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Good evening blog readers!
I here introduce the third and final blog post of the three-part blog series; “Aid workers in the spotlight”. Before reading the final part, I recommend you to check out part 1 and part 2. As presented in the first blog post I aim to highlight the role of aid workers, their mental health and the effect it has on the aid industry and not the least, the aid recipients. As Fechter and Hindman argue (2011), aid workers are not just a tool in the aid industry conducting the work originally designed, but rather the entity which control how policy is run in practice, affected by their own interpretations and feelings while performing the designated work (2-3). Aid workers emotional lives, approaches and motivations are intrinsic to the work they perform within the aid sector, but is also overlooked by both the academic world and the aid industry itself (Hor, 2017: 2).
Inspired by a speech of Leymah Gbowee, I wanted to further elaborate on the mental health of aid workers as I, working with Gender-Based Violence in my community, myself struggle with the “sponge next to the sink”– illustration and felt this to be something which are not talked about enough. When I went through the readings for this exercise I found literature dealing with the same concerns and decided to explore it further.
Nevertheless, the course literature took on an approach more focused on the “West and the Rest- practices”, hence the second blog post came to focus on the comedic meme, produced by, and intended for Western aid practitioners. The blog post problematized the somewhat racist and neo-colonial practice, even if performed unintentionally. As the second post concluded, I posed a question asking if memes like this would disadvantage the work towards more respectful and enhancing relationships between aid workers and locals. This final blog post will further investigate the relationship between aid workers emotional lives and the overall need for decolonisation of and in the aid industry.
Motivations and delimitations
As one could argue, and many does, see HERE [1], HERE [2] and HERE [3], and from Peace Direct’s full report on decolonising aid here (Peace Direct, 2021: 18), the core problem altogether might be the very presence of Western aid workers in the Global South, intentionally and unintentionally imposing their ethnocentrism and White-saviourism practice in their work. Perhaps, the discussion we should be focusing on is how to remove Western aid practices once and for all until a fully intersectional approach, or even better, fully equal terms are in systematic place and thriving.
This especially makes sense, when the main issues of Western aid practitioners bad mental health and anxiety, according to Hor and Ager et al, being due to the feeling of powerlessness to the situation, struggles of guilt and battles of ethnocentrism, the feelings of abandonment and inability to achieve the promised change all while making a living of other’s suffrages (Hor, 2017: 5, 8. Ager et al, 2012: 716).
My reflections are however based on the perception, that the Western aid industry (even though for the bad) will be included in the international aid sector efforts for a while longer and focus should, for now, be on how to decolonise it efficiently and effectively, while still engaging in aid work relations between the Global South and North. You can read more HERE [4], (link found on Denskus Aidnography blog) for a more extensive perspective on this.
As our blog readers commented in previous posts, my reflections would benefit to also include local aid workers perspectives. (I recommend suggested reading “The Filipino Aid Workers of Typhoon Yolanda: A Commemorative Feature” (2017), as a contribution to how local aid workers mental health are distressed to local catastrophes and their reasoning why engaging in aid work.) This will not however, due to limited space, time limit to research and hence methodology limitations be further elaborated at this time. Focus will be on Western aid practitioners and the need for them to also apply reflexivity and awareness to their mental state while engaging in aid work.
Development in a digital world
Before digging deeper into the discussion, I want to briefly introduce the second focus of our blog and this blog series; digging digital development, and raise Tony Roberts distinction between Digital in Development, Digital for Development and Development in a Digital World. As focus of this blog post is on the role of aid workers and their actions, I wish to distinguish the aid workers from the aid institutions and actors as such, which is why Digital in Development will not be of relevance here. Neither will practices through Digital for Development be in focus here. Rather, what captures the essence of what I am trying to highlight is Robert’s explanation of development in a digital world. (Roberts, 2019 [5])
For the aid industry to improve and develop in the right direction, I strongly believe the role of aid workers, as well as their mental health must be more researched, prioritized as well as integrated into the aid sector. This, however, must occur while parallelly recognizing the fast development of digitalism and the consequences it has in the aid sector, and the two must be integrated for a sustainable development. This while also scrutinizing the progress through a reflexive and postcolonial lens, taking the importance of continued decolonisation of the aid industry into account. Bentley et al (2017) point to the challenges in developing a critical consciousness about ICT in the development sector (490) and argues why ICT must be put in a cultural context. If ICT are applicable to a situation, it must to be critically examined and, and both the intended as well as the unintended use and consequences of ICT leading to both positive and negative impacts on marginalized populations must be taken into account (ibid: 478). A cultural identity lens and critical ICT engagement are crucial (ibid: 480).
The Western aid worker
Hor describe The Western aid worker’s stories to be relatable, likeable, and human (Hor, 2017:2). Through meme-accounts such as the Humanitarian.dev.nexus [6] discussed in the second blog post, aid workers can relate, laugh, and connect with each other. Schwarz & Richey (2019) argues parody, irony and caricature channelled through memes and social media to be an effective way to engage and invite the Western public and Western humanitarians to engage (1929-1930). They argue new media to basically be how the younger generation communicate and the social world takes place online, which include the younger generation of humanitarians (ibid: 1932). Similarly Denskus & Papan (2013) argue social media to becoming more essential when it comes to communication about and giving feedback on development issues and practices (458).
The purpose and the motivations of the Western aid worker engaging in the Global South are often questioned, see for example quotes in Peace Direct’s full report (2021: 18) or Denskus blog post White saviour communication rituals in 10 easy steps (aidnography.blogspot.com) [7]. When Hor (2017), Ager et al (2012) and McPherson (2021) lists aid workers anxiety to be because of guilt struggles, powerlessness to the situation and feelings of abandonment and inability to achieve the promised change, we can conclude; the reasons many aid workers go into the field is because they have a hope that they can help to create positive change for the intended aid recipients.
A typical western aid worker and their notion of making the world a better place through their work is clearly illustrated by Neuman (2017). The article describes phenomenon such as the International Humanitarian Day every 19th of August with the slogan “Those who face danger and adversity to help others” and accompanying hashtag #humanitarianhero (ibid: 11). Schwarz and Richey (2019) describe a similar observation of the comedic “online-humanitarians” who are trying to idealize their own performance in the aid industry, while criticising the aid industry (1930) and others (think for e.g., Cancel culture). When continuously referring to oneself consciously and unconsciously as a hero the causes to anxiety among aid workers makes more sense, since it is not in line with reality.
Furthermore, every year around 2000 aid workers is killed, injured, or kidnapped (Neuman, 2017: 12) and this is, in my opinion, not anything to take lightly upon. However, as Neuman emphasises, when victimising while simultaneously heroizing aid workers for voluntarily putting themselves in dangerous position “to help others” the message according to Neuman becomes first; that danger and death are a possible part to the aid work and second; that the aid worker is better and more worthy than others (ibid: 15). These “campaigns” predicting the heroic aid worker are predominantly carried out by the Western aid industry (ibid:14). While the reality is that non-Western aid workers are more likely to be put in a dangerous situation while doing aid work, while at the same time not achieving the same heroic nor victimising greetings (Agaba & Anonymous, 2018) [8]. Bentley et al (2017) also explore this so called “development” martyrdom and discusses why it further extend the white saviourism- implications (23).
Structural racism in the aid industry
As mentioned in the introduction, decolonisation of the aid industry is always of importance. Bentley et al (2017) stating structural equality to always be an issue important to highlight, and a problem that has worsened in many aspects with the introduction of the extensive ICT in to our everyday lives (490). Hence, why I want to briefly mention the extensive blog post [9] of Tobias Denskus in his blog Aidnography covering structural racism in the aid industry as well as the full report published by Peace Direct in 2021 named “Time to decolonise aid”. As the report’s introduction states, and which is well understood in many of Denskus posts of referral, decolonisation of the aid industry is long overdue.
To stay with the focus of the blog post, I concerned myself especially with the findings on how aid workers should deal with this on an individual level, even though it is obvious this is a systematic issue in need to be acknowledged both institutionally, structurally, politically, and so on. One of the main findings in the report was the issue of individual Western aid workers still perceiving themselves as described previously and the white saviourism/ heroic humanitarian are very problematic to the humanitarian cause (Peace Direct et al, 2021: 4) and there is a serious lack of an intersectional approach (ibid:5).
The report recommendations to the individual aid worker are to reflect on its identity, purpose, motivations, and privileges in the aid industry and especially what I want to stress; the baggage they bring with them to their work (Peace Direct et al, 2021: 41) As the first blog post concluded, emotional baggage regardless reasons, should not have to affect their performance in the aid industry. As many of the Western aid workers mental distress was connected to the immediate problematics of the West and the Rest – the racist structural problem in the aid industry, much be taken into account in a much bigger extent already on the individual reflexive level.
The “impersonal distance” discussed in the first blog post, meaning aid workers must distance themselves from the work they perform, I believe are not a solution to neither their mental stress nor the systematic racism in the aid industry. As Bentley et al (2017), and many other push for meaningful participation and to engage with the local on a respectful level working against the us and them other measures must be taken.
Solidarity and networking
Gbowee spoke of solidarity as one of the most important foundations of humanitarian work, while at the same time highlighting the importance of more recognized and/or international aid workers to not steal the spotlight from the local, on the ground workers, in the care sector. Instead, she encouraged aid workers in the international aid industry to use their digital platforms to be made available to for the ground workers. The digital expansion can be of great use to enhance solidarity work, between aid practitioners and recipients and among aid workers.
Solidarity and networking among Western practitioners in a harmful way was illustrated in the second blog post and Bentley at al (2017) mention the dangers with “romanticised solidarity” which still prevails an us and them (19), which is why I here instead want to conclude with raising Denskus & Papans article (20213) on blogging among humanitarians. Their interviewees explain blogging within the humanitarian sector as a way to gain more critical perspectives and knowledge with new aspects often overlooked in the academic world, being able to think through their practices and policies and new ideas and get inputs from others while becoming more resilient to big aid policies. Reading and engaging with blogs gives them another opportunity for reflective practice (Denskus & Papan, 2013: 458, 460). This, Denskus & Papan (2013), believe points to a learning process which can add transparency and accountability to the aid industry (459). Even though blogging activities can open up for better aid practices, it is still mostly engaging on a individual level not affecting the aid industry and its policies and macro development (ibid: 465). As this blog post has demonstrated, the individuals in the aid industry are not to be underestimated though, and if they take on an more reflective approach, this will eventually affect the industry as well.
As blogging illustrates a promising example of reflective practice, the bloggers are still overrepresented by a global elite (Denskus & Papan, 2013: 465) , and even though a bottom-up practice opening up to a more participatory working method (ibid: 464), the harm demonstrated in the second blog post is still to be made aware in the blogging atmosphere. When “new innovative ideas” are discussed (ibid:463), or when Western expatriates discuss their issues in field and share their experiences, with the hope to become better at their practice they must make sure to use a reflexive language, and write for everyone, with an emphasise on the participatory rather than the elite, this will especially apply as the big aid becomes more involved with social media (ibid: 462-465).
To conclude, my three part blog series of “Aid Workers in the Spotlight” has come to an end, and I hope I have raised thoughts, concerns and an overview why the role of aid practitioners, their mental health, the development of ICT and development in a digital world all must be integrated along with a postcolonial lens and focus of decolonisation to improve the aid industry. When digging digital development it becomes clear how ICT could be of great use to better and more sustainable development practices and enhancing and creating better relations between everyone whose part of the aid sector. It also becomes clear how ICT could be used to reinforce colonial practices and attitude.
In the end – to change neo-colonial structural patterns in institutions it all starts with the people itself. The aid workers, the humanitarians, the ones who desire to help but end up distressed with anxiety affecting not only themselves but the whole system. To continuously working on ones awareness, educating oneself, learning more, listening in to more perspectives, improving ones intersectional approach is essential to improve. Exercises like this blogging experiment, or meeting through blogs as discussed in above section I believe could be a good way moving forward!
Concluding reflections on the blogging exercise.
The blogging exercise have proven to be more fruitful than I first thought. As my focus the past years have been on the theoretical aspects of moral and ethics along with legal and political perspectives, I decided to apply to ComDev at Malmö University to learn more about digitalisation of development and the understanding of ICT.
Now, when gotten the chance of integrating academic research with new media, knowing how much social media and blogs such as Tobias Denskus “Aidnography” develop my own understanding, I know this will play a crucial part in the development of more sustainable humanitarian work. I, therefore, greatly appreciated the exercise, also allowing me to play with the thought of a future where I take on a more causal, non- traditional academic approach.
The actual blogging exercise which above all had a focus on teamwork, were also of great use! One of the things I appreciate the most with ComDev at Malmö University is the possibilities to engage and discuss with students from all parts of the world. My group’s weekly meetings were very interesting while we shared anecdotes from around the world. Above all, I appreciated our discussions, contributing insights and equal engagement to all our conversations which concluded in our final work which we were all very pleased with.
However, the technical part including the designing and maintaining of the blog was something I did not knew how to do, nor had a rather greater interest in learning. Afterall, I still come from an academic background rather than practical. When two of our group members voluntarily offered to take on the work themselves not realizing the workload, a rather large amount of unfair workload was put on them. I oversaw our Instagram account, but as our account got blocked, along with my private Instagram too, I was annoyed and put that aside. Reflecting back on the assignment I should have put more effort in to the technical parts for a better experience for us all.
References
Ager, A et al (2021) “Stress, Mental Health, and Burnout in National Humanitarian Aid Workers in Gulu, Northern Uganda” Journal of Traumatic Stress 25 (6): 713–20. Accessed October 27. doi:10.1002/jts.21764.
Bentley, C.M., Nemer, D. & Vannini, S. (2019) “When words become unclear”: unmasking ICT through visual methodologies in participatory ICT4D”. AI & Soc 34, 477–493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0762-z
Chonka, P. (2019). The Empire Tweets Back? #HumanitarianStarWars and Memetic Self-Critique in the Aid Industry. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119888655
Denskus, T (2020) “Racism in the aid industry and international development – a curated collection” Aidnography, 18th June Racism in the aid industry and international development-a curated collection (aidnography.blogspot.com) Last visited: 2021-12-05
Denskus, T & Papan, A (2013) “Reflexive engagements: the international development blogging evolution and its challenges”, Development in Practice, 23:4, 455-467 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2013.790940
HINDMAN, H.; FECHTER, A.-M. Inside the Everyday Lives of Development Workers : The Challenges and Futures of Aidland. Bloomfield, Conn: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010. ISBN 9781565493247. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=438688&lang=sv&site=eds-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 6 dez. 2021.
Hor, A (2017) “Searching for Redemption: Distancing Narratives in the Everyday Emotional Lives of Aid Workers” Draft Paper
Macpherson, R. I. S., & Burkle, F. M., Jr. (2021). Humanitarian Aid Workers: The Forgotten First Responders. PREHOSPITAL AND DISASTER MEDICINE, 36(1), 111–114. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X20001326
Neuman, M (2017 “Dying for humanitarian ideas: Using images and statistics to manufacture humanitarian martyrdom” Paris: MSF-CRASH.Originally published in French in Les Carnets du Bal, Usage géopolitique des images, Le Bal, éditions Textuel, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, octobre 2016
Ong, J. & Combinido, P. 2017 ”The Filipino Aid Workers of Typhoon Yolanda: A Commemorative Feature” Newton Tech4Dev Network.
Peace Direct (2021) ”Time to decolonise aid” London: Peace Direct
Roberts, T. (2019) ”Digital Development, What’s in a name” Appropriating Technology, 9 August. Digital Development: what’s in a name? | Appropriating Technology Last visited: 2021-12-05
Schwarz, K. C., & Richey, L. A. (2019). Humanitarian humor, digilantism, and the dilemmas of representing volunteer tourism on social media. New Media & Society, 21(9), 1928–1946. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819834509
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