The
length of service for peace personnel generally
depends on the type of project individuals are
required for.
Short-term deployments to
conflict areas mainly take place in the field
of emergency relief work (e.g. through MSF, UNHCR
or Red Cross) as well as election support (e.g.
OSCE), deploying individuals between 3 weeks
and 6 months. These missions depend greatly on
the quick availability of mission staff and often
require recruits to be ready for deployment within
72 hours. In some cases, these organisations
deploy staff from within the organisation and
simply shift them from one mission to another.
However, often far more recruits are needed than
available among their own staff. In this case,
several organisations draw personnel from a database
of pre-selected “stand-by” personnel who, if
in full-time employment, often have certain arrangements
with their employers to be able to take their
annual leave on a short-term notice or take unpaid
vacations.
Peace
team organisations or civil peace services, however,
require their staff to stay on a project for
a minimum of 1 year. Their projects have long-term
goals whose success depends on staff being familiar
with the situation and having a close relationship
with people on the ground. In this context, PBI's change of personnel policy
in 1989 offers interesting insights. At the start
of their presence in Guatemala, PBI managed a
two-level staffing system of long-term team members
for the on-site management of the project and
short-term volunteers as escorts. In this manner
hundreds of poorly-screened and insufficiently
trained two-week or one-month volunteers passed
through the project. However, this structure
quickly proved too problematic. These short-term
volunteers didn't have time to become acquainted
with the situation in the country and accustomed
to the working and living conditions. They didn't
stay long enough to really learn how to behave,
cultural ignorance often resulting in offensive
behaviour and their general inquisitiveness causing
problems for PBI's credibility
among the local population. The main pillars
of PBI's success -
maintaining trusting relationships in the field,
ensuring a high level of discretion and analysis
and endorsing a strong sense of team continuity
and affinity - all suffered severely from rapid
turnover.
Eventually,
in 1989, the minimum length of service was increased
to six months and the two-level team structure
eliminated. Nowadays, all volunteers are expected
to have a certain profile and experience before
joining a PBI mission, have to complete a compulsory
training programme and are required to stay for
a period of one-year minimum.
As mentioned
before, the larger organisations like the Red
Cross, MSF, OSCE or UN have both long-term and
short-term projects and, accordingly, require
staff for different periods of time. Short-term
contracts are issued in cases of urgent emergency
response or for short-term projects like electoral
assistance, whereas peacebuilding and post-conflict
reconstruction projects are carried out by teams
with long-term contracts. However, short-term
assignments tend to be given to those individuals
that have either been part of previous missions
or can demonstrate experience with the type of
work they are asked to carry out.
Those
organisations defined above as "Recruitment
Agencies" are managing databases of individuals
with all kinds of professional expertise and
personal skills who are available for deployment
within a certain time-span (between 72 hours
and several months). These individuals have not
been selected for specific missions with certain
organisations but have a certain set of skills
and qualifications that might be appropriate
for a potential missions. They thus do not have
a "reserve" status for a certain organisation
but are rather belonging to a pool of potential
and pre-selected candidates which might be available
for deployment with any organisation.
However,
some organisations, like MSF, UN and OSCE keep their own
roster of pre-selected candidates, including
previous mission staff, which are already familiar
with some aspects of these organisations' overall
structure and mission culture. Even though they
are not officially called "reserves" they
are very much seen as a "stand-by" force
with a certain level of preparation to be called
upon for certain missions.
Compensation
for services varies greatly from one organisation
to another. The minimum compensation, provided
by all organisations, consists of pre-mission
training, accommodation and food for the duration
of the mission and travel expenses while on mission. In
addition to these basic training and subsistence
costs, most organisations also cover travel costs
to the country of deployment, health insurance
and pay a small monthly stipend.
However,
salaries and additional benefits depend very
much on the sending organisation and vary according
to the length of the contract, the position or
job title, qualifications and experience of the
candidate and the different employment policies
of each organisation. On one extreme are the
smaller voluntary organisations, like PBI, merely
paying subsistence and training costs,
requiring their volunteers to even pay for their
own health insurance. On the other extreme are
intergovernmental organisations, like the UN
whose salary scales are established by the International
Civil Service Commission (ICSC) and are competitive
with those salaries offered by the highest paying
national civil services. Apart from these
competitive salaries which are determined according
to professional experience and educational background
of a person, additional benefits provided by
the UN include:
Mission
Subsistence Allowance: A daily payment in addition
to a person's salary which is designed to cover
the cost of food, accommodation, local transportation
and other field expenses. These range from $32
to as much as $179 per day depending on the location
(ie roughly $1,000-$5,000
per month).
Medical
Clearance/Immunisations: All candidates for appointment
must meet UN standards of physical and mental
fitness for employment in the area of assignment.
In addition, immunisations are either required
or recommended, as specified upon appointment.
Insurance
Coverage: An adequate medical insurance coverage,
valid for the duration of assignment in the area
of the mission, including provision for medical
evacuation.
Annual
leave/sick leave: Paid annual leave of two and
one half day per each full month of continuous
service. Sick leave of two working days for each
month of continuous service.
The
organisations operating under the German Civil
Peace Service deploy their personnel in accordance
with the legal framework for development aid
workers, which includes the following benefits
in addition to a monthly salary:
An
allowance for furnishings
A
reintegration allowance (a certain amount for
each month in service, paid in one single payment
upon return of the individual)
Accommodation
and energy costs
Travelling
expenses
Social
security benefits including health, accident,
liability insurance and old age pension contributions.
Annual
leave: Paid annual leave includes two and one
half calendar days per contract month (30 calendar
days per year)
International
UN Volunteer specialists receive a settling-in
grant at the beginning of their assignment, a
Volunteer Living Allowance of anywhere from $750-$2,700,
depending on the local cost of living and number
of dependents. They also receive a Resettlement
Allowance of $100 per month of service.
Voluntary
Service Overseas (VSO-UK) also provides a Volunteer
Living Allowance (in addition to accommodation)
which varies according to the placement, plus
various grants - one at start-up, one half-way
through the placement and one at the end. VSO
also pay the relevant national insurance contributions
while volunteers are abroad so that they are
entitled to social security when they return.
Any volunteers who have worked for at least 18
months are also entitled to contributions towards
their pension.
Apart
from the financial capacities of an organisation,
these contrasting regulations are also based
on different philosophical approaches to the
question of compensation. In Peacebuilding:
A Field Guide, Arno Truger writes: "…the
more administrative and financial support, including
job security, can be provided to people qualifying
for field operations, the higher the chances
that the most suitable persons will participate
in these missions." This would be
the professional business approach to the question:
the better the compensation, the better qualified
the candidates.
On the
other end of the continuum is the belief that
money should not be the main motivating factor
when engaging in practical peace work. MSF falls
under this category, operating a policy of "no
financial incentives". MSF offers two categories
of salaries, paying $600.00 per month for
those of their staff (regardless of their role)
who are serving for a period of under 6 months
or have served on less than 3 MSF projects. Regular
MSF secondees, as well
as staff on long-term missions receive the higher
salary of approx. $1,200. At the same time,
MSF is seeking to only recruit highly qualified
and experienced staff which often poses a severe
problem: the higher qualified a person is, the
more likely it is that s/he has a higher level
of monthly expenditures, be it for insurances,
a mortgage, school fees for children or other
costs. $1,200 per month is merely enough to
cover the monthly living costs for one person,
let alone maintain a whole family. However, MSF
is not prepared to cover their secondees'
running costs during their absence and do not
pay a reintegration allowance for returning staff,
strictly holding on to the belief that money
should not be an incentive for truly committed
personnel.
There
are two other important factors to consider in
relation to compensation of personnel in the
field. One is the impact this may have on the
local economy and on relations with local people,
particularly if there are large numbers of personnel
in a relatively small area. UN missions in particular
have been known to drive up property and other
prices to such an extent that local people can
no longer afford to live there. In highly volatile
situations such effects can seriously damage
the prospects for peace and therefore run counter
to the whole raison d'être of the mission.
Another
factor is the relative compensation packages
being offered by different organisations working
in the same area. PBI, for instance, has lost
a good many volunteers over the years to UN agencies
and other NGOs working in the same area but offering
much better terms of employment than PBI. This
is not only related to salary levels, but that
is certainly one factor. Organisations which
only offer one flat rate of compensation for
all their field staff, no matter what their responsibilities
or their length of service, are likely to loose
good staff to organisations which offer some
prospect of promotion and other staff retention
incentives.
It is
difficult to define a framework for personnel
without having a clear picture of the NP structure
and operations. Recommendations on the length
of deployment, for example, depend greatly on
the nature of the mission and the tasks mission
staff is requested to take on. It is important
to note, however, that no matter if projects
are of long-term or short-term nature, it benefits
the cause if mission staff are familiar with
the organisation's operational and philosophical
framework as well as with the political, cultural
and socio-economic situation of a country. The
case of PBI, as outlined above, underlines the
importance of long-term commitment of staff for
the success of their work. According to Louis
Enrique Eguren, PBI’s shift to requiring a minimum
length of stay supported one of the key sources
of institutional growth - volunteers started
to develop strong feelings of organisational
identity and continued to stay involved with
PBI after returning from mission assignments.
PBI relies heavily on this personal commitment
of volunteers and most of their offices are almost
entirely operated by unpaid returned volunteers.
Most
of the organisations researched emphasised the
fact that experienced staff are a pre-requisite
for a successful project. Experience naturally
grows with time and the longer a person is involved
with a certain organisation, the more s/he is
familiar with its structure and policies and
the better s/he will be able to contribute. The
normal expectation would therefore be to have
staff working for a minimum of one year with
an organisation like NP. However, in order to
be able to deploy large numbers of people in
response to an emerging conflict or crisis, provision
should to be made to recruit staff for short
as well as long periods of time. Shorter term
placements may require a different set of terms
and conditions to those applying to long-term
staff.
Similarly,
no rule of thumb can be applied to the question
of compensation. Different roles require different
levels of skills and, as in any other organisation
or company, people expect to be compensated for
their work according to their qualifications
and the nature of their responsibilities.
The
theory "the better the money, the better
the staff" is widely accepted. And even
though an important motivating factor for engaging
in peace work should be a commitment to the
cause, NP should not build on the belief that
people who are committed need not be paid. Paying
a good salary is a sign for acknowledging a person's
skills, experience and commitment and
works as an incentive for that person to put
effort and motivation into his/her job. Salaries
and benefits should therefore
be realistic and paid according to experience/qualifications
of a person, responsibility of the position and
length of service. This system would result in
a broad salary scheme, with low-paid positions
for short-term and rather inexperienced volunteers
up to well-paid jobs for highly qualified recruits
in responsible positions.
One
option would be to follow the example of organisations
like UNV and make a distinction between field
workers and specialists, the former being less
experienced and put in positions of less responsibility
than the latter. If there were more such distinctions,
in terms of a grading of positions, it would
be possible to imagine a continuum of compensation
ranging from the lowest levels of PBI-type volunteering
(ie food, accommodation
plus pocket money adding up to around $200-$300
per month) up to levels consistent with the Living
Allowances of UN Volunteers or the per diem rates
of UN Field Staff (ie .$2,000-$3,000 per month). This
would also provide sufficient staff retention
incentive to keep people from migrating to those
other organisations once they are in the field.
Finally,
there is the option taken by some development
organisations of paying salaries into the home
bank accounts of field staff and only allowing
them to spend their per diem living allowances
in the field. This reduces the impact of their
presence on the local economy and puts field
workers more on a par with local people, while
at the same time acknowledging that people with
families, mortgages, bank loans, pension funds
and reduced prospects of immediate employment
on their return home do need some financial compensation
for working abroad, additional to their day to
day expenses in the field.
The
qualifications and skills required for work in
conflict areas can be divided into four main
categories: personal attributes, personal values,
experience and skills, with the last subdivided
into general skills and mission-specific skills.
Most
organisations have quite similar requirements
in terms of personal attributes and personal
values whereas required profiles in terms of
skills and experience depend very much on the
specific tasks mission staff are requested to
carry out. Different roles require different
skills and the majority of organisations interviewed
select their mission staff according to specific
job descriptions reflecting the needs of a particular
position.
It is
important to keep in mind that in all the organisations
investigated here it is the demand in the
field that commands the supply, not the other
way around. People are selected according to
the specification of a vacant position and need
to bring a certain set of skills and experiences
in order to be recruited. It is therefore difficult
to make general assumptions about the skills
needed for NP recruits. However, there are some
minimum requirements which are common to the
majority of organisations:
Motivation
and Commitment
Maturity
- independent of age, maturity is seen in terms
of self-respect, confidence, sense of judgement,
attitude towards others
Flexibility
- Ability to adapt to different environments,
to change tactics and opinions
Resilience
- the ability to work under stress and in difficult
living situations
Cultural
sensitivity - Willingness to engage in dialogue
with all parties to the conflict
Team
spirit - Willingness and ability to work in partnership
Knowledge
and understanding - some knowledge of the political
situation, history, socio-cultural issues of
the country in question
Communication
skills - ability to communicate ideas and opinions,
listening skills, language skills (see below)
Excellent
physical condition
Practical
skills - some practical skills are always required
but vary very much according to the job
While
practical requirements vary due to different
job descriptions, other requirements differ due
to quite contrasting opinions about their relevance
and importance. These “debatable requirements”
refer to age and the individual’s commitment
to values and principles like impartiality and nonviolence:
Age: While
some (i.e. the German CPS, PBI) argue that young
people do not have the maturity and experience
for this type of work, others like Christian
Peacemaker Corps consider young people as particularly
well suited because they often do not have commitments
like family or work, are more idealistic and
optimistic about the impact their work has or
because they "get away" with asking
questions senior people would not feel comfortable
to ask. Most people interviewed, however, agree
that it is more a question of maturity and that
age is not necessarily an indication of this:
As a returned volunteer from the Balkan Peace
Team points out: "We
had very mature 21 year olds"
Despite
this, a number of organisations, including PBI,
Red Cross, and UNV will only accept people over
the age of 25. VSO accepts 17-year-olds for certain
youth projects, but otherwise the minimum age
is 20.
Language: Opinions differ
as to whether fluency in the local language of
the mission country should be an essential pre-requisite
for mission staff. Some organisations, like PBI,
insist on fluency in the local language whereas
other organisations make it dependent on the
conditions of the position in question. The Red
Cross requires successful candidates to speak
at least two languages with English or French
being one of them. As Red Cross missions always
consist of teams, never individuals, it is not
required that each member of the team is fluent
in the local language. However, a willingness
to learn the local language while on mission
is a desirable prerequisite. Other organisations
with several team-members in a mission operate
a similar policy: staff members whose day-to-day
work depends on interaction with local people
and cannot be carried out with an interpreter
are requested to be fluent in the local language,
others simply have to be fluent in the language
used within the team (generally English). The
German CPS provides language training for those
candidates not fluent in the local language prior
to mission, if it is deemed necessary. However,
in practice those candidates often take up their
job with the assistance of an interpreter and
learn the language during their two years of
deployment.
Impartiality
and country of origin: While
some organisations see impartiality as an essential
pre-requisite, others consider it to be particularly
important to not be impartial. Katarina Kruhonja,
former president of the Osijek Centre
for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights, explains
this position: “…to be impartial means not
to take sides for anybody, to keep a certain
distance to be able to be more objective." She believes in
compassion and inclusion as important pre-requisites
for this work. For the Balkan Peace Team,
impartiality was so important that they would
not consider applications from countries they
worked in as this would imply being too closely
involved in the conflict and likely to take
sides. Amnesty International does not even
accept researchers with a nationality of the
country they are supposed to research. The
International Committee of the Red Cross similarly
operates a very strict policy of impartiality,
which normally prevents people from working
for the ICRC in their country of origin (although
they can, of course, work in their local section
of the Red Cross, which is kept distinct from
the ICRC in places where the ICRC is working).
Nonviolence: Organisations with a strong
root in the peace-movement and those with a strong
spiritual focus put a lot of emphasis on members
of their teams being strongly committed to nonviolence. All
other organisations, especially those engaging
in large-scale missions (e.g. ICRC, UN, OSCE,
UNV and MSF), or those recruiting staff especially
for these missions (CADADEM, NORDEM, NORSTAFF, RedR) do not consider this an essential
pre-requisite. They do agree that candidates
need to have a strong "commitment to the
cause" and that motivation and commitment
are often more important than practical skills
as they cannot be taught. However, in our interviews, nonviolence was never mentioned
as an important factor in recruitment and, when
asked about it, most people reacted rather indifferently.
Some even expressed a rather critical opinion
as the comment of an OSCE representative demonstrates "…it
(a commitment to nonviolence)
is not at all necessary for working in this field
and to do the job professionally and successfully.
It doesn't do any harm, but it is certainly not
enough to say "hey, I am committed to nonviolence,
I can make a difference"…"
Even
though everybody agrees on the fact that skill-requirements
cannot be generalised because they are far too
job- and country-specific, some organisations
have attempted to categorise different “areas
of engagement” in order to define general requirements
for each of these areas. The REACT scheme of
the OSCE is probably the most detailed of these
categorisations and their “Staffing Matrix” is
increasingly used by international organisations
to facilitate recruitment and training of peace
personnel. Even though this
system has a strong focus on “Democratisation
and Human Rights” work rather than on “peace
work” and excludes untrained volunteers at the
beginning of their professional career it provides
a good model for a professional and well-structured
recruitment framework.
The
OSCE Staffing Matrix defines twelve fields of
expertise and four levels
of functional responsibility (from Junior Professional
to Senior Management). The personal and professional
requirements for a certain position vary according
to the category this position can be assigned
to and are divided into:
General
minimum requirements (for
any position within the OSCE these are the
same)
Field
of Expertise Requirements (this
section would outline the academic and professional
background/field, organisational and communication
skills)
Level
of functional responsibility requirements (this section would define
managerial experience, leadership skills, years
of professional experience in similar positions
and educational qualifications)
Mission
specific requirements (skills
that are needed for the particular job under
the given circumstance, i.e. language skills,
knowledge of the political situation in the
country, experience of working in this country.
This section is subdivided into mandatory and
desirable requirements)
Below
are requirements for some of the substantive
functions with the OSCE:
General
staff/monitoring functions
General
staff/ monitoring functions with the OSCE include
monitoring activities aside from those covered
by other fields of expertise such as elections
and police, as well as the work performed by
those assigned to situation/watch operations
and in staff/personal assistant positions. The
monitoring done may involve passive observation
(e.g., of border movements) and reporting of
significant development or a more proactive approach
(e.g., the monitoring of the implementation of
international agreements and obligations with
the mandate for intervention where such agreements
and obligations are ignored or breached). Whether
in monitoring positions, watch positions or staff
assistant positions, however, those working in
this field of expertise typically possess several
core skills, including:
A
clear understanding of institutional relationships,
both within the OSCE field activity to which
they are assigned and between the OSCE field
activity and its main partners and interlocutors.
An
operational orientation - i.e., the capacity
to take prompt, appropriate action in response
to observed events.
The
ability to translate such observed events into
concise and accurate oral and written reports.
The
ability to support the creation of mechanisms
which undergird the
rule of law, public safety, and law and order.
Requirements:
Demonstrable
organisational skills
Proven
ability to communicate effectively, both orally
and in writing
Demonstrable
interpersonal skills and documented experience
in negotiations
Depending
on the field activity's mandate, significant
prior experience in relevant fields such as international
customs practices and procedures, law enforcement,
and military observations and arms control may
also be required
Negotiating
experience, preferably in the area of monitoring
operations and/or related activities.
Desirable:
Readiness
to endure harsh conditions
Prior
experience in the military, police or other organisation
with a well-developed chain of command structure
Previous
operational and/or field experience
Political
affairs
Political
Affairs work typically involves analyzing and
reporting on issues relevant to the OSCE mission
mandate in the host country, especially in the
fields of early warning, conflict prevention,
crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation.
It may also involve advising the Head of Mission
and other mission staff, as well as representing
OSCE policy positions to the authorities of the
host country at all levels.
Requirements:
University
degree in international studies, public policy,
political science or law or related fields
Diplomatic
experience or experience working in political
affairs with international organizations or governments
Experience
in preparing analytical reports
Excellent
communication and drafting skills
Knowledge
of regional political history and developments
Diplomatic
and negotiating skills
Some
knowledge of the OSCE principles and commitments
Desirable:
Knowledge
of the local language or most common lingua franca
Post-graduate
degree in international studies, public policy,
political science or law
Elections
Election
work typically involves organizing, implementing
and overseeing the full range of elections-related
matters, which can include drafting of legislation
and election regulations, identification and
registration of eligible voters, registration
of political parties and candidates, political
party development, campaign and finance regulations,
voter education, domestic observer training,
media monitoring, establishment of polling stations,
the supervision and monitoring of balloting and
counting, and post-election activities. It may
also involve the implementation of election results
if so mandated.
Requirements:
Experience
in election administration, supervision or voter
registration
Good
understanding of basic legal documents (constitutions,
election laws and regulations)
Good
understanding of various electoral and political
systems
Experience
in liaising with government agencies and NGOs
Experience
in management or supervision of subordinate staff
Ability
to work under tight deadlines and in a difficult
and politically sensitive environment
Negotiating
and diplomatic skills
Desirable:
Legal
background (may be required for certain positions)
Knowledge
of specific elections and political issues, especially
of the mission area, including: international
and OSCE standards for democratic elections,
public administration, civil and voter registration,
political party training, voter education, media
and elections, international and domestic election
observation, political representation of national
minorities, legal appeals and election dispute
resolution
Familiarity
with the use of communications systems, including
single sideband radio and satellite telephone
systems
Knowledge
of electronic database systems
Democratisation
Democratization
work may include strengthening civil society,
political party development and promotion of
good governance.
Strengthening
civil society may involve:
Supporting
the development of community-based organizations
Encouraging
citizen involvement, including the involvement
of women, in the social and political change
of the country
Supporting
the building of democratic and inter-ethnic institutions
Empowering
individuals, including women, to take part in
the political process
Facilitating
the establishment of local civic groups and networks
Encouraging
the development of independent unions
Supporting
the development of free media
Political
party development may involve:
Fostering
political pluralism
Enhancing
the capacity of parties and candidates to function
effectively in a democratic political environment
Promotion
of good governance aims at:
Developing
skills and improving the understanding of officials
and elected candidates in the principles and
practice of democratic government at the national
and local level, as well as promoting transparency
and accountability. It may also include the
development of national commissions or institutions
to promote human rights or national reconciliation
Requirements:
University
degree in political sciences, social sciences,
international relations, public policy, law or
equivalent professional experience
Work
experience in either public administration, relevant
international organizations, civic associations
(including NGOs), political parties/affairs,
or economic and political development
Demonstrable
organizational, communication, analytical and
interpersonal skills
Desirable:
Project
work experience
Rule
of law
Rule
of law work typically aims at enhancing the administration
of justice, inter alia by training of judges, prosecutors
and lawyers, as well as police and correctional
officers. It involves monitoring the functioning
of the legal system and encouraging improvements
in the administration of justice by suggesting
systemic changes to the legal and judicial systems
in the mission area as necessary and appropriate,
and by undertaking legal reform and legislative
review projects in order to bring domestic laws
into line with OSCE commitments and other recognised
international standards.
Requirements:
University
degree in law or significant work experience
in criminal justice and/or law enforcement (the
latter required for police and corrections officer
training)
Experience
in the practice of law, e.g. judges, prosecutors,
lawyers, etc.
Knowledge
of courtroom proceedings and criminal law and
procedure
Knowledge
of international legal procedure standards and
instruments
Demonstrable
organisational, analytical, communication and
interpersonal skills
Desirable:
Knowledge
of the regional political situation and the legal
system of the mission area
Human
rights
Human
rights work typically involves monitoring, investigating
and reporting on the human rights situation,
analyzing relevant laws and practices, intervening
with national authorities to address human rights
violations and ensure compliance with relevant
human rights standards and national laws. It
may also involve monitoring the judicial system
as a whole, including trials, as well as situations
involving minorities, refugees/internally displaced
persons (IDPs) and freedom of movement issues.
In addition, human rights work can involve promoting
public awareness of human rights, and human rights
education.
Requirements:
University
degree in political science, international relations,
public policy, law, international human rights
law or other human rights related fields.
Experience
working with human rights, minority or gender
issues
Demonstrable organizational, analytical, communication
and interpersonal skills
Desirable:
Knowledge
of courtroom proceedings and criminal law and
procedure.
Experience
working with NGOs, particularly in the field
of human rights.
International
field work experience in human rights monitoring
and reporting.
Experience
in either international law, constitutional law,
European and international human rights law and
conventions (may be a requirement for certain
positions).
Clearly,
the more specialised qualifications required
of NP personnel will depend on the specific functions
and duties they are to carry out. Small NGOs
like PBI tend to have a one size fits all approach
to recruitment, with just one job description
and one set of criteria for all vacancies on
a given project. Larger organisations have a
much greater degree of differentiation and specialisation
in order to get the right people with the right
skills into the right positions within a larger
framework. This strategy is not always effective,
of course, and the UN is possibly the most notorious
example of the Peter Principle, in which people
are eventually promoted to positions just beyond what
they are capable of managing, and the whole organisation
thereby becomes one great lumbering bureaucracy
of maximum ineffectiveness.
In the
OSCE, there are in fact four different levels
of involvement. The details given above describe
some of the substantive functions of OSCE field
staff. In addition to these there are the managerial
positions, such as Heads of Mission, Deputy Heads
of Mission, Heads of Regional Centres and Heads
of Field Offices. There are also the administrative
and support staff, covering communications, security,
transport, logistics, procurement, budgeting
and finance, human resources, buildings and training.
And it could be argued that the General Staff
listed above is actually a category of more generic
deployment somewhat less specialised than the
other substantive functions listed.
Using
that model, NP could, for instance, recruit into
the general staff people with the general qualifications
expected, but without any particular specialist
skills. More specialised skills would be expected
for personnel assigned to the different substantive
functions of the field staff, with quite different
(and more traditional) skills expected of the
support staff. Managerial staff, meanwhile, would
need quite a high level of more generalised skills
in order to run aspects of projects and missions.
A further
differentiation could be made between field staff
with particular peace skills, like those required
for monitoring or mediation, and those with more
traditional professional skills that may be applied
to the peace effort, such as teachers, human
rights lawyers, trauma counsellors, youth workers,
community organisers, etc.
The
recruitment strategies used by the organisations
interviewed can be divided into two main categories:
1. Recruitment of
individuals to add to a roster
2. Recruitment of
individuals for specific jobs
4.3.2.1
Recruitment for rosters
As mentioned
in the first section of this chapter, some organisations
(OSCE, UN, Red Cross, MSF, NORDEM, NORSTAFF, VSO, UNV) can
be placed in both categories: they maintain a
roster of pre-selected individuals which are
then called upon if they match the requirements
of specific jobs. There are a lot of differences
in terms of the management of these rosters. The
Red Cross and MSF, as internationally well known
organisations, receive enough applications per
year to keep their database filled with potential
recruits. They only advertise for very specific,
high level jobs and often shift staff from one
project to another without recruiting new employees.
The
OSCE has only recently launched the REACT (Rapid
Expert Assistance and Co-operation Teams) programme
to increase the pool of experts that are available
at short notice for OSCE missions. They have
highly advertised this new service and have set
up a separate REACT recruitment section on their
website. In order to join the OSCE register,
candidates have to fill out an application form
which can be submitted online. No interviews
are held prior to being put on the roster and
the detailed screening and selection takes place
when a certain candidate has been identified
as matching the criteria for a vacant position
on one of the OSCE missions. This system results
in some registrants never being sent on any mission.
Canadem (Canada), Nordem and Norstaff (both
Norway) have been in operation for a few years
already but only recruit staff in their respective
countries (for secondment to UN, OSCE and other
international missions) and do not advertise
as widely to attract new recruits. All three
organisations are involved in providing staff
for OSCE or UN missions. In order to be able
to rapidly respond to OSCE or UN requests for
personnel, all candidates on their rosters have
been carefully pre-screened. Each individual
has completed an application form (based on the
UN-application form P11- see appendix II) and has been interviewed.
Additionally, references are often checked in
advance (Canadem even
asks referees to respond to a written questionnaire).
The very time consuming procedure is important
in order to check those credentials that are
difficult to assess through a mere application
form. The main value added by these “recruitment
agencies” is that those candidates finally put
forward to the “deploying organisation” have
been as carefully pre-selected as possible and
have a great potential to be adequate candidates
for a certain position. However, many candidates
on the roster will never be sent to any missions.
Currently, Canadem includes 2000 registrants, Nordem 220
and Norstaff approximately
400. All three organisations are aiming at increasing
their rosters in the future and Canadem is
advocating for more countries to adopt this system
of establishing civilian rosters of pre-selected
candidates to support UN, OSCE and other international
peace missions. This scale of recruitment and
the fact that people are sent to projects run
by other organisations make it rather difficult
for the organisations to stay in touch with returned
mission staff and to create a “family atmosphere”
like exists among PBI’s returned
volunteers. Details about these people are kept
on the register until the individual requests
to be removed or doesn’t update their records
when asked to do so.
This
model differs very much from VSO’s approach,
which is to find a suitable placement for each
promising applicant once they have been accepted
as a volunteer. VSO also has quite a lengthy
and careful selection procedure consisting of
a long application form, followed by a personal
interview for those that passed the first stage.
Successful applicants usually wait between 4
months and 1 year to be placed on a suitable
project. Returned volunteers are kept on a database
but are not called upon for new missions – they
are however called upon as speakers on public
events or to run training workshops or information
weekends. VSO’s database therefore cannot really
be called a roster. It is rather a waiting list
of candidates selected for deployment.
UNV
is using a system somewhere in between: interested
individuals are requested to complete an application
form based on which they are or are not added
to the UNV database. Whenever a vacancy becomes
available, this database is searched for the
specific characteristics the job requires. Selected
candidates are then called for an interview held
by national UNV offices or country representatives
and references are checked if deemed necessary.
4.3.2.2
Recruitment for individual jobs
Those
organisations that do not manage a roster of
potential candidates, like the German Civil Peace
Services, development agencies and all smaller
organisations, have to advertise for each individual
job. They generally use the classical recruitment
system:
Advertising
the position (through newsletters, websites,
online mailing lists, other organisations, word
of mouth, local, national and international newspapers,
career services, etc)
Scanning
written applications (CV and cover letter in
Germany, application form in most other countries)
Personal
and/or phone interview
In addition
to this standard system, some organisations arrange
special “recruitment seminars” lasting for a
few days. Role plays, group interviews and similar
exercises are used to assess communication and
interpersonal skills, listening skills, team
work abilities, competitiveness, general behaviour
etc. In some cases this assessment is part of
a first general training course (i.e. Balkan Peace
Team, PBI, Norstaff).
Most
of the information relevant for this section
has already been dealt with in the previous section.
We will therefore only highlight some aspects
that give additional information and reduce our
observations to application for specific jobs,
not for being added to a roster of people.
As mentioned
before, the application process for each interested
individual starts with the completion of an application
form (or, in the case of Germany, a written application
consisting of a cover letter and CV). Canadem, Nordem and Norstaff have
adapted the official UN-application form (P11)
to ensure that all information that might be
relevant to the UN is stored in the candidate’s
file.
These
application forms are rather standard and focus
on information about education, professional
experience, experience with OSCE/UN missions,
particular experience with peacekeeping, peacebuilding or
related work, language skills, relevant practical
skills, experience abroad, voluntary work as
well as family situation (marital status, number
of dependants), physical conditions, nationality
and residency status, referees and availability.
Pre-selection
through application forms is followed by personal
interviews and reference check. After successfully
passing these three stages, candidates either
receive an offer and are invited to take part
in an induction course, or the training seminar
forms the last stage of the recruitment process
and offers are only made after successfully passing
several assessment exercises.
There
is general agreement in the field that the best
form of assessment is to observe the person in
simulated or real-life situations. There is a
well-established procedure in the UK for assessing
practical job-related skills in simulated or
real-life situations through the National Vocational
Qualification (NVQ) system. Local mediation and
human rights monitoring projects in the UK are
already making use of this system to train, assess
and certify competencies in those fields. Other
organisations working in similar areas have developed
their own modified versions of this system to
meet their recruitment needs, as have international
recruiting agencies like RedR.
There is a great deal of interest among some
organisations working in this area to develop
and expand the NVQ concept in order to provide
a set of recognisable standards that might raise
both the quality of work in this field as well
as the standing it has in relation to more established
fields of expertise.
One
of the advantages of the NVQ system is that offers
people an opportunity to demonstrate skills they
already possess, and it gives them recognition
for those skills. It is also a modular and infinitely
expandable system, helping people to continually
develop and improve their skills, rather than
accepted a fixed qualification as the end of
the matter.
Obviously
there are down sides to such a system. Someone
has to determine what the standards are, and
someone has to conduct the assessment of someone
else. In both cases there is a large margin for
human error and unfairness. The system is, of
necessity, quite rigid and formalised in order
to function with comparative uniformity across
the whole country. This would inevitably be compounded
many times over if it were adapted to apply throughout
the whole world.
Nevertheless
the NVQ system does provide a good starting point
for looking at the whole issue of assessment
and accreditation of skills. Since we are dealing
with a set of skills that are still largely undefined
and in comparatively short supply, we need to
start looking somewhere.
Professional
experience, educational background, language
skills, country knowledge etc are, on the other
hand, all characteristics than can be assessed
with the help of referees, certificates, personal
interviews or written tests. Personal attributes
and values are difficult to assess but they are
also important pre-requisites for peace work.
Some
organisations, like PBI, therefore see a several
days-long training session as an essential part
of the selection process. Through role plays,
group interviews, games and other joint activities
interpersonal skills, team skills, attitude to
authority and general behaviour toward others
can be observed and assessed.
In the
business sector, these “assessment centres”
are quite commonly used in the recruitment process.
However, they are quite costly, especially if
several “potential” candidates are taking part
in such an exercise, even though only a few of
them are required. They also require a lot of
staff capacities to organise and run. Because
of this, the majority of voluntary organisations
do not use this system but instead rely on the
classical methods of using referees, personal
interviews, written tests and a lot of common
sense.
Despite
these difficulties in assessing certain skills,
the interviewees did not complain about problems
in finding adequate staff. On the contrary, they
expressed confidence and pride about their established
recruitment and assessment procedures, even though
they generally admitted that they would love
to have the funds to run specific assessment
centres.
No training
is required for joining any of the rosters for
civilian personnel. However, basic pre-mission
training is required and organised by all organisations
hiring staff for specific missions. It is either
part of the general recruitment or assessment
process, as outlined above, or organised upon
hiring a person for a specific job.
Pre-mission
training generally lasts between a weekend and
two weeks (in the case of the German Civil Peace
Services between 2 weeks and 4 months) and is
aimed at familiarising the individual with the
aims and mission of the organisation, the decision-making
structures, and an introduction to various issues
of conflict transformation, human rights, etc.
In some organisations, this basic training is
followed by a mission-specific training or briefing
in the country of deployment.
If only
one person is sent on a particular mission, as
is the case for some of the development services
taking part in the German Civil Peace Services,
for instance, training may be tailored to the
specific requirements of the person hired. Further
aspects with regards to training are dealt with
in a separate chapter.
