I’ve been reflecting on Localisation as a ‘topic’ in the sector. Especially since the World Humanitarian Summit it’s been on everyone’s mind, in everyone’s strategic planning documents, and littered across progamme designs, monitoring tools, and project evaluations.
One concern I have is that in a short time it’s already become something of a token term, inserted as a demonstration of intent, a word to keep donors or local ministries happy. So how do I as a training professional ensure, when I’m facilitating training activities (which includes designing as well as delivery and assessment), that empowerment to act is embedded? Without the power to act, providing training for staff can be a futile exercise. The most successful training must ensure the power to act on whatever is being taught is embedded, or there can be no change in behaviour or progress. Participants on any workshop who are being taught skills they know they won’t be ‘allowed’ to use, quickly become disengaged, and the training can actually cause more harm than good, when participants realise their own potential to bring about change and ‘act’ but also know that political or organisational power structures will prevent them from doing so.
The perspective of international agencies and responders of ‘giving’ power back to communities is problematic, as it once again places local agencies and responders in a passive, dis-empowered position. Training facilitation must, regardless of who is delivering it, must actively support the taking of power, and allow time to focus on the process of taking, and what that means to participants. I’ve seen it work in a limited way on a regular basis, but have also been lucky to see it working well, a real indication that there is incremental change in the way the sector is thinking.
A few years ago I accompanied a UNICEF colleague, Patrick A. working as a logistician in Fiji, shortly after TC Winston, to some training of Head Teachers and teachers from different schools in Fiji. The project was a collaborative effort between Fiji Ministry of Education, UNICEF, and Fiji’s National Disaster Management Office (NDMO).
Part of Patrick’s remit was to introduce the techers to new technology (a mobile app) that would allow them to record in real time, assessment data relating to their school (or school district) in the event of a rapid onset natural disaster. Participants at the workshop downloaded the app and took part in a short simulation exercise, photographing buildings, entering data specific to their school and community, and then seeing how the data appeared immediately in the NDMO’s operations centre. The participants then discussed the value of the application, strengths and weaknesses of the idea, questioning UNICEF about how the data would be shared with other agencies etc.
What I observed was people investing in learning that would empower them to act in times of emergency. Instead of being forced to be passive and await assistance (possibly in the shape of needs assessment teams from outside which could take days or weeks), they would be able to take the initiative, providing critical data that would assist any national response planning. One teacher commented to me that, “We are on hand, and we know what our schools were like before the disaster, and what the priorities would be if there’s damage again in the future.” The interesting thing to me in her comment was that her expertise included critical qualitative data, not just numbers of affected students, for example, but where the priority areas were for her particular school. Furthermore, her opinion was based on deep knowledge and understanding of longer-term education priorities within her community, as well as the need for short term assistance. She, and others, had been consulted during the design and implementation of the initiative, and the workshop was really the culmination of months of collaboration and engagement.
The photos show the second stage of the workshop, where all of the participants were invited outside to put up a UNICEF Tent School. These schools arrive in 2 large boxes that contain the framework and canvas for the tents which can then serve as classrooms. UNICEF were distributing these tents to communities to be stored locally, for use should a school become damaged in a future disaster. As with the app training, this initiative empowered the community members to act for themselves, making decisions about what needed to be done, and then doing it.
To non-humanitarians this may seem a self-evident approach, but the global humanitarian sector is still a long way from working in true partnership with communities in disaster prone regions to design and deliver cohesive solutions to short and long term challenges. Programmes like these are on the increase and as a trainer, what I was reminded of in this particular workshop, is that technical training is only a tiny part of my job.
Local responders and disaster experts can only seize power in a constructive way if the international humanitarian system exercises humility in its expectations about where the power should lie in the first place. Systemic change to the international humanitarian system require that donors, UN Agencies, and INGOs purposefully ‘step back’ from an expectation of ownership and engage in truthful long-term collaboration with local partners.
So what am I doing differently from what I was doing a couple of years ago? Firstly, when I’m asked to design or review training intended for humanitarians, I look at where the learning objectives in relation to self-reliance and power-shifts are. Self-reliance, an element of resilient behaviour, requires trust in one’s own capabilities, therefore every workshop, whether it’s about leadership, Cash Programming, or the Cluster System, needs to identify the part self-reliance and empowerment play in implementing any new systems or processes.
Secondly, I deliberately draw attention to the process of empowerment that groups are going through by the way they are actively engaging in the way the workshops are run, so that process is an equal partner to content. The humanitarian sector has taken the first steps in prioritising localisation in recent years. Now the concept of self-owned solutions and self-led responses must be embedded at all levels of planning and programming and especially in training of responders whether local or international. The rate of change may be rapid in some contexts and much slower in others, but the process starts with just one person realising that they can act, and that they have the power to make change.
