On earning international development's top merit badge

Evan, 2005 graduate of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies (M.A., International Affairs), and former lobbyist for the international development community, relocated to Iraq from Washington, DC in July of this year to begin working with a USAID-funded NGO in Kirkuk, Iraq. Several months later, Evan is sufficiently acclimated to share a little of his experience so far.

Q: Please describe your position and how you found out about this opportunity.

I’m the Reporting & Management Information Systems (MIS) Director. I supervise a staff of three Iraqi MIS professionals, who are very good at their work and understand the intricacies of the database far better than I ever will. I’m also responsible for preparing all the reports and external communications that come out of my project. That includes quarterly reports, annual implementation plans, quarterly work plans, weekly reports to USAID/Baghdad, and periodic reports and presentations for the PRTs that are working in our four-province area of operations. I’m also in charge of implementing our marking and branding strategy.

The program itself is a community development program focused on strengthening the ability of communities to articulate their needs to local government, and the ability of local government to respond to those needs. We work with community leaders to form Community Action Groups that assess their communities’ needs and come up with project ideas to address them. We also train local city councils to help them be more transparent, democratic, and effective. Then, in partnership with the Community Action Groups and the city councils, we co-fund relatively small ($100,000 or less) projects that include schools, electrical networks for villages that don’t have electricity, sewer rehabilitations, irrigation canals, etc. A separate objective of our program is to provide small (under $10,000) grants from the U.S. Government to innocent victims of coalition forces’ operations to help them start new businesses in light of the fact that many of them are unable to continue in their previous jobs after they’ve been injured.

I found out about the opportunity from a friend who works at the HQ of my organization. While I didn’t get this job through networking in the traditional cocktail party sense, I wouldn’t have heard about the job had it not been for my friend. I really can’t overstate the value of networking, even if you’re not in the market for a new job. I know several people who got their jobs because of a connection they made through a friend or an informational interview.

Q: What was the impetus? Did you consider this a necessary move career-wise?

While I had worked in the international development/humanitarian sector for three years, I really wanted to get some experience working for an NGO overseas. In terms of the career benefits, I think this move will definitely be a good one. For one thing, I really enjoyed advocating on behalf of U.S. humanitarian and development assistance programs while I was in Washington, and I think my experience here in Iraq will definitely make me a more effective advocate when I return. On a related note, I’m not sure how long I could’ve continued to credibly work in the field of international development without gaining some on-the-ground field experience.

Q: Who did you talk to beforehand in making this decision and what advice did you get?

I was able to get to know a pretty large network of humanitarian and development professionals during my time in Washington, DC, many of whom had experience working in Afghanistan, Sudan, the DRC, Iraq, and other conflict countries. I checked with some of them before I finalized my decision and, for the most part, the feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive. The advice I received from most people was to be prepared for long work hours, the boredom that comes from being confined to a compound for extended periods, and the tensions that can develop with one’s coworkers as a result of the latter two issues. Those predictions were generally spot-on, but it’s the kind of thing you can prepare yourself for.

Q: What are your living conditions like and how has the security situation there impacted your work and day to day existence?

We’re confined to our compound in Kirkuk for the entire work week, aside from project site visits or trainings we (infrequently) conduct off-site. The compound is about the size of a city block, and there are about ten of us living here from day-to-day. We spend our weekends in Erbil, which is within the Kurdistan Regional Government, and is a much safer city. When we’re up there, we’re allowed to go pretty much anywhere on foot. There are lots of expats up there, and so there are bars and restaurants that cater to them.

While I’ve never felt like I was in any kind of imminent danger and I generally feel very safe, security is an ever-present concern here. We have to wear body armor and ride in armored cars whenever we leave our compound in Kirkuk, and even in Erbil we have to keep our security team apprised of our movements whenever we go outside. Basically, someone knows where I am 24/7, which is an odd feeling to get used to.

Q: What books do you think best prepared you for life in post-Saddam Iraq?

Well, I really enjoyed The Prince of the Marshes, by Rory Stewart, and Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, but I would say that books that were written about the immediate post-invasion period don’t really capture the way things are in the current context. I would recommend Thomas Ricks’ The Gamble to anyone who wants to understand the origins of the Surge and its impact on Iraq, and how the lessons learned from the Surge might be applied in Afghanistan. Given the U.S. Military’s recent embrace of counterinsurgency doctrine, books like The Gamble and The Accidental Guerilla are worthy reads for development professionals who want to understand what counterinsurgency is and what it might mean for the way the United States “does” development in non-permissive environments in the future. Finally, The Shia Revival and Invisible Nation, about the Shiites and the Kurds respectively, have been particularly useful to me here in Iraq.

Q: What are your expectations professionally when you return to the US?

I’m not sure when I’ll return to the U.S., but when I do I’d like to get back into the policy arena. I really enjoyed my work on humanitarian and development policy issues, and people shouldn’t underestimate how important the behind-the-scenes policy work of development NGOs and think tanks is to the way that the United States engages with the rest of the world. It’s pretty exciting work and, like being out in the field, I can feel pretty good about myself at the end of the day.

Q: Any head-scratching moments you'd like to share?

When we start working with a new community, we give them a set up supplies (papers, bins, flip charts, etc.) called a Community Action Tool Box, referred to by the acronym CAT box. I pointed out that “toolbox” is actually one word, and that the term “cat box” doesn’t really call images of community development to mind, but we continue to use the acronym. Read more!

Eighty Percent of Success is Just Showing Up

Recent JKSIS graduate Rachel D. DuBois moved to Sudan, jobless, earlier this year. She now has a paid position in Juba. How did that work? Read on.

Q: You moved to southern Sudan from Banda Aceh to join your husband, who left Indonesia several months before you for a job with a large multi-sector NGO working in a small village outside of Juba. What was it like to arrive in Sudan without a job lined up?

After working in Aceh, Indonesia for 1.5 years, I was ready for a change and decided to join my husband. Although I arrived without a position, I felt sure that I would find something within 2 months. South Sudan is a busy development and conflict resolution scene these days and also has the added benefit of not being the most ideal living environment. So it didn’t seem unlikely that aid workers come and go leaving agencies in need of either short or long-term help.

Q: What would you have done if you hadn’t been able to stay with your husband upon arrival? How challenging was the process of securing a work permit in Sudan?

South Sudan is expensive! Honestly, if I had not had a place to stay, it would have made coming here more costly on the front side. The average lodging runs about $170 a night and that adds up fast. However, other countries aren’t as expensive, like Indonesia for example where daily meals may only run you about $5 and a hotel about $20. Of course, you should weigh the likelihood of securing a position fast with having to search longer.

My visa for Sudan was initially supported by my husband’s employer. After I secured employment I was given a Travel Permit through my employer. In other countries it may be possible to arrive on a tourist visa, and apply for a work visa once you have found employment. This is very typical in Southeast Asia and probably other places in Africa.

Q: How long did it take you to find your current job? Any tips for networking out in the field?

This is my second experience in landing in a country and looking for work – I have been much more successful the second go-around. The first time I tried the "arrive and find work" technique I was less successful due to a number of factors: projects in the region were closing out; I was shy and reluctant to randomly show up on NGOs’ door steps; and I was adamant to only work in my field (conflict resolution). Although I quickly found an internship in Indonesia, it took me almost 8 months to land a paying job in my desired field. I took a new strategy for my Sudan venture.

Here I literally walked around to all the NGOs I could find, knocked on doors and asked to meet with the Heads of Offices. But I also met with program officers, grants managers, and interns. I also located a database on Reliefweb with the names of UN, World Bank, and NGO heads of departments, which I used to email my CV around and request opportunities to meet face-to-face. In general, I found that people here were rather receptive and usually I got one or two more contacts from each meeting. I left three of these types of meetings with offers for short-term consultancies. Within the first two weeks I had met with over 30 organizations and I started my current position after being in Sudan for exactly 35 days.

As for tips, I recommend getting as many contacts on the ground as possible before arriving in country. Three of my former colleagues, one of which was my supervisor in Aceh, sent emails around to people they knew who are currently working in Sudan or who had worked in Sudan. These contacts and references proved very valuable. But in the end, it was just as important for me to show up at an NGO, walk in and ask to speak to someone. People take you serious once they know you have paid to come to a place on your own – you have already passed the dedication test. I also think it’s important to find out what the NGO is doing in the region and if they foresee any upcoming employment opportunities before you start talking about yourself. This helps you identify what skills and experiences you should highlight when you do speak about yourself.

Q: What kind of skills do you think NGO employers were looking for? Was there a specific skill area you tried to emphasize in your interviews? (i.e. – technical expertise in health or some other field, grant writing skills, monitoring and evaluation skills, etc.)

I was offered a range of positions from developing human resource, operations, & finance manuals, to conducting an assessment of community-based organizations (CBOs) in remote areas of south Sudan, to preparing a proposal on natural resource management (NRM) on the border between Ethiopia and south Sudan, and serving as a governance advisor. Each of these positions requires different skills, some of which I must honestly admit I do not have (like knowledge in NRM in border regions!). I think that in places like Sudan, NGOs need individuals that can take on a range of roles and responsibilities. Technical skills in health, security, or trade are important but no more so than knowing how to develop and implement trainings on finance, how to develop local staff’s skills in Excel, or being able to adapt to challenging logistics.

Q: What’s an average day like at your job?

My current project is in its start-up phase, so I am spending a lot of time preparing planning and M&E documents, training the support staff and grantees on aspects of grant and finance management, and, because I’m so new to Sudan – learning as much as possible from published reports and conversations with staff and community members. As we begin to award subgrants to local CBOs, I will travel more for trainings, reconciliation events, and monitoring.

Q: What’s the craziest/funniest thing that you’ve seen in your three months in Southern Sudan?

Just last night my generator caught on fire. Is that funny? Probably not since it may equate not having any electricity for quite some time.

Q: Any parting wisdom for people who are looking to take the leap and move some place like Sudan?

Flexibility. Finding your ideal job whether in Washington, DC or Pakistan does not usually happen immediately. Be willing to work outside of the field you think that you belong in – report and proposal development is a great place to start. Or, think about how to promote yourself as a short-term consultant to write manuals, conduct assessments, or train staff in technical skills. And never think that you are below an internship, as it just might lead to a paying position.

Bio:
Rachel D. DuBois is a 2006 MA graduate of the JKSIS with a concentration in Conflict Resolution. She also holds a BA in Archaeology from Boston University. Rachel currently works for Pact Sudan as a Deputy Project Manager on a peacebuilding and conflict resolution project in two states in southern Sudan. She has worked in Indonesia, Sudan, and the United States and has lived and studied in Israel, Lebanon, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Rachel is married to another JKSIS graduate, Jerry Montgomery, and longs daily for a Chipotle barbacoa burrito with black beans, a mixture of green and hot sauce and a large topping of cheese.

Questions for Rachel? Post them in the comments.

Read more!