I
start by distinguishing between humanitarian aid and international
development – which is crystal clear to anyone operating among them
but often mixed up by others. Humanitarian aid is short-time help to
meet people's primary needs in catastrophes such as wars and natural
hazards. International development (int dev) aims at delivering
sustainable solutions to grounding problems like poverty, inequality,
environmental destruction and bad governance. Three years ago, when I
decided to make a career change to int dev, I was a total novice in
the field. Having studied business and worked at the private sector,
I did not know even the basics.
During
a year of job seeking and two years of working I learned quite a bit
about int dev. There are still many aspects I do not know anything
about and even more of whom I have just scraped the surface. But when
one starts from zero the initial learning curve is steep. Because of
my commercial background, I will compare some int dev concepts and
characteristics with those familiar from business. Since I have
properly worked only for two organizations – one company and one
NGO – my perceptions may reflect organizational cultures rather
than being objectively representative of their sectors.
 |
| My NGO believes in green energy! |
There
are different players at the int dev sector. Project implementers,
usually NGOs, can be called companies in our comparison. They
undertake activities related to the int dev issues listed earlier.
Their “clients” are people receiving goods, services and
education provided by them. Often these people are underpriviledged
and without the projects their needs would be left unmet. They rarely
pay, at least fully, for what they get. So where do NGOs get money
from since they do not make income with their clients? Their
operations are funded by donors. Donors are generally country
governments or consortiums of them, or rich privates, that fund the
projects as their development aid commitments or out of good will.
Instead of implementing wanted activities on the ground themselves,
they contract NGOs for their resources and expertise. So in a way
donors are investors in these projects, just that instead of getting
money in return they get development results.
As
mentioned, int dev often takes place in the project form. Donors
announce calls (tenders in business terms) about the kinds of
projects they want to fund. They define desired project location,
size, scope, timeline and outcome. Different NGOs compete who gets
the available funding. Proposal writing is a time consuming state of
art, as NGOs must convince donors of their experience, knowledge and
resources. As opposed to previous times, when donors knew little of
how their money was spent in the end, donors of today require
extensive reporting of achieved results. These results may be for
example number of people reached, jobs created, disease prevented and
so on, some easier to measure than others.
 |
| Visiting a beneficiary in Kenya |
For
employees int dev is more volatile work environment than stably
running business. Winning a big call can mean notable operations
increase to an NGO. It may need to hire new personnel with specific
skills. This means that often int dev jobs are fixed to project
budgets and timelines, and many people switch organizations every few
years following suitable positions. Also external consultants are
popularly used to provide spot-on expertise. Despite this uncertainty
and relatively low salary level, thousands of talented people choose
to work in int dev. They are drawn by the meaningfulness of the work,
complex challenges to be solved, truly international teams and
travels, and above all the colourful lifestyle. The int dev crew is
exceptionally engaged in world problems, equipped with adventurous
and open mindset, and truly motivated by the work they do.
 |
| Field trip visit in Indonesia |
When
I searched for my first int dev job I faced huge barriers. I competed
against professionals with relevant degrees, extensive volunteer and
work experience, and handful of fluently mastered languages. I lacked
any contacts within the sector – the single most important factor
in getting a job. Luckily back then I did not know how desperate my
task really was, otherwise I might have given up. Instead I
persistently sent tens of applications, also to irrelevant and
unreachable organizations, since I did not know better even to
separate project implementers and donors from each other. During the
first half a year I did not even receive rejection messages. I wrote
to foreign ministries (who surprisingly wrote back!) and sought out
friends of friends working in int dev to ask for their advice. In the
end I finally managed to get two interviews and one of them got me
the job in the Netherlands. Following social media groups of young
int dev professionals, I see many capable 30-year-olds still doing
internships and struggling to break into paid work. Compared to
private sector the int dev job market is twisted. NGOs can get highly
skilled workforce basically for free since there are eager people
lined up to do anything just to get the experience in their CVs. I
can consider myself lucky for jumping right into a proper job, even
though I had to accept a notable salary cut down from my business
job.
So
are int dev workers genuinely selfless and purely motivated by
helping poor people? Of course not! They are intelligent and
ambitious, and seek personal glory even more than average private
sector workers. They want to get recognized as innovators of new
concepts (regardless whether they benefit more or less people than
replicating old ones) and get publicity at field circles. It seems to
me that private sector teams are more uniformed working towards a
common goal – simply maximizing revenue – whilst int dev workers
each have their personal, often conflicting agendas in an environment
without a clear common target. Because operations in int dev are not
straight forwardly revenue driven (although results delivered to
donors could be interpreted as such), resources are often used more
loosely.
 |
| Maroccon street food with my favorite colleague and client |
To
conclude this subjective description of int dev, complemented with
personal rambling, I want to say I do not regret a minute the
decision to enter working on it. Although I may consider some profit-for-purpose type of a organization even a better fit for me,
taken my result orientedness and effectiveness, I feel at home
among int dev issues and people. I hope that when I read this text
in a few years time I will think about how little did I know back
then, since that will be a sign of continuous learning.
