What does Shez do?
It's a good question. And one, I'm not sure I can answer, but here goes anyway.
Shez's current role is Global Protection Advisor. The Global part is easy to explain - just have a look at her passport! The Protection part is a bit harder to explain. What it doesn't mean is that Shez is some sort of security guard or something.
Protection in the humanitarian aid sector is a very broad concept. It basically means that people should have safety, security and dignity. "So isn't that what aid agencies all about?" I hear you ask. Often not, I've learned. Humanitarian aid, is about providing material assistance to meet basic needs and rights to food, water, shelter, health, education and livelihoods, for populations in crisis. That is, access to the basic human rights (as set out in the Geneva Conventions etc etc). Protection is like a way of thinking about these things through a lens that seeks to also improve the safety and dignity of the populations, in addition to providing the basics.
For example, lets say you're feeding a population hit by drought and a civil war. You set up a warehouse and people come along, line up and you hand out the rations, right? It's predominantly women and kids who collect the food. What if it's 5km to the food station, where they have to line up all day before getting mugged by bandits on the way home. Clearly this situation isn't doing anything for a persons security or dignity. A protection approach would look to see how you could change the process to improve your client's lot.
And that's the nub of it really. Getting agencies to see people as clients (implying that you are trying to improve their lives) rather than just beneficiaries where the attitude is "something is better than nothing".
So, back to Shez's roll. As it's a new roll for the organisation, so she is going around to the various country programs and looking at what can be changed to improve protection. What she does on a day to day basis depends on what is needed in each country. It usually involves a lot of meetings and report writing.
Of course the ultimate aim is for staff and partner organisations to just integrate protection into their operations as a matter of course. To this end Shez also conducts training for staff and the staff of local partners. Spreading the word so to speak.
Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of Shez doing her thing.
Shez writing one of her many emails.
A role play in one of Shez's training sessions. These things can run any thing up to three days which Shez usually conducts by herself.
Local partners love certificates!
Shez also heads out to the field to see how the operations work on the ground.
Shez's current role is Global Protection Advisor. The Global part is easy to explain - just have a look at her passport! The Protection part is a bit harder to explain. What it doesn't mean is that Shez is some sort of security guard or something.
Protection in the humanitarian aid sector is a very broad concept. It basically means that people should have safety, security and dignity. "So isn't that what aid agencies all about?" I hear you ask. Often not, I've learned. Humanitarian aid, is about providing material assistance to meet basic needs and rights to food, water, shelter, health, education and livelihoods, for populations in crisis. That is, access to the basic human rights (as set out in the Geneva Conventions etc etc). Protection is like a way of thinking about these things through a lens that seeks to also improve the safety and dignity of the populations, in addition to providing the basics.
For example, lets say you're feeding a population hit by drought and a civil war. You set up a warehouse and people come along, line up and you hand out the rations, right? It's predominantly women and kids who collect the food. What if it's 5km to the food station, where they have to line up all day before getting mugged by bandits on the way home. Clearly this situation isn't doing anything for a persons security or dignity. A protection approach would look to see how you could change the process to improve your client's lot.
And that's the nub of it really. Getting agencies to see people as clients (implying that you are trying to improve their lives) rather than just beneficiaries where the attitude is "something is better than nothing".
So, back to Shez's roll. As it's a new roll for the organisation, so she is going around to the various country programs and looking at what can be changed to improve protection. What she does on a day to day basis depends on what is needed in each country. It usually involves a lot of meetings and report writing.
Of course the ultimate aim is for staff and partner organisations to just integrate protection into their operations as a matter of course. To this end Shez also conducts training for staff and the staff of local partners. Spreading the word so to speak.
Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of Shez doing her thing.
A role play in one of Shez's training sessions. These things can run any thing up to three days which Shez usually conducts by herself.
Local partners love certificates!
Shez also heads out to the field to see how the operations work on the ground.