Embodying change: Transforming power, culture and well-being in aid organisations

Melissa talks with Hope Chigudu, reflecting back on the 20-21 May Global Gathering entitled “Living our values: Care, culture and power in aid organisations” held by the CHS Alliance.

In their conversation they cover:

• The connections between power, culture and care
• The importance of leadership, of using language that people can understand in different contexts, of raising awareness about power in our spaces
• The value of rituals, for individuals and communities
• The idea of accountability: In a world of external accountability and upward accountability, how are we accountable to ourselves?
• Ideas for how to follow-up the Global Gathering in a way that takes into consideration enthusiasm and energy

Hope Chigudu is feminist activist and a gender, organisational and development practitioner. In her earlier days in the women’s movement, she co-founded the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network. She later used her skills in governance and management to serve as Chair of the Board of Urgent Action Fund-Africa and prior to this as chair of the Global Fund for Women. Hope is an internationally renowned consultant with experience in "healing" organisations, governance and creative monitoring and evaluation. She co-authored with Rudo Chigudu “Strategies for Building Organisations with a Soul.”

To learn more, check out:

• 10 session recordings from the Global Gathering on the CHS Alliance YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh1w1Ldo3QjUh7q_coN5ifrnUZqlop8cI
• “Strategies for Building an Organisation with a Soul” by Hope Chigudu and Rudo Chigudu, edited by Jessica Horn, published by the African Institute for Integrated Responses to VAWG and HIV/AIDS (AIR): http://airforafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Strategies-for-Building-an-Organisation-with-Soul-WEB.pdf
• The CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

***We would like to give a special thanks to the Initiative’s supporters: the CHS Alliance members, the Government of Luxembourg, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (DFCO) and the Netherlands. Thanks to ICVA for collaborating in this joint project engaging leaders. And thanks to Ziada Abeid for editing the show.***

In this conversation Mary Ann Clements explains the background and the hopes for the 20-21 May 2021 CHS Alliance virtual Global Gathering on Living our values: Care, culture and power in aid organisations.

This free virtual gathering is the first of its kind in our sector which will bring together leaders and practitioners who are interested in the question of how we live our values in aid organisations. The combined focus of how we treat ourselves and our staff brings together themes of power, privilege, identity, culture and wellbeing in aid. We will be asking together how do we move towards more compassion, equity, inclusion, accountability and solidarity? You can sign up for the event at https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/event/living-our-values-care-culture-and-power-in-aid-organisations/

Mary Ann Clements is a feminist author, facilitator, activist & coach who has worked for two decades in international development. Her work combines analysis, reflection and holding space for new and unusual conversations with a body-based and trauma-informed approach. She is a coach and also the creator of Healing Solidarity, a project she now co-leads and co-author of “Red Tents: Unravelling Our Past and Weaving a Shared Future.” You can learn more about her work at https://maryannclements.com/

To learn more:

- Check out the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

- Read the ICVA-CHS Alliance joint report, “Leading well: Aid leader perspectives on staff well-being and organisational culture” https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/resource/leading-well-aid-leader-perspectives-on-staff-well-being-and-organisational-culture/

***We would like to give a special thanks to the Initiative’s supporters: the CHS Alliance members, the Government of Luxembourg, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (DFCO) and the Netherlands. Thanks to Ziada Abeid for editing the show.***

At the end of January 2021 Naser Haghamed completed his 5-year stint as the CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide. Melissa reflects back with him about leadership, staff well-being and organisational culture for the ICVA-CHS Alliance “Leading Well” project.

In their conversation they consider

• What it’s like to be in constant “firefighting mode” as a CEO of an organization operating in multiple conflict zones and navigating complex donor and regulatory requirements
• The importance of constant, transparent communication with teams and stakeholders, including engaging Boards on the issue of staff well-being
• What leaders can do to set the tone at the top and manage their stress
• The need for collective, sustained action on staff well-being in the aid sector

Naser Haghamed was born in Eritrea but was forced to leave his homeland as a refugee before he could complete his schooling – an experience that shaped his life and later fuelled his passion to serve the world’s poor and marginalised through Islamic Relief. He was with the organisation for 27 years, having initially joined as an IT Manager and risen through a variety of roles before being appointed CEO in April 2016. During his Islamic Relief career Naser led the International Programmes Division through a period of positive growth and diversification; oversaw the establishment of the Humanitarian Academy for Development as a global centre of excellence; and expanded TIC International as a retail subsidiary generating income from charity shops and recycling. He activated Islamic Relief’s global £20 million programme to support vulnerable communities threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic; led a far-reaching reform of governance structures; spearheaded global campaigns on gender justice and climate change; and cemented Islamic Relief’s position as a key strategic partner for governments, UN agencies and NGOs. Naser Haghamed said towards the end of his time at Islamic Relief Worldwide: “It has been an honour and a privilege to serve the millions of people we support around the world, and it is with great sadness that I am stepping down. I have seen for myself in so many countries that the impact of what we do is hugely positive and we have made great progress, but there is a lot more to do. Islamic Relief has been a big part of my life and I will continue to support the organisation’s work and the next CEO in any way that I can.” Today he is the CEO of AIC Ltd. specializing in governance and risk management.

To learn more:

• Read the ICVA-CHS Alliance joint report, “Leading well: Aid leader perspectives on staff well-being and organisational culture” https://www.icvanetwork.org/resources/leading-well-aid-leader-perspectives-staff-well-being-and-organisational-culture
• You can follow Naser on Twitter at @NaserHaghamed and LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/naser-haghamed-15bb3820
• Check out the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

To get involved:

• A live podcast episode on "Leading Well" will be held in conversation with two aid CEOs on 29 April at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks: https://vosocc.unocha.org/GetFile.aspx?xml=7099mNSNuyt2ObIjn0rASVQuOcrk99i1yNbKXSwpylU9vDMx_B_l1.html&tid=7099&laid=1
• A virtual Global Gathering on "Living our values: Care, culture and power in aid organisations" will be held 20-21 May: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/event/living-our-values-care-culture-and-power-in-aid-organisations/

***We would like to give a special thanks to the Initiative’s supporters: the CHS Alliance members, the Government of Luxembourg, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (DFCO) and the Netherlands. Thanks to ICVA for collaborating in this joint project engaging leaders. And thanks to Ziada Abeid for editing the show.***

Melissa talks with Julia Sánchez, Secretary General of ActionAid International. The conversation was part of an ICVA-CHS Alliance joint project engaging aid leaders on the issues of staff well-being and supportive organisational culture.

ActionAid’s ten principles of feminist leadership include elements that explicitly link to staff well-being, like self awareness, self-care and caring for others. They also include ingredients for a supportive organisational culture like: dismantling bias, inclusion, sharing power and using it responsibly and transparently, accountable collaboration, courage (learning from mistakes rather than fearing failure), respectful feedback and zero tolerance for discrimination and abuse of power in the workplace.

In their conversation Melissa and Ms. Sánchez cover:

• Reflections on how important it is to know our values, and how hard it can be to apply them in our daily work
• Why we seem particularly stressed in this sector
• The importance of leaders modelling healthy relationships to the work
• Lessons learned on collaborative management (vs. micromanagement) for building trust and giving space to learn
• An open question about how we “recharge” when we can’t travel and see people in person

Ms. Sánchez is a development practitioner, feminist and environmentalist who has been promoting equity and sustainable development for more than 25 years. Born in Peru, Julia grew up in Latin and North America. A global citizen, she is tri-lingual and has lived and worked in numerous countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Early in her career, Julia worked with a Canadian INGO for many years, first in Guatemala, then in Canada and finally as regional director for Asia based in Nepal. From 2009 to 2011, she was then national campaign coordinator with the global secretariat of the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA) based out of Delhi. She was appointed as president-CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) in 2011, a position she held until 2018. Subsequently, she ran as a federal candidate for the Canadian parliament in 2019 and completed a research contract with the largest union in Canada, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), on privatisation of municipal services. Julia has served on numerous Canadian and international boards and advisory bodies, including as co-chair of the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) from 2016 to 2018. She served as the chair of CIVICUS and was previously treasurer from 2016 to 2019. Julia has designed and managed programs in areas such as humanitarian assistance, reconstruction, governance, democratic development, community-based economic development, international volunteering and, more recently, campaigning on climate change. She is an economist and political scientist, with a BA in Economics and Political Science and an MA in Economics, both from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

To learn more, check out:

- ActionAid’s Ten Principles of Feminist Leadership: https://actionaid.org/feminist-leadership

- The CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

- The forthcoming ICVA-CHS Alliance joint report, “Leading well: Aid leader perspectives on staff well-being and organisational culture”

***We would like to give a special thanks to the Initiative’s supporters: the CHS Alliance members, the Government of Luxembourg, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (DFCO) and the Netherlands. Thanks to ICVA for collaborating in this joint project engaging leaders. And much gratitude to Ziada Abeid for editing the show.***

Melissa talks with Gozel Baltaeva and Adrien Muratet about Commitment Eight of the Core Humanitarian Standard. What are the data and the practitioners saying about people management in the humanitarian sector, especially during COVID?

Gozel Baltaeva is the People Management Adviser and point of contact for tailored support on all people management topics for CHS Alliance members. With a master’s degree in Business Administration and Strategic Human Resources Management, Gozel offers 15-plus years of experience leading multi-cultural and multi-skilled teams in challenging environments working with MSF, ACF and ICRC. Gozel loves helping HR professionals improve their strategies and solutions by providing guidance and tools and facilitating exchange of good practice, notably by bringing people management professionals together and creating powerful experiences at the Humanitarian Human Resources conference. Gozel also enjoys mentoring up-and-coming HR professionals where she shares her knowledge and passion for people management.

Adrien Muratet is the CHS Verification Manager. He is a humanitarian practitioner with experience in various international NGOs (Oxfam, IRC) and UN agencies (UNHCR). He started working in the field, in the Democratic Republic of Congo primarily, as coordinator of protection clusters and a program manager, before transitioning to headquarters, and from protection to protection mainstreaming, and finally to quality and accountability in humanitarian action. He joined the CHS Alliance in 2016 focusing on the support to organisations completing a self-assessment, and progressively extended his responsibilities to oversee the entire verification portfolio and participate in building a stronger verification system.

To learn more, check out:

- CHS Alliance People Management Support: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/people-management/

- CHS Alliance Verification Support: https://www.chsalliance.org/verify/

- The CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

***As we close the year and the season, we would like to give a special thanks to the supporters of the Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations: the CHS Alliance, the Government of Luxembourg, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (DFCO), ICVA and soon the Netherlands. We would also like to thank Ziada Abeid for editing the show.***

How can we know how staff are doing during these crazy times? Ask them.

Melissa talks with Roger Parry, Director of Agenda Consulting. His organisation specialises in employee and volunteer engagement surveys for non-profits. He shares his insights on how staff engagement has increased in the turbulent year of 2020, on how people are experiencing stress differently based on their gender, age and race, and on what it could look like if we tried – as a sector – to track well-being and culture over time using time-tested survey tools.

Roger is the Founder of Agenda Consulting. He has worked since 1985 in the public and not-for-profit sectors as a management consultant – 8 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers and a similar period with Compass Partnership. He has worked with boards, chief executives and senior managers in the following sectors: social care, housing, international development, associations and unions, central Government and Non-Departmental Public Bodies. Internationally Roger has worked in Kenya, South Africa and in Tanzania where he started and led a new consultancy practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 2 years. Roger has an MBA from London Business School and a BA in Mathematics from Oxford.

To learn more about Agenda Consulting visit https://www.agendaconsulting.co.uk/insights/ .

The CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations is described here: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

Melissa and Jules Frost talk with Rachel Coghlan about what humanitarians can learn from palliative care.

Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and their families who face problems associated with life-threatening illness. Like the topic of mental illness, the subject of death and dying can be difficult to discuss. Compassion is a common theme that comes up in both domains.

This conversation highlights small but potent acts of compassion that can be carried out in difficult circumstances, like giving genuine attention, empathic listening, bearing witness and offering a smile. It reflects on the duty of care -- not only self-care but also institutional support for people doing difficult work and supportive conversations between peers. It explores the concepts and benefits of working with dignity, humility and compassion.

Rachel Coghlan is a public health professional with 20 years experience in clinical practice, and in international public health research, policy and advocacy. She is currently undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy at the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, Deakin University. Her research is exploring the place of palliative care in humanitarian emergencies and crises, with a focus on armed conflict settings. She is also a palliative care physiotherapist at Calvary Health Care Bethlehem in Melbourne and a researcher with Palliative Nexus at the University of Melbourne.

Jules Frost is the Head of Programmes and Partnerships at the CHS Alliance. She has 25 years of experience across the globe. At the CHS Alliance she oversees programme development and management, partnership building, and fundraising efforts in support of Accountability to Affected People (AAP), Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH), and People Management. Before joining the CHS Alliance, Jules was Medair’s International Director and before that she had an extensive career at World Vision.

To learn more,

· Watch the Sphere webinar on “Palliative care and COVID-19: Challenges for the humanitarian sector” held on 28 October 2020 in partnership with the CHS Alliance, H2H Network and UKaid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY_v3kIpdoc

· Read Rachel’s blog in the ICRC’s Humanitarian Law and Policy called “Palliative care, COVID-19 and humanitarian action: it’s time to talk” dated 2 July 2020: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2020/07/02/palliative-care-covid-19/

· Read Rachel’s September 2019 paper for the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, “Palliative care in humanitarian crises: innovation or radical reclaiming of roots” https://centreforhumanitarianleadership.org/research/publications/palliative-care-in-humanitarian-crises-innovation-or-radical-reclaiming-of-roots/

The CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring Compassionate Aid Organizations is described here: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/.

In this episode, Melissa talks with Brendan McDonald, co-founder and COO of Uncomfortable Revolution. They explore lessons learned from a big push to get the issue of aid worker well-being on the agenda in the run-up to the World Humanitarian Summit.

To learn more about Brendan’s work, you can find him:

· on Twitter at @7piliers

· Uncomfortable Revolution at https://www.urevolution.com/

· his 2015 article in the Guardian at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/jul/31/aid-workers-casualties-mental-health

· The petition discussed at: https://bit.ly/3oW1hJi

· Uncomfortable Revolution’s mental health video series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClJ70hiDjK1HWCvGgu-re5Q

Other resources

· WhatsApp’s Global Suicide Hotline Resources page is here: https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/global-suicide-hotline-resources/?lang=en

· CHS Guidance notes on non-disclosure agreements is here: https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/resource/non-disclosure-agreements-guidance-note/

On the Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate Aid Organisations here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

Melissa talks with Melly Preira, the Human Resources Director at the Jesuit Refugee Service about why she is passionate about employee well-being and how she went about introducing major changes her humanitarian organisation's staff support.

Melly’s HR Department supports 56 countries in 10 regions and implements HR management practices, tailored to both the field and HQ. She guides senior management on the development and promotion of strategic policies and projects to support the well-being and performance of their employees. Her focus on organisational well-being consists of organisational policies, specific self-care practices, and tailored health and psychosocial support services.

To learn more, you can hear Melly when she speaks at the 3 November 2020 Humanitarian Human Resources (HHR) conference, organised by the CHS Alliance: https://www.chsalliance.org/hhr2020-online/. You can also check out her organisation at https://jrs.net/en/home/ and her LinkedIn profile at linkedin.com/in/preiramelly.

Dr. Gemma Houldey shares with Mary Ann her views on well-being in the aid sector, particularly the nuances that arise as a result of gender, race and professional status. She previews some of the concepts explored in her forthcoming book, including perfectionism, vulnerability and daring to have difficult conversations. During this period of COVID-19 and stark reminders of racial injustice, we have an opportunity to pause, slow down, and be with the parts of ourselves we don’t like. This conversation touches upon some of the key challenges identified in our mapping report, particularly the importance of supportive organisational culture.

Gemma, an advisor and facilitator for aid sector professionals and change-makers, has over 15 years of experience with human rights and humanitarian programmes, particularly in the Middle East and East Africa, and 5 years of research and learning focused on staff care in the aid sector. Whether working on advocacy campaigns in Palestine, or with peace-building groups in northern Uganda - she has seen how unhealthy working practices and lack of self-care affect our ability to respond effectively to the communities we serve as humanitarians and human rights defenders. Her PhD, completed at the University of Sussex, investigated how the intersections of gender, race and nationality and organisational policies and systems contribute to stress among aid workers in Kenya.

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].

Learn more about Gemma Houldey's work at https://gemmahouldey.com/