find Marseille, and the airport offering a number of low cost airlines to Spain, Portugal and Italy.

The university is quite small, and so the library is crowded. But try the much appreciated public library; an active place of cultural exhibitions (this year was Albert Camus’ cel-ebration!).

If you are uncomfortable in French at the beginning of debates and classes, don’t worry about trying in English first. There will be a diversity of na-tionalities in the classes, speaking in Arabic, Spanish, and English. So don’t worry about the language barriers. After four months they will fall away. Solidarity is ruling “qualificatif” of Aix-promos. Don’t be afraid of your level of French, just try the experi-ence, and you won’t regret it.

A street scene in Aix-en-Provence/ Maria-Charlotte Tribaudeau


BILBAO: I. BORDA

Trees that are painted with bright colors. Mountains that end where the sea be-gins. Huge steel combs that brush the wind. Waves that threaten to swallow en-tire ochre-sand beaches and those who dare to ride them. Small mouthfuls of food that astonish the most traveled and experienced gourmets. A sombre past but a bright present and fu-ture. This and much, much more is what the Basque Country has to offer.

Located in the north east-ern part of Spain, the Basque Country is green and blue. Blue because of the Bay of Biscay and green for the hundreds of moun-tain ranges that, scattered throughout the territory, have enabled the region to protect and preserve its ancient legacy over centu-ries, materialized in a dis-tinct culture and a unique language, Basque. Bilbao, once a grey industrial city, now thrives as one of the finest metropolises in the country. But don’t let its over 350 000 inhabitants fool you; Bilbao’s perfect size (not too small, not too big) allows everybody who is willing to enjoy an innu-merable array of activities: the beach is equidistant from the mountain, the Old City and its entangled al-leys burst with a myriad of bars and terraces where a glass of wine and a “pintxo”, a tapas-like food delight, turn into the perfect and most inexpensive plan for weekend evenings. Not to

mention the cultural scene: concerts and expositions abound alike and museums host worldwide-recognized temporary exhibitions.

It is the Guggenheim mu-seum, however, and the enormous steel and marble spider that guards it, which attracts the majority of vis-itors. Its ship-shaped struc-ture, mainly made of glass and titanium, will surely take your breath away. It is there, right in front of it, and with the Nervión river flowing in between, where the University of Deusto lies majestic. Do not worry, though. You will not spend much of your time inside this limestone building. The workload is not too heavy, and the schedule is rather intermittent, which allows you to explore the city and its surroundings.

Day-long-excursions in-clude climbing the 231 steps that lead to the top of Gaztelugatxe, a small islet where a small yet charm-ing hermitage rests. Once

These are some “to-do” and practical information that cannot be left out:

Eating out: During the day, many places offer “Menú del día” (entrée, main course and dessert) for €10. For those willing to spend more money, Bar Iruña, El Globo, La Viña and Vitoke stand out as the most remarkable restaurants in the city. If keen on a more elaborate and traditional Basque cuisine, Arriaga Sidrería is the place.

Nightlife: Somera street, in the Old City could be a nice start, to be followed by drinks in Pozas street. Finish the night at any of the clubs on Mazarredo street. And re-member, the party goes on until the sun rises.

Where to live: University of Deusto offers special pro-grammes that are worth checking out if you are on a tight budget. The areas of Deusto, Sarriko and San Inazio are the closest to the university. The Old City is a bit pricier but also more charming. The most well-located and ex-clusive areas are Moyua and Indautxu. The whole city, and the surrounding towns, is well connected by buses, a tram, and metro.

up there, do not forget to ring the bell three times should you want to have a wish come true. Further along the coast and a little bit over an hour away from Bilbao, the magical city of San Sebastian will surely be worth a visit.

BOCHUM: S. STERMANN

September 2013, Warsaw: I’ve finally arrived in the new chapter of my life. Warsaw is the springboard to five months of the NOHA Master´s in Bochum. Un-expectedly, the common reactions I hear when talk-ing about universities is “oh, I am sorry”; “Bochum is said to be the ugliest NOHA city”; and “it is only five months, then you´ll be somewhere nicer”. Oh my goodness, am I still looking forward to Bochum? Two days later I bumped into a grey-haired man during the coffee break. After my apologies for his spoiled cup of coffee he simply looks at me saying “hope-fully you´re in Bochum. I hate students!” He gives me a grin, laughs and walks away. Funny! I changed my mind: Bochum is going to be fun.

Yes, everything is true about the concrete, the grey, the rain, and the peo-ple. However, the truth is, despite its aesthetic, Bo-chum is the only city I was able to finance myself in. My flat was a small pal-ace – of course made of concrete. My flatmates were international and su-per fun. Bochum seems to attract quite the intel-ligent folks; and going out is cheap. I like the concept

of six-hour classes per day all week and appreciated it even more in my second semester once outside Bo-chum. The NOHA staff al-ways was, and still is, very dedicated. I liked school. Additionally, 2014 saw the a move to a new NOHA building as well.

However, school only is one part of my life:

Borussia Dortmund!, Schalke (don´t go there), Essen and further at least

half a dozen clubs repre-sent the very heart of Ger-man football. They all are reachable within 40 min-utes from Bochum. The atmosphere is “Champions League”. I’ve never been so happy! Not a fan? Then try city trips (Münster, Aachen, Cologne, Düssel-dorf), clubbing (Dortmund, Essen, Cologne) Karneval!!! (Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn). Since you are a stu-dent you travel for free in the province. Or just relax at the lakes near university

and later at night join the “hopping dinner.”

It is never the cities that make life enjoyable. Bo-chum might be grey, but I for sure had a better time than some folks doing lonely selfies in one of the world´s “in” cities. Our Bo-chum group was cool. Thus, stop complaining and go to Borussia Dortmund!

The Nervión River in Bilbao, Spain/ Keith Mattingly

Ruhr-Universitat Bochum at sunset/ Magdalena Dahla

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Houseboats line the canal in Groningen, The Netherlands/ Delphine Tyč

Dublin: B. DUBOIS

Not only does Univer-sity College Dublin com-memorate one of its most famous alumnus and Irish writers, James Joyce, with a namesake library, but Dublin is a city wrought of poets, musicians, artists, and of course, really good beer and whisky. I attend-ed UCD during the second semester and met a mild Irish February. However, I spent half of the first week in the bathroom drying my clothes underneath the hand-dryer.

After buying an extra pair of rain trousers, the major-ity of new students grew accustomed to the unpre-dictable weather and took it in stride. My German flat mates and I even biked dai-ly, in the rain, 5 km to UCD

from where we lived. You can find second hand bikes easily in Dublin, includ-ing at the UCD on-campus bike shop.

Students from first-se-mester Dublin praised the warmer and dryer days they experienced between September and January and most of them had es-tablished lives beyond uni-versity when the rest of us arrived for the second se-mester.

Students had managed to get jobs waiting tables or even working at the uni-versity gym. And, frankly, in order to afford Dublin living, a part-time job can be really useful. If you’re strapped for cash try the many pubs that hire stu-

dents to work busy days for them even if you have no experience. You’ll find at least three pubs in any given neighbourhood, not to mention the hundreds in city centre near O’Connell Street and in Temple Bar.

If you’re a first semester student, it’s guaranteed you will have a nightmare trying to find housing any-where in Dublin. If you’re looking for something af-fordable, do not live on campus. Despite campus apartments being conveni-ent when you can’t find much else, they are much more expensive and liv-ing at UCD puts you no-where near city centre or other city life. If you know some of the other NOHA students attending Dublin

(make a Facebook group!) you can also try to find housing together. Many students, including myself and two others, found it much easier to secure an entire flat together than looking for affordable sin-gle rooms alone. And, in the end, it was much cheaper as well.

Ultimately, once housing is secured and rain trousers bought (try Penney’s for a really cheap pair!), Dublin is a wonderful city to ex-plore and sink into. You’ll find artist studios just next to some of the oldest pubs in the city (Temple Bar), po-ets’ old stomping grounds when you visit The Brazen Head, Stag’s Head, or Mul-ligan’s pubs, wonderful live music in each and every venue, and history mixed with art at museums such as the Hugh Lane gallery (also called Dublin City Gallery), or the Chester Beatty Library. And if you really want the whole ex-perience, don’t forget the Guinness brewery and the Old Jameson Distillery. For something more low-key, there is also the unique Light House Cinema or St. Stephen’s Green.

GRONINGEN: C. TRAVERS

Moving to the flat, wet Netherlands. Groningen. A met-ropolitan student city with more pubs per head than any other NOHA destination, and roughly 2 hours and €25 from anywhere. Living here you will be among thousands of international students from across the world. Some key points to know when you arrive in this canal-bound city:Nowhere will accept VISA. It may be the most annoying thing about living in the Netherlands but it will mean you should frequent a cash point if you don’t have a Master-card. When paying rent there can also be huge interna-tional transfer fees. Factor about 15-20% extra into your budget or pay in bulk.

On the subject of rent, the Netherlands does not com-monly rent rooms furnished, unless stated. The start of term will be littered with students looking for large fur-niture they may not have expected to buy - beds, mat-tresses and stoves. Luckily IKEA is walking distance from the centre of the city and several bike companies rent bikes with large trailers on the front to help you move your new found possessions around. You can also try a number of second-hand stores around the city. A favour-ite is Mamamini’s near the Noordeplantsoen, or you can try ‘Buy and Sell Things Groningen’ on Facebook.

Similar to Uppsala, Groningen is a city dominated by bikes. There is likely one for every student in the city, probably more. Most students buy these second hand, but bear in mind that if you accidentally buy a stolen bike it could be legally confiscated leaving you out of pocket. There is a buy and sell group for bikes in Groningen on Facebook, and plenty of bike shops in the city. An option for second semester students is to buy it off a student from the first semester. Unlike Uppsala, Dutch law does not mandate a helmet; in fact they are a rare sight in Gro-ningen. You will still need lights and locks, and a confi-dence to cycle close to moving cars. With a bike, travel from the centre of town to Zernike campus is about 20-30 minutes (or a 1 hour walk).

The Netherlands is really known for three things – canals, tulips and cannabis. The latter of these is worth a note for newly arriving international students. Firstly weed is only legal inside The Netherlands, so do not attempt to transport any over international borders.

The Trinity College library in Dublin boasts centuries old books collected by the university’s many famous professors/ Anna Görs

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Trees bloom on campus in Louvain-la-Neuve/ Mariana Messner

Louvain-la-Neuve: A. VANTOURNHOUDT

Moving to Belgium, at the Catholic university of Lou-vain-la-Neuve (LLN), is the best way to discover how the university looks like in this small kingdom.

Louvain-la-Neuve is a student city where the French university has been built. It is called Louvain-la-Neuve (Louvain means Leuven in French and Neuve means new) because it was separated from the catholic univer-sity of Leuven – where Flemish is the main language– at the end of the 1960s.

It is 30 minutes away from Brussels by train. Thus you could decide to live in the capital or in the student city and discover how the Belgian students party.

You can travel around Belgium for a very cheap price, so you should take the opportunity to visit Antwerpen (Anvers), Gent, Bruges, and other beautiful Belgium cit-ies. Also, you will be able to reach Lille by train in just 30 minutes, Paris in one hour and a half, and Amsterdam as well. Everything is just a short train ride away!

Belgium is a very welcoming country and its inhabit-ants are quite friendly. You will find a large internation-al community in Brussels, as well as in Louvain. And of course you will enjoy the endless choice of beers, the best French-fries in the world and the waffles on every corner.

UPPSALA: C. TRAVERS

Moving to Uppsala at the beginning of the winter. The first semester in Uppsala will bring chilling winds, snows and ice – all the things you might expect of this small Swedish town. Living in Sweden as an inter-national student entitles you to free Swedish lessons, a work permit and a realm of travel opportunities – Fin-land, Latvia, Norway.

The system in Sweden is unique among the NOHA universities. When arriving, the first thing you will need to do is decide which Nation you will join. Think of these as a mix of Stu-dent Unions and Fraternities; each nation has its own draws and its own character and joining them will be a way of meeting likeminded students and engaging in social and extracur-ricular activities. For example, Nor-

rlands is by far the largest nation and is known for the cheapest drinks and the largest balls, whilst Kalmars is known for alternative clubs, left-wing societies and vegan food. The Nation Card will have to be displayed at every nation to get entry along with photo ID.

Another must when arriving in Upp-sala is to find your local coffee shop with Wi-Fi. The application for gain-ing access to the university system is long and can only be completed during the limited Swedish opening hours. While you’re out hunting, try the fika options as well. To fika means to take a coffee, eat kannelbulle and chat with a friend. As a Swedish stu-dent you’ll be doing an awful lot of fika-ing, so you best find a place you like. A common favourite in the cen-

tre of town is Hugo’s off St Olofsga-tan – allergy free food, long opening hours and interesting décor.

A final tip for Nordic-bound NOHA students is a note on alcohol. The government has a monopoly on alco-hol in Sweden, meaning that you can only buy your supplies at a high price and during the strict opening hours of the Systembolaget. So locate the one nearest to you when you arrive, and work the prices into your budget.

Fall colours reflect on the water in Uppsala, Sweden/ Keith Mattingly

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DUBLINAccommodationDaftwww.daft.ie

Erasmus: Rooms, flats, friendswww.facebook.com/groups/718216548228699/

Transportation in DublinPublic transportationhttp://www.dublin.ie/transport/home.htm

Bikes:UCDwww.belfieldbikeshop.com

Bolton Cycleswww.boltoncycles.com

Everything elseAdvertswww.adverts.ie

GroningenAccommodation

KamerNethttp://kamernet.nl

Rooms in Groningenhttps://www.facebook.com/ groups/121294141228020/?fref=ts

Transportation in Groningen

Trainhttp://www.ns.nl

Group train ticketshttps://www.facebook.com/ groups/527367814022463/?fref=ts

Blablacarh t t p s : / / w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m /BlaBlaCar. nl?fref=tsEverything elseFor sale in Groningenhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/ forsaleingroningenfast/?fref=tsStudent lifeSIB Groningenhttp://www.sib-groningen.nl

Louvain-la-NeuveAccommodation

Appartagerhttp://www.appartager.comwww.vlan.beBrussels roomshttps://www.facebook.com/ groups/195527370457521/

Transportation in LouvainThalyshttps://www.thalys.com/fr/fr/SNBC

“http://www.belgianrail.be/jp/sncb-nmbs-routeplanner/query/STIBhttp://www.stib-mivb.be/index.htm?l=fr

uPPSALAAccommodationStudent Union Websitehttp://www.uppsalastudentkar.se/ international-students

Transportation in UppsalaBuseshttp://www.uppsalastudentkar.se/international-students/life-sweden/ orientation/buses

Guide to Uppsala

Nations Guide

h t t p s : / / u p p s a l a s t u d e n t . c o m /

nationsguiden

International Office

http://www.inter.uadm.uu.se/about_

us/

USEFUL LINKS

AIX Accommodation

Appartagerhttp://www.appartager.com

Shared flatshttps://www.facebook.com/ groups/513598715333991/?fref=ts

Transportation in Aix

Aix en bushttp://www.aixenbus.fr/aixenbus_en

From Aix to Marseilleshttp://www.navetteaixmarseille.com/spip.php?rubrique2

BILBAOAccommodation

Easy Pisohttp://www.easypiso.com

alKilahttp://www.alkila.net

Transportation in Bilbao

Metrohttp://www.metrobilbao.net

Tramhttp://www.euskotren.es

Social Life

Erasmus World Bilbaohttps://www.facebook.com ErasmusWorld?fref=ts

BOCHUMAccommodationPrivate students subletting VRRfacebook.com/groups/233909110047056/?fref=ts

Rooms, flats, everything else http://www.wg-gesucht.de

Transportation in Bochum and RuhrgbietVRRwww.vrr.de/en/

Deutsche Bahnwww.bahn.de

The NOHA 2013-2014 class consists of students from all over the world. Colombia, Hungary, the Philippines. Students from various backgrounds to pursue the same Master’s course.

“I don’t think anyone really knows why they are drawn to the NOHA course,” is how first-year student Claire Louise Travers dives into identifying the impetus for pursuing the NOHA masters programme. “I don’t have our answers.” In some ways she represents a common current trend: the desire to trade in the comforts of a steady career path for pursuits more meaningful, and more congruent with one’s true personality. Claire’s story is just one answer to the question I pose: Who are the NOHA students and what has propelled them to pursue this course?

I ask it because I don’t have answers either. People ask me how I chose this programme; I stumble, I say something unconvincing, and I am clearly unable to mask my own uncertainty. There are the tired clichés: I want to make a difference; doing something for the greater good; making the world a better place and helping those in need. Valuing such aims is fundamental to humanitarian action, but we all have different ways of arriving to our decisions and desires. Everyone has a story, and how their stories lead to this field is a fascinating topic.

“If I only had one place, one currency and no suitcase, I think I would hope for another opportunity to change my life,” continues Claire. The challenges of constant change, unfamiliar environments and the frustrations and revelations that come thereby are commonplace for people in this line of work and study, and through the appreciation for the new, the uncertain and the unpredictable we hope to reach beyond limitations,

enrich our own experience and realise our goals externally and internally. At a time when many of my own friends are getting married, having kids and settling down, many NOHA students appear just at the point of taking off, uprooting, and sacrificing stability, security and certainty for the fruits of far-reaching and important work and life abroad.

We constantly speak of “the field,” but for some it is not a distant, dangerous or exotic place to go but a place of origin. Didi Demani describes that “growing up in Nigeria you see a lot of suffering and

you really can’t do anything about it. I always felt the urge to help and this was the primary motivation to go into humanitarian action.”

Peter Stensson’s NOHA studies complement his life as a dreamer. “My humanitarian imperative came at the age of 22, the first time I visited Kenya. When I left the airport cruising towards downtown Nairobi,

NOHA STUDENTS REFLECT ON THEIR MOTIVATION & DRIVING FORCES

by K.Mattingly

People ask me how I chose this programme; I stumble, I say

somethingunconvincing,

and I am clearly unable to mask my own uncertainty.


I felt like I was home, the very first time in my whole life. People felt so charismatic, positive and friendly. The atmosphere was inviting, colourful and lively. But within time, I came to experience the negative side. The financial problems, the ethnic politics, and discrimination. I met people who were very vulnerable and did not have all their basic needs provided for. Needs that ought to be taken for granted, to live a life of self respect and dignity.”

But Peter’s path also represents an important and overshadowed part of humanitarian action -- the people who grow up in developed or wealthy countries and also witness profound needs, crises and suffering at home. Rewind to five years before going to Kenya, when Peter found injustice and inspiration in his own backyard upon changing high schools. “This was still Stockholm, but another area, with other social dimensions. Over the period of basically one summer, I went from villas to concrete housing blocks, from gardens to street corners, from driving licenses to bus cards,” he says. “Some of my new friends did not take [having] an own bedroom or weekly pocket money for granted. Rather, I experienced lack of living space, discrimination and violence.

“My tipping point came when a friend of mine became a victim of a xenophobic attack and nobody around seemed to care. That was when I decided that enough was enough, and that I couldn’t focus the rest of my life on mere narrow self-interest. I don’t think I ever was interested in making money or having a ‘successful career,’ but if I ever had something like that in me, it really disappeared for good during this time.”

In addition to the people we want to help, we are often equally important to each other. As Didi describes, “being around people that have the same desire to help humanity is so uplifting,” which echoes my own thoughts. I trace my own motivation to volunteer work for a major international humanitarian organisation in Spain, where simply working with and getting

to know my peers with similar priorities and compassion inspired me to seek out an environment in which I’d be working with similar people to help catalyse my own motivation.

Although I happened upon NOHA on my own and instantly knew it was something I wanted to pursue, even as an adult it has often been my parents, friends and even random acquaintances finding and suggesting steps for my path. Carin Atterby says it was her mum (as usual) who found the Master’s through an online search, and “when she forwarded the link to me and I saw it I too knew that this is a Master’s that I would like to do. For me the Master’s represented what I wanted to do: something that is meaningful for me and which involves people from all over the world.”

Antónia Mota is hoping to elevate part-time volunteer community work to a professional career in humanitarian action. “There was no particular person or event motivating me,” she explains, and “somehow the circumstances of life conducted me to study and work in other fields than this one.” Having been “fascinated with the commercials on humanitarian aid” since childhood, she spontaneously took this opportunity when it arose despite the difficulties of leaving her family and her country.

Kerrin Buck’s experience in the humanitarian field goes back a generation to the Yugoslav Wars, in which he provided relief to refugees in

In addition to the people we want to help, we are often equally

important to each other.

But even now I refuse to give up the thought of a better world, a brighter future and equal rights. Any single person cannot bring us there, but any

single person can take us in the right direction.

current-day Croatia and worked on one of the first peacebuilding projects. After a tough period of work in Angola and a stint away from the humanitarian world working in architecture, it was a twenty-year reunion in Croatia that kick-started Kerrin’s decision to return full-time. “The benefits of our work were apparent in the words and lives of the communities we tried to help. This was vindication that the choices we made were not unrealistic and idealistic. They were the right choices.”

Everyone has seen human suffering and need, and our interpretations and reactions are both unique and common in driving us to work together. Humanitarian action is a subject full of idealism and clichés, but when one sincerely

believes in them and works towards their fulfillment they are valid and powerful. Our personal driving forces stay with us, and we know that success lies in maintaining our principles and ideals of humanity while understanding our individual limitations. “As with everything else,” Peter concludes, “one does mature and I realised where I had been too radical and what was really humane, realistic and optimal. But even now I refuse to give up the thought of a better world, a brighter future and equal rights. Any single person cannot bring us there, but any single person can take us in the right direction.”


The Philippines has a long experience of natural disasters, but none quite as devastating as Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. Despite preparedness measures and evacuations of civilians, the impact of Haiyan in the Philippines, especially in the Vasayas regions, was immense. The coming hours, days, weeks, and months, would see hundreds of humanitarian o r g a n i s a t i o n s responding to the situation.

According to a report by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in the Philippines, Typhoon

Haiyan left over 6 300 people dead and 28 000 injured, 1 000 missing, 4 million displaced, and 16 million total affected. The unimaginable damage may have been exceptional to most other natural disasters, but it was also intense training ground for some recently graduated NOHA students in the field.

Vanvisa Warachit, a 2012 graduate who attended Uppsala and Bochum, respectively, arrived in Guiuan, in Eastern Samar, where Haiyan made its first landfall in the country in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

“The fastest way to access Guiuan town

NOHAS INTHE

PHILIPPINESby B. duBois

©EC/ECHO/Arlynn Aquino

©EC/ECHO/Mathias Eick

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is by helicopter. The town was severely devastated by the typhoon, which could be seen from the helicopter above,” Vanvisa says.

Vanvisa is working as a non-medical staff with Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF). The MSF response to Haiyan was Vanvisa’s first mission with the organisation.

“MSF has a high working standard and they are really good at emergency response,” she explains. “I was afraid that my work performance could not live up to their expectations. I also worried a bit about the living conditions because they asked me to prepare a sleeping pad and sleeping bag, as we would sleep in tents. They also told me that the electricity came from the generators and running water was provided by MSF. I was also advised not to bring any electric devices, as they couldn’t survive the conditions. On top of that, there was no Internet

signal. I have never been living in these kinds of conditions before. It would be a real serious situation, I thought.”

But Vanvisa was not alone, and she certainly wasn’t the only NOHA in the region. In March 2014 Anouk Boschma, a 2011 graduate who attended Groningen and Bochum, respectively, joined the International Medical Corps (IMC) in the Philippines. However, this was not Anouk’s first field experience.

“Before the Philippines I worked in Haiti as well,” Anouk says. “There are a lot of similarities with Haiti but also a lot of dissimilarities. Straight before this I came from South Sudan and that was like a 360-degree [sic] difference with the Philippines. So it was actually a bit of a culture shock arriving here and realizing people had a lot more capacity than what I was used to.”

Though Vanvisa and

Anouk both work for organisations focused on medical needs, Anouk says IMC focuses its work mostly on transitional strategies and local capacity building.

“We work quite a bit with national staff, with government staff,” Anouk explains. “We do a lot of capacity building, a lot of training: technical training, medical training, mental health training. For instance, now here it’s quite broad what we do.”

Anouk credits the m u l t i d i s c i p l i n a r y approach NOHA takes as a beneficial component of the kind of work she does now. However, she points out that while extensive and in-depth ethical discussions NOHA students often have can sometimes get lost in the real world of humanitarian action.

“It’s not to say you shouldn’t focus on human rights, obviously, or the Code of Conduct, or major standards, but sometimes it goes a

bit far in what [new students] expect you to do when doing humanitarian action, because you are always under a lot of time pressure. I think there’s a lot of skills that you need to gain on the job still, which is logical.”

Vanvisa’s experience with MSF was a learning curve for her as well. While she says her NOHA experience often focused on management skills, such as LogFrames and E-single forms, she also valued the general knowledge on humanitarian principles, standards, actors and the system which helps students understand crisis situations quicker and more deeply.

“Even though I was a first-time field worker in the Philippines, there is no need to ask a simple question like how a Logistic Cluster works, who the ICRC is, and how they are different from other NGOs or OCHA,” she says. “[Students] will ask more delicate questions like: Can

“Everywhere there’s signs thanking the NGOs for their commitments, which is really unique,” Anouk says. “I’ve never seen that before. It’s a really positive environment to work with.”

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we improve this programme by implementing this strategy? If not, why? Or, what is the mortality/morbidity rate at the moment? Does it reflect the on-going situation? You will be in these situations all the time and that makes the job more interesting.”

Practical skills Vanvisa also learned included the importance of carrying drinking water when leaving the field offices, or how to pack emergency bags. Vanvisa details one experience she had in the early days of the Haiyan response.

“It was raining heavily and there was not any available boat to bring us back to our base when we distributed r e h a b i l i t a t i o n materials to beneficiaries in a small island outside Guiuan. We then couldn’t go back to have lunch. I always have some light snacks that give us energy in my emergency bag.” The packed food ensured

staff members were able to continue their activities smoothly.

But Vanvisa also credits the MSF team surrounding her in the Philippines as a driving force for her good experience working there.

“I was well accepted and my colleagues were so professional to be patient and give me helpful hands for a first-time field worker like me,” she says. “The first week I was there we worked like 12 hours per day, 7 days per week. All the fear, the difficult living conditions, and tiredness were completely compensated by having a really good team.”

One thing both Vanvisa and Anouk experienced for the first time in the Philippines was the strong positive and vocal response from the local communities.

“In the car from airport to the field project there was a sign handwritten on a broken piece of

wood,” Vanvisa says. The sign read, ‘To all international donors, thank you so much for helping us.’

“Everywhere there’s signs thanking the NGOs for their commitments, which is really unique,” Anouk says. “I’ve never seen that before. It’s a really positive environment to work with.”

Humanitarian action is not a field of work where aid workers can predict or expect any given situation. However, it is likely to expect other NOHA students also working in almost any crisis situation

“We look after each other both personally and professionally,” Vanvisa says. “When you are in the middle of nowhere and you think no one else in the world will understand you, there will always be one or two of your NOHAs to understand it.”

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by S. Cook

UN photo

GEORGIA


Second semester in Groningen, in The Netherlands, includes a field trip to Georgia (the country, not the US state). The 10-day excursion to this amazing country, involves meeting with various humanitarian organisations, most of whom are working to improve the internally displaced persons (IDP) situation in Georgia.

First, a brief summary about the Georgia conflict: Georgia formed in 1991 when the Soviet Union fell apart. However, Russia remained high influential in the Caucasus region, as the sole energy supplier; and recognized the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. In 1992 Russia supported the Abkhaz people in a rebellion against Georgia and the deportation of Georgian citizens to Georgia-proper.

To this day, Russia remains the sole benefactor to the Abkhaz economy and the key military and political supporter of the de facto Abkhazian authority.

In 2008, Georgia-Russia relations strained further when Russia moved troops into South Ossetia and Abkazia in what seemed to be an act of war. Georgian forces rushed to defend their borders and a conflict broke out, which Georgia eventually lost. Russian forces closed the South Ossetian borders, and remain there with significant military strength. The total cost of these conflicts cannot be measured, but resulted in 160 000 IDPs from South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Sidha Kartli, tens of thousands of which have been forced to seek shelter with host families or at temporary camps throughout Georgia. This significant IDP population remains a serious socio-economic challenge for Georgia.

When we arrived in Tbilisi, we traveled to our accommodation. It was a large house with several rooms containing beds, a kitchen, and one bathroom inside and one outside. Overall, it seemed rather luxurious. The only catch was sharing and scheduling bathroom times between 23 people for 10 days.

Over those 10 days we visited 14 organisations, which covered a range of issues that include but are not limited to: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), shelter and housing, legal representation, psychosocial care, food security and livelihoods, and the excavation of human remains. Some of the most memorable include the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), Action Against Hunger (ACF), Studio Re, the ICRC, and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

CENN is an environmental organisation that strives to promote sustainable development practice to improve people’s lives. Their large multi-stakeholder network has been effective in implementing a wide range of programmes, including investigating the role of women in sustainable resource management. CENN regularly reports on DRR and has also produced an atlas outlining natural hazards, risks and socioeconomic vulnerability in Georgia. At the end of the visit, they presented each of us with The Green Bag – a reusable canvas bag to support their pilot project “Discover Alternatives! Say NO to Plastic Bags!” The campaign is the first of its kind to be carried out in Georgia.

Action Against Hunger (ACF) is an international NGO and has been present in Georgia since 1995. Of the 160 000 displaced from the conflict, ACF provided food and hygiene kits to more than 2000 families, and rehabilitated sanitation facilities in several of the temporary shelters. Currently, ACF’s aid is bridging the gap to development, and includes water and sanitation (WASH), and sustainable livelihoods and DRR projects, with explicit aims to promote the role of women.

Through their projects, ACF has improved WASH and nutrition in schools, delivered drinking water infrastructure to remote mountain areas, and trained project staff in gender-based programming. After the presentation, we visited one of the IDP settlements and saw the living conditions and the limited livelihood activities available on site.

Association Studio Re is a media-outlet NGO, founded in 1992, and aims to strengthen public

debates and contribute towards civil society formation in Georgia. The association has produced short films and TV programmes raising topical issues such as corruption, civil diplomacy and the IDP situation in Georgia.

Towards the end of the week, we visited the ICRC who gave an incredibly interesting presentation on the excavation of human remains and family repatriation. This isn’t a topic frequently raised when discussing humanitarian action, however the ICRC’s Missing Persons Unit works alongside the authorities to determine the fate of missing persons and collaborates with local NGOs to support their families. Through applying osteological techniques the ICRC Forensic Unit was able to identify individuals who went missing after the helicopter crash that hastened the 2008 conflict, and return the remains to their families for proper burial. During this visit, we also learned that the ICRC is the only organisation providing humanitarian assistance in South Ossetia. Other organisations remarked that entry to South Ossetia was not possible for political reasons; however the ICRC has been entering through the Russian border instead of through Georgia. This definitely sparked political discussions with the NGOs we visited afterwards.

The final NGO we visited was the DRC, who aims to provide sustainable solutions in displacement issues. The DRC spoke about the 2008 displacement issue in Georgia, and one of their current projects, which includes rebuilding and rehabilitating housing and livelihoods in Ergneti Village. In the afternoon, we were taken to the village itself and saw the rehabilitated houses with red roofs, and other houses built from scratch. We also met with locals enrolled in their livelihoods scheme; there was a woman who ran a rose farm (and gave us apples), and a couple who owned numerous beehives and had a prospering honey business. During the excursion we visited the Administrative Border Line (ABL) between South Ossetia and Russia and could see the Russian flag waving lazily on the other side.

Overall, the field trip had many highlights. Each organisation we visited was unique and the opportunity to meet IDPs was a much-needed insight. Throughout the trip, Georgian hospitality and generosity was flawless. We were welcomed into an owner’s home, who baked us a cake (because it was her birthday), and the minibus drivers were friendly and willing to teach us Georgian/Russian in exchange for English. The food was incredible (though it may not accommodate all dietary needs), and a few must-tries are Georgian wine, dumplings, and chakapuli.

Recommendations_The public bathhouses are a must. This is a great way to end the trip by losing all inhibitions and letting go of stresses.

_Uplistsikhe is a cave city that used to inhabit approximately 20,000 people and has a beautiful view of the rural Georgian countryside.

_Kazbegi is a village located in northern Georgia and is a popular site for trekking, views of Mount Kazberg (the highest in the Caucus range), and visiting the Holy Trinity Church.

Learning experiences_Take on board cultural sensitivity, personal adaptation to temporary environment, and remember your earplugs!


Russo-Georgian Friendship Monument in the Georgian Military Highway/Sian Cook

IDP camp settlement in East Georgia/ Sian Cook

View over the Georgian capital Tbilisi from Narikala/ Sian Cook

Ananuri Monastery on the Aragvi Rive / Sian Cook

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MY EXPERIENCEATECHOby L. Eriksson

Lina spent her first semester at Uppsala and second in Bochum. She is a NOHA intern at ECHO in the Specific

Thematic Policies unit

If somebody had asked me exactly a year ago if I could see myself doing my NOHA internship at the European C o m m i s s i o n ’ s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), I would have replied, “over my dead body.”

Having worked for the past three years in development work in a rural community in Swaziland and lived in Africa for the past four years, the thought of living in a relatively large, grey

European capital, spending my working days in an office, working for a donor and sitting in front of a computer, was completely out of the question for me. The only thought I had was, “I need to get back to the field; I don’t want to be in Europe.”

Every year ECHO reserves traineeships during the summer and fall for NOHA students from each partner university (one student per university is typically

chosen). When the time came to apply for an ECHO position I reluctantly did so but didn’t think too much about it. In fact I thought, “Well I can always say no, but it’s better to apply and be in a position to say ‘no’ than not having applied at all.”

My top three choices were for the desk officer positions in the operational unit. I was offered a position in the strategy and thematic policies unit. I was not very pleased.

As I’m writing this, more than half of my internship duration time at ECHO has passed and I don’t want it to end. Already after the first week I knew that my time at the concrete jungle building that is ECHO was going to be a positive 3 months, even though I was sitting in an office in Brussels, staring at a computer screen, working on policy documents, and not in the field in some far flung exciting location of the world.

From left: Ian Rocafort, Tatiana Charpenter, Brook duBois, Lina Eriksson, Simon Stermann, Delphine Tyč, and Solvetta Bruzaite

Kristian Rocafort

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ultimately it is up to you to make the best of your time and learning experiences

Throughout my time here, I have been tasked to work on the European Union’s resilience agenda. I am in charge of coordinating a Resilience C o m p e n d i u m (due to come out in September), highlighting the best practices and examples of resilience that ECHO is funding through partner organisations all over the world. At first, the task seemed daunting, I knew little more than the definition of resilience. It seemed even more daunting when I understood that I had to contact and correspond with technical assistants, field experts, member states and partner o r g a n i s a t i o n s , guiding them and editing their professional work to highlight and strengthen their numerous resilience initiatives and approaches.

The days are long, there is an endless

amount of work to do and we are not paid a single cent. However, a past NOHA student working in my unit advised me to always say ‘Yes’ whenever somebody asked me to do anything.

The amount of responsibility that has been entrusted in me and other NOHA interns from our head of units, supervisors, and ECHO colleagues has been exceptionally encouraging and inspiring. From the very beginning I felt respected and valued as a colleague and not as an intern. This has been very important for me, as I feel part of a professional working environment and a

stimulating team, contributing to a greater good. This responsibility and respect has been especially important when working 8-11 hours a day; not being able to open any windows for fresh air; a closed cafeteria for summer holidays; seeing more than half of the offices on every floor empty due to summer vacation; and more often than I would like, staring out of my closed window into the pouring rain.

Nonetheless, the incredible learning curve that is the everyday life of ECHO makes it all worth it. Aside from the daily tasks and struggles, all interns (NOHA and more typical Blue Book trainees) have the opportunity to participate in internal trainings, organized by ECHO and outside experts, which add and contribute to personal and p r o f e s s i o n a l development.

However, ultimately it is up to you to make the best of your time and learning experiences. In the midst of a crisis it is easy for people to get swallowed into their own bubble, so taking the initiative to be approachable, available, enthusiastic and open for new ideas is vital even if it means doing a temporarily menial task.

Outside of working hours, the five other NOHA interns that I arrived with have been a tremendous help for settling in, both at ECHO and in Brussels. It is comforting to know we can share and talk about our daily experiences, frustrations and stresses of the internship. I also discovered that a large majority of young people working at ECHO are previous NOHA students; many are students who also did their internship at ECHO and have then been offered extensions or have been seconded to assist wherever help is needed. The support network of both current and past NOHA students has really given me a new understanding and meaning of what it means to be part of the NOHA ‘family’.

Ultimately, ECHO is a humanitarian donor representing the interests of European member states. It is not a purist Dunantist humanitarian organisation and it is not field-work. But the three months at ECHO provide very good preparation for entering the humanitarian NGO world and an exceptionally good networking opportunity.

As my internship is coming to an end and I’m starting to look at employment opportunities, I realize most organisations look for candidates with donor experience, especially within ECHO. This will inevitably give you an advantage over others. Having said all of this, ECHO is not for everybody. It depends on your interests and passion and, more importantly, where you are in your professional humanitarian career. As for me, it was the best choice I could have made at this time. It doesn’t however prevent me from wanting to return to the field, but will give me new perspective once I do.


TRENDS AND THE FUTURE WITH ROY WILLIAMSInterviewed by C. Travers

Roy Williams is well-known and well respected in the humanitarian aid sector. When we meet at the offices in Columbia University, he looks dignified in his well-seasoned years. He is early, having caught a different bus. He still catches the bus; the same as when he was living in Harlem, NY. He walks slowly and deliberately and talks with a patient and solemn voice. His Harlem accent is just a shadow.

Williams has worked in Africa during droughts, in South East Asia resettling refugees, in Rwanda during the genocide, Bosnia during the war, Kosovo, Iraqi-Kurdistan… the impressive list of places goes on and on. After working with international organisations and non-governmental organisations, he was invited by the Clinton administration to head the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, Bureau for Humanitarian Response (BHR/OFDA) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

You have worked for a number of well-known organisations. What are the differences between working for an NGO and USAID?

This I find to be an interesting question, because in a lot of ways the motivation of the individuals overlapped, but the ethos of the NGO is very different from the ethos of a governmental organisation. I worked for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which is a rather unique organisation in that it was initially founded in World War II to provide escape routes for Jews and gypsies, musicians and intellectuals, as the rise of power in Germany began to see Hitler ascending. So the central ethos was basically one of freedom, and the motivation for individuals was in the belief in the right to be free. So during the war they ran escape routes out of Germany, through France and so on. And interestingly, when I was working and war broke out I got a call from New York saying we need to set up escape routes for Kurdish refugees into Turkey. And I couldn’t figure out why – why were we going to work with Kurdish refugees in Turkey? Turned out that during World War II the Kurdish population provided one of the escape routes out of Germany, and their descendants felt that we owed them a debt. So the reason I make this point is that this is the ethos of an NGO that no government can share – the motivation has to do with the supporters, the constituency. And from the point of view of the staff, this makes all the difference. I mean, in government I worked with some excellent people – really excellent, resourceful, and talented – but in the NGO world there is an added dimension of motivations that governments cannot provide. And it’s to do with the history, and personalities, and the leadership. We had some amazing people leading us, who had lived through that, had survived; and for myself and the younger staff underneath me, those people were the inspiration.

What about the differences in resource allocation and decision making?

When you are running an NGO operation you

know that your resources are limited, your reach is limited. So everything that you figure into your calculation is a function of the recognition of that limitation. And above all things, you want to avoid raising expectations beyond your capacities. The more experienced NGOs recognise that right away. Another thing you learn from quickly in the NGO world, which is less relevant in the government world, is that people see you very differently from how you see yourself. You come with a couple of blessings. One is that people see you as having resources. Two is that they assume you can always get out, which they can’t, and a further assumption is that you can communicate with the outside world. This all means power. The best decision makers I’ve worked with are aware of these dimensions. The rest are technicians. They get a job done, sometimes that’s enough, but often that’s not. And often the area which is left lacking is the motivation of the people who work for you. In Bosnia, after so many years of war, we began to see there were no ‘good guys’ in a fundamental sense, and motivating staff became a huge problem. Because why were we there, what the hell were we doing, why were we risking our lives? So that becomes a problem.

An emerging trend in humanitarianism for our generation is ‘gender’ - gender mainstreaming, gender issues, women’s empowerment.

Well, the thing about gender, I find, is very often that the way the term is used is monolithic. Like the way that gender is understood is the same everywhere. But it’s not, every situation is so specific, based upon the assumptions society makes. I remember when we were in the Sudan we were using ‘food for work’ programmes, and at one point all of the men went out on strike and we couldn’t figure out why. For two weeks we kept talking to the maleeaders, until one day one of them took me aside and said “we didn’t decide to strike, the women told us to”. We had no

“We had some amazing people leading us, who had lived through that, had survived; and for myself and the younger staff underneath me, those people were the inspiration.”


clue that this particular relationship in that society in this particular part of Sudan even existed. If we had known that in the first instance we would have set up the whole relationship with the men differently.

Another experience was in Sudan, where we were using air drops of food distribution. And for some reason the metrics of morbidity/mortality and what we thought was happening with the food never seemed to match. No matter how much food the WFP [World Food Programme] dropped, they didn’t get any better. What we didn’t’ know was that the women were making the decision to give the food to the young men going off to fight. So they were carrying away food we assumed was being consumed by the women and children. They had made the decision to give the food to the male relatives who were going off to fight and die against the Sudanese government.Even for men. In every society the predicates for gender are going to be different. I mean, I grew up in Harlem. And when I grew up in Harlem, the whole neighbourhood was run by gangs. So you had a choice: you either joined the gangs, didn’t join the gangs, or became a super-athlete and that made you immune to the gangs. Because they respected that and they left you alone. So in every society it’s different. In terms of analysis, I suspect that gender programmes in each situation need an understanding of what the society assumes are the rules of engagement, before you can even begin to address the issue. So the question has to be: What assumptions does this society make about the role of men and women? And how can we determine their capacities?

What do you think about gender aspects of programming for improving gender equality and women’s empowerment? Should we, and can we address women’s empowerment in humanitarian programming?

Gender is a social construct, and it serves a purpose; power dynamics and social stability. So in different social structures equality will mean different things and be towards different purposes. Unfortunately societies were the genders are equal in every respect do not survive. It’s not the way they’re structured. As population grows, and increase in demographics, this becomes more and more apparent - that roles have to be diversified, otherwise there just isn’t enough to go around. So what do we mean by equality, and how useful is it in the abstract sense? How do people see the word ‘equality’ and is it even functional or relevant? If you look at the way most Western societies’

are structured, as an example, the indicators when roles begin to change are really interesting. How personalities and society changes as the gender roles change. How does gender enable sustainability in a community, depending on the roles in that community? Do you really want it, or are male roles important in this or that society? Some of the best field people I have worked with are women because they are sensitive to what the people in the other community are saying. But the most effective operating people tend to be men, from my experience, because most men feel comfortable just doing something, not thinking. Thinking takes us out of our comfort zone, it’s dangerous. We are trained not to have certain attributes, because they don’t make sense societally. Equality doesn’t mean squat frankly, it’s just a matter of being recognised. Growing up a Black American, I was active in the civil rights movement, and I think we made a big mistake. We assumed that equality before the law was the objective, but what we really wanted was just to be seen, just to be recognised, that would have been cool.

Another recent change to our field is Security Council Resolution 2165, authorising the delivery of aid across conflict lines. In a sense this is the next step in realising, legally, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

Yes, this is a blurring of the lines that I never thought would be possible. If you put it in a context of what humanitarianism has traditionally meant, and the limitations it traditionally has on it, what we are seeing is in Syria is, to use that phrase, “blurring of the lines”. For example in Homs, some of the humanitarian assistance also included evacuating civilians carrying weapons. Now that was always a ‘no, no’, because we found out in Somalia that if you try that, you become a target. And in terms of protocols, you’re just not supposed to deal with armed civilians; that’s the ICRC’s stand on that. I mean, the whole dimension is changing.

A part of this changing dimension is the trend toward the commercialisation and militarisation of aid. What about working with companies, like Coke or Nestlé, that have principles that might contradict with the humanitarian imperative?

Why wouldn’t you? Unless you assume they are the villain by nature, which is simplistic and totally unrealistic. Corporations are more and more realising the reasons to get involved with humanitarian undertakings

which go beyond their bottom line. I mean even Coca Cola has instincts apart from making money – self-interest, public image, establishment in the community. They don’t have principles, they have behavioural objectives. These might not be elevated to the level of principle, but that does not mean they can’t at the same time use their resources in a principled way. For a long time the military were thought of as being incapable of being involved with humanitarian assistance. That has changed. The argument was that if you wore a uniform that you were inevitably dedicated to killing people,

which is pure bullshit. That isn’t the way it is. I have been in so many situations when the military were dying for the chance to help somebody because they knew they could do something no one else could do. They had the helicopters, the trucks, the expertise, the WASH equipment - in Rwanda for example. The military has been further ahead of that than most people realise. For example, in the US military there are now doctrines that says the priority should be working with civilians over accomplishing a military objective. This is at the highest levels. They have created all kinds of training institutes trying to create a breed of officers that think in terms of civilians in addition to being leaders. And this is all happening in the last five to six years. After Iraq and Afghanistan they realise, we’re not fighting China or Russia with 3 000 tanks shooting at each other, we’re fighting small groups of people who think differently from us. So you might not even have to fight if you talk to them.

How do you see the future of humanitarianism in light of the World Summit?

I would hope that the World Summit can tackle the questions of what ‘humanitarianism’ is in the first place. I hope it will recognise that society has become so integrated in a holistic manner, that the subdivisions in the community – academic, military, humanitarian – are really working against sustainability. So the World Summit, I hope, will dispense with the word ‘humanitarianism’, because

I think all we are doing is taking care of each other, and somehow using the word ‘humanitarianism’ makes it sound like we’re doing something noble. We’re not. I’ve never thought of myself as doing something noble. The word ‘humanitarianism’ gets enshrined and in the public mind we need to have a humanitarian intervention in Homs or Gaza or wherever. It transcends that, it really does. I hope the World Summit acknowledges this reality in some ways, and think about our society as much more integrated than we are used to thinking. It needs to invite or create some sort of

fusion mechanism whereby all the people that are involved in sustainability of society can meet and talk to each other on a routine basis. Maybe this can resolve the problems coming from, for example, the increasing scale of natural disasters.

Natural Disasters?

Well, by 2050 70 per cent of the population is going to be living in cities. Cities are incredibly vulnerable. I grew up in a city, in New York, and it was unthinkable that something should happen. That water would flood 34th subway was incomprehensible. I was at a conference in Washington and they were talking about evacuation plans for New York, and I remember thinking “Aha, you’re gonna convince those people sitting up in Spanish Harlem and the Bronx to New Jersey? To Long Island? No way.” And then you see in Katrina. The evacuation plan failed because of two things. One, some of the local counties didn’t want people from the other county crossing the bridge. And two, people in that part of New Orleans lived month to month. They didn’t have money to evacuate because they couldn’t even afford the bus fare. And then pay day was two days after the evacuation was called for – they didn’t have the money to evacuate. And the state didn’t have the resources. It’s that kind of thing that makes cities so vulnerable in ways we can’t understand. I mean how many exits are there from New York, seven? And the population is 10 million? Forget it, it’s not going to happen.

“I think all we are doing is taking care of each other, and somehow using the word ‘humanitarianism’ makes it sound like we’re doing something noble. We’re not.”

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Soldiers are not

social workers

with gunsEssay by K. Rasool

Since the end of the Cold War, humanitarians have increasingly become targets for terrorist groups around the world. In Afghanistan alone, attacks on aid workers increased by 1 300 per cent between 1990 and 2005. While the numbers keep rising, according to the Aid Workers Security research organisation, many academies are trying to give an answer to the reasons behind these attacks.

According to some academics, more and more people make the wrong assumption by concluding that ‘ h u m a n i t a r i a n space’, the operating e n v i r o n m e n t organisations work within, has become a dangerous place for aid workers. They rather assume the reasons behind the increase in lethal attacks is actually

due to humanitarian o r g a n i s a t i o n s changing their aid strategies and adapting new ones by implementing ‘ h u m a n i t a r i a n space’ into hot spots or conflict zones. Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan are just a few examples.

Between 2006 and 2008 in Afghanistan, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the ICRC were operating in conflict zones while both o r g a n i s a t i o n s refused to endanger the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence by operating under the protection of armed guards. If indeed humanitarian space has become much more hostile due to more conflicts in which humanitarians work taking place within national boundaries, and

between domestic groups, instead of international conflicts, then organisations such as MSF or the ICRC will struggle to hold on to their norms, values, and principles without incorporating armed guards into the zones they are operating. Internal conflicts are often even more dangerous due to the manner in which domestic armed groups fight or carry out attacks, whether in urban areas, or outside the scope of the international community.

In a 2003 interview with the Associated Press, the US Commander in Afghanistan at the time, Lt. Gen. David Barno, suggested it was time for aid agencies to accept and understand neutrality in such hostile and volatile situations is no longer

possible. While organisations like MSF and the ICRC argue that military involvement is only causing harm to humanitarian space, there are several indications that the implementation of the military has had positive impacts when it comes to aid assistance. Afghanistan has become one of the most hostile countries for humanitarians to operate in next to Syria. This was one of the main reasons MSF immediately stopped all its missions in the country after the deaths of five of its foreign staff in 2005. The images of the MSF headquarters in Kandahar that circulate on the web, with its high walls and sand bags, are likely to be confused by an outsider with a military base. In order for the medical

Editor’s Note: With increasing focus on furthering closer ties between civil and military groups, aid organisations are increasingly faced with a dilemma they have historically tried to avoid. Perception can be everything in the humanitarian sector, including determining staff security when working in conflict zones. It’s pertinent to understand the nuances and principles behind the various views on civil-military relations in order for us as humanitarians to move forward and strengthen the work we do around the world.

“Soldiers are not social workers with guns. Both disciplines are important, but both will suffer if combined in the same individuals”

Major General Lewis Mackenzie, Canadian forces

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staff to move from the base to the hospital at the end of the road, security measures had to be put in place.

If moving from one area to another puts such pressure on the staff, it can be argued that if it were not for the security measures it would be impossible for NGOs to reach remote areas in Afghanistan under direct control of the Taliban. In this case the question then goes beyond whether MSF and the ICRC are concerned that any involvement of the military might endanger the humanitarian principles, but more specifically, how to address the principle of humanity when faced with such struggles?

The principle of humanity includes the right of affected populations to receive h u m a n i t a r i a n assistance, as well as a right to dignity and respect (ICRC). Most of the victims of conflict areas receiving aid live in countries or regions controlled by extreme non-governmental armed groups and have no other access to assistance. In

these cases the military does in fact become the protector of humanitarian principles in conflict zones. Therefore, is it is logical to assume that the implementation of the military has, in fact, enlarged the area of humanitarian assistance? The military has the capability and resources to reach a population in need which would otherwise be impossible. There is no doubt militaries possess the most sophisticated means to conduct logistic operations (Olson, 2006).

One of the most recent examples was the implementation of US military forces in the Philippines during the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. Due to their logistics and aerial capacities the US military was able to reach areas others could not. In addition to the capacities of conducting logistic operations, militaries have the capability of ensuring security. In this regard, governments and army officials advocating for closer civil-military relations often

suggest that without security and safety for civilians and o r g a n i s a t i o n s , development cannot happen, but without development, there can be no lasting security (Baker, 2007).

The ability of militaries to protect both national and international staff in conflict regions is often used by military c o m m a n d e r s or governments claiming they have the duty to do so. In this regard the argument often used is that humanitarian aid workers, without the protection of the military, are soft targets for terrorist groups.

A 2011 statement by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan dictated that no distinction would be made between the UN, NGO’s, and other foreign organisations, as they considered them all to be funded by the US under the name of Provisional R e c o n s t r u c t i o n Teams, or PRTs, and aid organisations. The statement indicated that the group felt threatened by aid organisations and PRTs,

considering them part of the process to occupy the country (Metcalf, Giffen & Elhawary, 2011). These perceptions by armed opposition groups endanger aid and the staff providing it.

Another major concern by the ICRC regarding the ‘militarisation of aid’, and misconceptions resulting from it, is that aid that has been provided to civilians in Afghanistan has not been given on a voluntary basis, a core component of the ICRC (Wortel, 2009). Various case studies indicate this has not always been the case for the military. On one occasion in Afghanistan, h u m a n i t a r i a n operations led by NATO forces were conducted on the basis of gathering information (Olson, 2006). In order for Afghan civilians to receive aid that was distributed by ISAF forces (International Security Assistance Forces), members of Afghan families were asked to inform the security forces on the position of the Taliban strongholds in the mountains.

UN photo


“The strategy of the ICRC has been so successful in Afghanistan it has finally been able to fully re-open its headquarters in Kandahar.”

Such activities by the military have caused MSF and the ICRC to become very sceptical about the nature of the aid that is given to populations in need. The ICRC points out that under international humanitarian law the occupying powers must provide aid in an impartial way without making any distinctions based on religious, ethnic or political bases (ICRC).

This has not always been the case with the military. The US military has been accused of conducting a campaign in Afghanistan where Afghans could receive food baskets in exchange for weapons and ammunition (Rana, 2004). Similarly the ICRC has criticised Colombian government army commandos in the past who used civilian clothing and Red Cross emblems to rescue a government official (Henckaerts and Doswald-Beck, 2005). Another similar incident occurred in Afghanistan with American soldiers gathering intelligence while driving around in white Toyota Land Cruisers similar to the ones used by the UN (Global Research, 2012).

All these deliberate activities by the army as part of a ‘winning hearts and minds’ policy have led MSF and the ICRC to withdraw from projects, claiming the

military was responsible for a so-called ‘blurring of lines’. ICRC officers have shown their concern in many cases about these activities, claiming that civilians and terrorist groups can no longer see the difference between aid workers and military forces giving aid.

In a 1997 speech, the former Commander of the United States Marine Corps, Charles C. Krulak, remarked, “In one moment in time our service members will be feeding and clothing displaced refuges - providing humanitarian assistance. In the next moment, they will be holding two warring tribes apart -peacekeeping. Finally, they will be fighting a highly lethal mid-intensity battle. All in

the same day, all within three city blocks” (Rana, 2004).

It is due to this blurring of lines that MSF has decided the only way for their members to provide humanitarian aid assistance in conflict zones is not to use armed guards, mitigating the perception of militarisation. Instead, MSF favours dialogue with all parties at all times; if the aim is to provide aid to all at all times, then the only way to do so is to get involved in discussions. The same method has also been taken on by the ICRC, causing criticism in the international community for talking with the Taliban despite paving the way for future, fruitful discussions. Today a number of organisations and even US Forces and the Afghan government have declared they have been involved in talks with the Taliban. President Karzai has even offered members of the Taliban the opportunity to take part in the Afghan parliament.The strategy of the ICRC has been so successful in Afghanistan it has finally been able to fully re-open its headquarters in Kandahar. These successes have only been possible because of the organisation’s rapport with Afghan civilians. The ICRC’s new video-call system programme established this effectively with the local population: every

All these deliberate activities by the

army as part of a ‘winning hearts

and minds’ policy have led MSF

and the ICRC to withdraw from

projects, claiming the military was responsible for a

so-called ‘blurring of lines’.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBaker, Jon, 2007. Quick Impact Projects: towards a ‘whole of government’ approach. Journal of International Affairs, 8(21).

Wortel, Eva, 2009. Humanitarians and their moral stance in war: the underlying values. International Review of the Red Cross, 91(876), pp.779-802.

Olson, Lara, 2006. Fighting for Humanitarian Space: NGOs in Afghanistan. Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, North America. Available at: <http://jmss.synergiesprairies.ca/jmss/index.php/jmss/article/view/121/133> [Accessed 06 August 2014].

ICRC, 1997. Humanitarian action and peace-keeping operations. Available at: <http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/article/other/57jnj7.htm> [Accessed 06 August 2014].

Metcalfe, V., Griffen, A., and Elhawary, S., 2011. UN Integration and Humanitarian Space: An Independent study commissioned by the UN integration steering group. Journal of Humanitarian Policy group.

Rana, Raj, 2004. Contemporary challenges in the civil-military relationship: Complementarity or incompatibility? International Review of the Red Cross, 86(855), pp.565-591.

Henckaerts, J., and Doswald-Beck, L., 2005. Customary International Humanitarian Law: Vol II: Practice. Cambridge: 2005.

Global Research, 2012. Dirty and deadly secret: NATO troops disguise themselves as civilians in Afghanistan. Available at: <http://www.globalresearch.ca/dirty-and-deadly-secret-natotroops-disguise- themselves-as-civilians-in-afghanistan/29009> [Accessed 06 August 2014].

week hundreds of Afghans gather in front of the ICRC headquarters in Kandahar to use their video-call system to contact their friends and family members who have been held captive in one of the prisons in the country. The popularity of the ICRC has made it possible for them to be the only NGO in the area that has a fully foreign staff.

The ICRC has also pointed out that thanks to the impartiality they have established it has been possible for the organisation to run a 24/7 hospital offering aid to civilians and Taliban fighters at the same time. In fact this method is one of the most successful operations in the history of Afghanistan aid provisions.


The NOHA Joint Programme Committee (JPC) has many duties. This committee analyses and issues advice to the NOHA Board of Directors and coordinators on the teaching and assessment of regulations, procedures, as well as the teaching of the Master’s. As such the JPC operates on a ‘network’ level, discussing issues that affect the Master’s as a whole, not issues confined to one of the participating universities.

The main task of the JPC is to represent the NOHA students at the highest possible level. The members of the committee are selected from the seven participating universities within the network, with each university selecting two representatives; one from among the staff, and one from among the students. Therefore, the JPC consists of fourteen members.

The first meeting usually takes place during the IP, so get to thinking about your representative now, and make sure it is someone reliable and dedicated to giving feedback. It could even be you. During the first meeting the members will choose, from among themselves, a Chair, Vice Chair and a Secretary.

The role of the Chair is to organize and oversee the JPC meetings. The Chair can also call urgent meetings over Skype if a situation arises that he or she feels deserves consultation. This person needs to be able to remain calm and quiet in meetings to allow the discussion to unfold, and strict enough to keep on topic and on time.

The Vice Chair takes over these duties in the absence of the Chair, while the Secretary is in charge of documenting the meetings, or ‘taking minutes’. This usually involves some pretty swift writing and then typing up and circulating the minutes after the meeting.

An Intro to the Joint Programme Committee

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