Secret aid worker: it's one standard for local staff and another for expats
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Version 0 of 1. While working as an international adviser for an NGO in an African country, I contracted malaria and it got worse as opposed to better with treatment. After one agonising night on a morphine drip in the local hospital, a call was placed to my employer’s insurance provider, and five hours later an air ambulance was on the ground to medivac me out of the country. I was whisked safely to a more developed country nearby, where world-class medical care awaited me. The whole thing cost more than $200,000; insurance paid. Some time later one of my national colleagues – the longest-serving team member – was involved in a road traffic accident on his way home from work. He lay unconscious on the roadside for 15 minutes, his leg shattered. As Ebola ravaged the country and accessing healthcare became harder than ever, he spent nine days in limbo, before being flown to the same country that I had been treated in, and another 11 days waiting there before the necessary surgery was performed. It took 20 days from accident to surgery. Twenty days through which he lay in uncertainty, fear, and excruciating pain. Related: Secret Aid Worker: After years in the field, I've lost my compassion During this time a number of individuals within the NGO went to enormous lengths to make the necessary happen. They planned, they negotiated, they fundraised. They called in favours, they pulled strings. Meanwhile the NGO prevaricated, debated and delayed. My former colleague’s treatment cost in the region of $40,000. He had no insurance. The NGO eventually contributed $15,000. The rest came from the pockets of current and former colleagues. Two tiers of staff These two tales provide just one example of an issue that runs across much of the aid and development sector. The NGO in question says: “We do not draw any distinction between our international and national staff when it comes to medical insurance – we make strenuous efforts to keep all of our staff safe and well regardless of where they come from. Any suggestion otherwise in this article is incorrect and misleading.” I disagree. And I want to draw attention to the inequality here: to the disparity between the treatment of locally engaged (usually national) support staff and their (usually international) professionally skilled colleagues. This article focuses on the ethical, moral and legal issues involved in determining that some staff members have their lives saved by their employer and others do not. But it is worth remembering that, in many NGOs, much of what follows applies not only to healthcare provision, but to working hours, overtime, days off, notice periods, termination requirements … the list goes on. Related: Secret Aid Worker: is there such a thing as being too French? Why the inequality? I have heard five reasons for discrepancies in employment terms that mean international staff typically receive medical insurance as standard and national staff typically do not. But these excuses don’t stack up. Let’s consider them one by one: Related: Secret aid worker: flaky aid boys and other development love-life disasters National support staff deserve better These issues are challenging both ethically and practically. Although they got part way there in the end, it took days for my former employer to work through fiduciary issues, legal liabilities and financial concerns before they were able to decide how much they could and would do to help my former colleague. These issues should have been worked through long before he lay waiting in agony. In the midst of all the development industry’s concerns of “do we really make any difference”, the only thing they can be completely sure of influencing is the lives of the people they directly touch. International NGOs purport to make the world a better place. They have to get their own houses in order first. Do you have a secret aid worker story you’d like to tell? You can contact us confidentially at globaldevpros@theguardian.com - please put Secret Aid Worker in the subject line. Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. |