“…We are at the same level, but they get
more. This is unfair.”
(Frans, Local aid worker in Jakarta)
Context
In
the humanitarian aid and development sector, it is a reality that local staff
are paid less than their expatriate colleagues even when they have similar
qualification and same positions. Anna Strempel, a master student of Monash
University just recently conducted a research thesis in Indonesia aimed at
investigating this phenomenon.
In
her podcast (Carr and McWha-Hermann 2016), she investigates the real practices
of humanitarian and development sector including the huge salaries (and
facilities) gap between local and international aid workers, problems of the
openness of project’s fund to the community/beneficiaries, problems in the
capacity building approach, and also the impact of the merger of AusAID and
DFAT under Abbot’s administration in 2013 and DFAT’s new strategic framework in
2014 to promote and protect Australia’s national interest (DFAT 2014). This
short article will particularly discuss the gap between local and international
aid workers’ salaries.
Dual salary system: creates frustration
and interfere aid effectiveness
Carr
and McWha-Hermann (2016) call this differential treatment: the dual salary
system. According to their research on the effects of the wage gap between
local and international staff, wage disparities are often a taboo topic to be
discussed. In addition, the disparities also created significant feelings of
workplace injustice, can damage relationships in the workplace and thereby
interfere with aid effectiveness.
This
phenomenon happens everywhere. Jackson (2007: 115) investigates this issue in
Honduras and finds that most Hondurans development workers feel ill-equipped to
argue for higher salaries. On the other hand, they cannot enter international
post easily because they only valued for their local expertise. Whydev.Org
(2011) on their special interview with a local aid worker in Zimbabwe finds
that there are also large gaps between the locals and the expatriate conditions
of service, even for people with the same qualifications and this condition
creates frustration to local staff.
A wicked problem: aid
effectiveness and country ownership over development
In
my own experience working in International development sector in Indonesia, I
think the gap salary problem can be classified as a “wicked problem” as a
result of the aims of international aid (to promote and protect donors’ national
interests) and how international aid systems work including the criteria to
winning the bids and how private sectors from the North (developed countries)
dominate the international development projects in developing countries. These
create questions on aid effectiveness and the ownership of the development
programs. The lack of country ownership over international development programs
and the reality of donor-driven agenda (International development dominated by
donor country experts with minimal inputs from developing country stakeholders)
become the most important critics to the Millennium Development Goals (Higgins
2013: 3).
International
development stakeholders aware about this issue and have developed several
declarations to tackle the problem. Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (OECD
n.y: 3) declares that donors commit to respect partner country leadership and
help strengthen their capacity to exercise it. In addition, the Jakarta
Commitment – as a commitment between Government of Indonesia and its
development partners – points out that
the importance of external assistance for Indonesia is not only a function of
its volume, but rather of its quality and effectiveness (Bappenas 2008: 5).
So, how to solve the
problem?
In
my view, the problem is not on the salary gap and how local staff deserve for
higher salary, but rather on our responsibility to use people’s tax money as
wise as possible. In fact, as far as I know, local staff salaries in INGOs and
profit companies who work for humanitarian and development sector are remained
extensively higher than average people’s salaries in local NGOs/CBOs.
To
achieve the aid effectiveness, what we need is to shift the paradigm of
international aid by separating it with other sectors such as: trade (happening
within DFAT) and private sectors (common practice that international aid
managed by profit companies with more than 40% of the budget spent for salaries
and other administrative expenditures). Humanitarian aid and development sector
need people who want to work for others and not merely for their own benefits.
To
solve the gap problem is not by increasing the local workers’ salaries but rather
by cutting the number of international staff, stop giving extraordinary
facilities to international staff such as luxurious houses or apartments and
personal cars and drivers. Important question for us: is that really what
international aid for? *****
References:
Bappenas
(2008), Jakarta Commitment, available at:
http://pendanaan.bappenas.go.id/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22 (accessed
21 April 2016).
Carr, S, C., and Ishbel, M. (2016), Mind the gap in local and
international aid workers’ salaries, The
Conversation, 18 April 2016, available at:
http://theconversation.com/mind-the-gap-in-local-and-international-aid-workers-salaries-47273 (accessed 20 April 2016).
DFAT (2014), Australia’s
new development policy and performance framework: a summary, available at: http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/aid-policy-summary-doc.pdf (accessed 21
April 2016).
Higgins, K.
(2013), The power of global goals: reflection of the MDGs, NSI The North South Institute, Policy Brief Vol. September 2013,
available at: http://www.nsi-ins.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/2013-The-Power-of-Global-Goals-Reflections-on-the-MDGs.pdf (accessed
21 April 2016).
Jackson, J, T. (2007), The Globalizers:
Development Workers in Action, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press,
available at: https://books.google.com.au/books?isbn=0801887585 (Accessed
21 April 2016).
OECD
(no year), The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for
Action, available at: http://www.oecd.org/dac/effectiveness/34428351.pdf (accessed
21 April 2016).
WhyDev.Org
(2011), Earning a wage in development: An issue of corruption?, available at: http://www.whydev.org/earning-a-wage-in-development-an-issue-of-corruption/ (accessed
21 April 2016).
