I recently wrote a blog post for a TechChange course called Tech Tools and Skills for Emergencies. I wrote about the lack of humanitarian tools that for operational efficiency and organizational accountability. So here it is…

Inadequate tools for humanitarian efficiency and accountability

Originally posted on 26 September 2011

The topic of organizational efficiency and accountability is one area that has not been covered through this course. The humanitarian community is faced with the challenges of increased programmatic needs and limited funding while faced greater calls for accountability from donors and beneficiaries. While the course has evaluated several technology tools that improve the effectiveness of humanitarian response (Ushahidi, FrontlineSMS, GIS, etc.), there are inadequate technology tools that address the efficiency and accountability of organizations responding to emergencies.

Efficiency is the “effective operation as measured by a comparison of production with cost” (link: M-W definition) . And humanitarian organizations operate in the realm of humanitarian action where the objectives are “to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity” (link: Global Humanitarian Assistance). Yet for traditional non-profit charitable organizations, overhead costs (non-program or non-field costs) are typically the measuring sticks used to determine efficiency instead of measuring  the cost of beneficiaries reached and impacted. Also, while there are numerous tools for improving support office efficiency (information portals, databases, Excel macros, etc), there are few tools that address operational inefficiencies in the field, where many activities are still disconnected or, worse yet, using pen-paper transcription!

Similarly, donors and beneficiary communities are increasingly focusing on accountability and quality management within humanitarian interventions. Humanitarian accountability centres around community feedback throughout humanitarian activities but delays in the feedback reporting loop means that emergency interventions may be finished before corrective action is applied. Also, accountability has been limited to reducing negative community feedback, but has not been expanded to increase transparency for project funding and implementation. Therefore, humanitarian organizations need access to technology tools that can better monitor and report their activities to both donors and beneficiaries.

An example of a technology tool that could be used to improve both organization efficiency and accountability is “Last Mile Mobile Solutions” (abbreviated as LMMS). Designed to improve organizational effectiveness, efficiency and accountability, it is a tool that could be instrumental in re-framing the use of information technology for humanitarian activities. In the hands of field staff, LMMS saves significant time and reduces redundancies and errors. For project managers, the system’s beneficiary management database and corresponding project tracking tools also provides real-time reporting of activities that can be immediately relayed to communities and donors. Although no one technology tool will be “the one tool to rule them all”, Last Mile Mobile Solutions provides an innovative answer to the sometimes overlooked area of humanitarian efficiency and accountability.

For a closer look at LMMS in the field, watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJIiCz_ULKM

Working in the field of international development, there is an assumption of working and living overseas; there is an inherent instability and level of flux and motion. It’s great to work and live in a dynamic environment that is always changing: it is never boring. There is always new-ness: new tasks, new things, new places and new people.

In working for a large NGO, I also have the luxury of job stability. But sometimes I feel as though I’ve “sold-out” to the template of a productive member society: go to school, graduate, get a stable job, get married, have kids, etc, etc. ad nauseum. A friend of mine started a tiny organization, Raising the Village, that goes against the grain of both our model of society as well as the business model of NGOs.  At times, I envy the singular drive that distinguishes RTV from other organizations. But of course, every NGO and every person has their niche: I am still figuring out mine.

The rhythm of relief and humanitarian work is 3 months somewhere, home for a break, and then another 3 months in the next disaster zone. This schedule doesn’t allow room for family, friends, relationships, and the rest of life in general. I know people who were able to manage this lifestyle, but not many, and probably not me.

Should I be looking for more stability or more security? I have been told to expect uncertainty, and to be certain of the unexpected. In any case, “You can’t always get what you want” (sing along to that tune!) or that you can’t always get everything you want.

It’s amazing to read the story of Farmer, as I cross some of his paths in Cange and Mirebalais in the Central Plateau of Haiti. I was lucky to visit the small town of Colombier to help with a USAID SYAP (Single Year Assistance Program) food distribution to 200 households this past week. The Central Plateau is green and hilly. And the people living there eke out a living by growing bananas on the sides of the steep mountains. So I am seeing first-hand a part of what is in the book.

I probably have to re-read the book a few times to really digest it and to collect my thoughts. In any case, I already have a few more Paul Farmer books on order and Partners in Health is on my small list of “to-give” NGOs. Here are a few quotes from the book that stuck out to me:

“Do you know what appropriate technology means? It means good things for rich people and shit for the poor…”
- Father Lafontant (Chapter 9, Mountains Beyond Mountains)

This one hits home at me since my motto/business card tagline has recently been: “Innovative and Appropriate Information and Communications Technology for Development”.

“Never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world. Indeed, they are the only ones who ever have.”
- Margaret Mead (Chapter 18)

Margaret Mead: Another anthropologist… My sister has been tinkering with cultural anthropology together with community development and I’m beginning to see how important they are to each other.

[...] how much could be done in Haiti if only [Farmer] could get his hands on the money that the first world spent on pet grooming.
- (Chapter 22)

I’ve recently become fond of cats and dogs again…

“I didn’t say you should do what I do. I just said that things should be done!” -Farmer (Chapter 24)

Still chewing on this one…

“You should compare suffering. Which suffering is worse. It’s called triage.”

“How about if I said, That’s all it adds up to is defeat? [...] I have fought the long defeat and brought other people on to fight the long defeat, and I’m not going to stop because we keep losing. Now I actually sometimes we may win.”

“I don’t care if we lose, I’m gonna try to do the right thing.”
- Farmer (Chapter 26)

This one is tough. I’m still chewing on all of it.

I have trouble seeing what’s wrong with donating used goods to a poorer population. The fact that they are making use of these hand-me-downs shows that they do need them, no? The money that go into a place like Haiti is spent in many essential constructions and care, and surely there isn’t enough money to cover new purchases of all the basic items for people there. And when there is a hand-me-down, that means someone somewhere else is thinking about what other use the shirt they wore twice can be put to – I’ve seen too many people who take out their clothes and other functioning products as garbage because they are too lazy with going through the donation process, or simply unwilling to let go of things they no longer need at home. Isn’t recycling and reusing the way to go now? Many countries started as developing, or undeveloped countries, and people then would all gladly embrace items donated to them. These things do help. But as long as the support is there to help educate them, and guidance for better farming or whatever means, they may one day turn into a country that can now help others.

I have no problems with recycling and reusing goods that are in good condition. It’s true that the living circumstances may be so dire that families will take anything offered to them. However, I want to challenge the notion that we (individuals and governments alike) give more than our spare change and leftovers. The developing world is an after-thought or even a non-thought: “people [...] too lazy with going through the donation process”.

The current global forums remind me of patriarchal families where the adults eat first and then the children eat whatever, if any, scraps remain. The developed world continues to dictate decisions for the developing world, instead of sitting as peers. Even if there are under-developed/developing children/nations/countries at the table, shouldn’t we give them the best as they are growing?

I didn’t expect Haiti to be so developed. Haiti has been on the international development radar even before the earthquake; it’s ranked 149 out of 182 countries according to Human Development Index. The next entry on the HDI is Sudan. Port-au-Prince feels decades ahead of Juba and the small towns of South Sudan. I was anticipating decrepit open spaces with people living in huts and makeshift shelters, but instead the streets of PaP are lined with countless shops and homes. And the buildings are generally well built – where I’m staying.

I’m meeting many well-read, well-educated Haitians, as well as seeing communities filled with poverty. Haiti doesn’t have anything average. There are no average middle-class as you would find in Nairobi, or in Kampala. Instead, there are the very rich (include the educated here) and the very poor but no one in-between. Some of the houses I’ve seen are gigantic; the expat hotels are comparable to any I’ve seen.

If you were to average out the entire country, it feels on par with many developing countries. Except that the wealth is not at all distributed equally. Paul Farmer (who I’m beginning to read) lived and worked in Haiti and describes it through his theory of “structural violence”.

I expected to see more damage from the earthquake. Alas, I’m staying in a richer (and better built) area of Port-au-Prince away from the epicentre of the earthquake.

There are so many leftover, hand-me-down goods in Haiti that it makes me embarrassed to have entertained the thought. Second-hand clothes fill the streets. The buses are discarded, “yellow rocket” school buses from Lake and Dade county in Florida.  Most of them are re-welded, patched and look unsafe for anyone to ride. It’s as if we in US and Canada are too righteous to throw out our old junk, so we decide instead to ship it off to an island landfill.

Anyway, that’s enough for now. I visited the Corail IDP camp today. That’ll be a whole other discussion.

Check out Season Kam’s blog about her experiences with SIM in Malawi.

We may speak the language of sacrifice and of service, but if we have no love in our hearts for those whom we seek to help, our efforts will have no more effect than a noisy gong or a clanging symbol whose influence fades away with the clamour.

We may emphasise the urgency of development, comprehend all the urgent problems and needs of the world, and have absolute faith and determination that we can imagine the masses living in prosperous communities at a respectable standard of living but have no love for the people, it is all in vain.

We may distribute the aid we possess. We may give our lives to save the needy masses, but if love is not our motive, the world will not be better for our effort.

With love we will be very patient as we confront a foreign culture with change.

With love we will not feel boastfully righteous as though we have all the solutions to all the worlds needs.

With love we will never inflate our ego at the expense of the failures and weaknesses of others.

With love we will not be resentful when our service is taken for granted.

With love our efforts will hit the mark.

Love never gives up. As for teaching, it will be superseded; as for agencies of development, they will cease. For our technology and planning and our institutions are incomplete but when our actions are guided by love and justice, then they will be complete.

We are limited in our understanding, we see in a mirror dimly. We are baffled by problems and the lasting solutions elude us. But we are learning bit by bit and we long for a day when love shall rule the world.

Thus faith that God has a plan for the world, hope that seeks the full life for all, and a love that knows no boundaries – these 3 endure, but the greatest of these is love.

Make love your goal.