NOHA Internship Report
United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA)
in Geneva, Switzerland
L.J. (Jolien) van Ooijen S2005115 Master programme of International Humanitarian Action (NOHA) NOHA Home University: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (the Netherlands) NOHA Host University: Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany) NOHA internship coordinator: Elena Herman-Pletiougina Internship organisation: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Palais des Nations, Avenue de la Paix, 8-14, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. Tel. +41 22 917 12 34
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Contents
1.
Introduction ... 3
2.
The Internship Organisation ... 3
3.
Tasks and Activities of the Internship ... 4
4.
Supervision of the Internship ... 6
5.
Living Conditions ... 7
6.
Conclusion ... 7
a.
Intrinsic and personal learning effects ... 7
b.
Fulfilment of expectations... 8
c.
SWOT analysis of internship and organization ... 8
d.
Internship and NOHA Master ... 9
e.
Internship and job market ... 9
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1. Introduction
It was towards the end of my NOHA internship with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Rwanda, that I started to look for what was next. I came across a vacancy on Inspira (the UN vacancies website) for an internship with the Civil-Military Coordination Section (CMCS) of UN OCHA in Geneva. As my thesis would be on civil-military coordination, I decided to apply. To my surprise, I received an invitation for an internship interview shortly after with, so turned out, a future colleague at CMCS. The vacancy was for the Training and Partnership Unit (TPU) of the Section, which organises civil-military coordination trainings all over the world to raise awareness and build skills among the actors of the subject. However, during the interview it turned out I could choose between two more units: the Policy and Planning Unit (PPU) and the Operations and Field Support Unit (OFSU) of the Section. As my thesis would be on an ongoing operation (Mali), I gave my preference for OFSU. Shortly after, I received a confirmation and my internship with OFSU of CMCS was a fact. It was a quite hectic time, moving back from Rwanda, spending one week in the Netherlands and starting in a completely new working environment only 10 days after I had left Rwanda. Nevertheless, I was thrilled about the internship. Not only was it with UN OCHA, an organisation that I really wanted to know more about, but also with the section on civil-military coordination, which was my main area of interest throughout my studies. I was expecting to learn a lot about the UN system, how OCHA works, what CMCS in Geneva really does and what working on civil-military coordination incorporates and how it is implemented on the field. I would have much more access to and insight in civil-military coordination than I could get anywhere else.
2. The Internship Organisation
UN OCHA is a much more complicated organisation than I realised before joining it. In the maze of the UN system with the many Funds, Programmes and Agencies, UN OCHA falls under the UN Secretariat, whereas other humanitarian agencies as UNHCR and UNICEF fall under the General Assembly. In Annex I, the organigram of the UN system is included.
OCHA’s mandate contains five core pillars: coordination, information management, policy development, advocacy and humanitarian financing. These core functions are carried out in the headquarters in Geneva and New York, as well as 9 Regional Offices, 28 Field Offices and 3 Liaison Offices. In addition there are 25 Humanitarian Advisor Teams all around the globe. Annex II shows the map of OCHA presence as of May 2015. As the coordinating body of humanitarian affairs, it is different from other UN agencies which are more implementing in character (WFP, UNICEF, UNHCR, etc.).
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It takes quite a while to get a grasp of the many acronyms that are used. There are several Branches within OCHA and the overview of these can be found in Annex III. My internship was within the Emergency Services Branch (ESB). The focus of this Branch is on ensuring a quick and effective response to natural disasters and other rapid-onset emergencies. There are five different Sections within this Branch, as outlined in Annex IV.
I interned in CMCS. Within CMCS, there are four different Units: Training and Partnership Unit (responsible for civil-military coordination training), Policy and Planning Unit (responsible for policy related civil-military issues), the Operations and Field Support Unit (responsible for monitoring and supporting ongoing and potential field operations), and the Special Projects Unit (responsible for several special projects, and helping out the other units). CMCS is not a large Section: we were only eight Humanitarian Affairs Officers (HAO) in Geneva, one in New York, two General Service staff and two interns (myself included). The organigram can be found in Annex V. CMCS is responsible for United Nations humanitarian civil-military coordination (UN-CMCoord). This is defined as: “the essential dialogue and interaction between civilian and military actors in humanitarian emergencies necessary to: protect and promote humanitarian principles, avoid competition, minimize inconsistency, and, when appropriate, pursue common goals. It is a shared responsibility facilitated by liaison and common training”.
CMCoord Officers and Focal Points are carrying out the work in the field. They are deployed when the situation requires someone with a specific function to coordinate civil-military interaction. CMCoord Officers and Focal Points are not deployed in every operation. Then, it is the responsibility of the OCHA Office to carry out tasks related to the coordination of civil and military actors.
Within CMCS, OFSU is the Unit with the closest link to the field. It is in close contact with the deployed UN-CMCoord Officers and Focal Points within the OCHA Offices around the globe. These Practitioners receive UN-CMCoord training and get ongoing support while being deployed. The colleagues of OFSU had divided the countries among themselves and thus are desk officers for specific countries. OFSU supports throughout the whole deployment cycle of CMCoord Practitioners. The Unit provides pre-deployment training and give workshops. Also, it provides ongoing technical advice on UN-CMCoord issues, and does surge deployments and missions at request of the OCHA Offices in the field. Moreover, it is responsible for the continuous dialogue and advocacy for UN-CMCoord on the strategic level. Lastly, it helps facilitate the exchange of good practice by dynamic consultation and interaction with the field based CMCoord Officers. An overview of the work done by OFSU is shown in Annex V, a visual that I developed as part of my tasks during the internship.
3. Tasks and Activities of the Internship
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Creation of a CMCoord Officers and Focal Points Google+ Group. CMCS works a lot with Google.
They have a Google site, Google+ Groups, and intensively use the Google Drive. As several issues were repeatedly faced by CMCoord Officers and Focal Points in different operations and missions, there was a need for a platform to confidentially discuss about these issues and share best practices. OFSU decided to create a closed Group on Google+ for current CMCoord Officers and Focal Points to share best practices, discuss with and learn from each other. My task was supporting the creation of this group, and thinking about how to boost the Group in order for it to become an active platform. I could also give feedback on the Concept Note. In addition, I organised two webinars (online learning) on the Group, together with my supervisor. My ideas on how to boost and raise awareness of the Group were discussed in a meeting with my supervisor and several were implemented straight away (sharing documents and ask for feedback, mentioning the new Group in contact with the CMCoord Officers and Focal Points).
OFSU Visual. This was a project on request by deployed CMCoord Officers and Focal Points in
the field. It was not always clear how OFSU could support the field, and how the field could make best use of the expertise and oversight from headquarters. OFSU thus decided to create a visual to clearly outline how OFSU was there to support the field. My task was to group the tasks and activities of OFSU in several main headings, and search the archive (Google Drive) for suitable pictures. Also, I was responsible for the design of the Visual. I created several drafts, after which I asked for feedback of my supervisor and the rest of our Unit. Halfway the project one of my colleagues came up with new ideas so I needed to adjust accordingly. As many colleagues were travelling a lot, it took a long time to finalise this visual and incorporate all the feedback. However, once finalised, I needed to present it during a Section meeting to the rest of the Section and could send it out to the Practitioners in the Field. It was also shared on the newly created Google+ Group mentioned above.
OFSU Google Drive restructuring. This was a huge project. Prior to my arrival, the OFSU
colleagues had tried to decide on a new file structure for the folders stalled on the Google Drive. However, the proposed file structure was subject to some changes during my internship. After a while, we finally decided to go with the structure as it was and I could start the application of the new file structure, rename and restructure the files in all the folders per country. This was a huge and sometimes little boring project, but it gave me the opportunity to go through all the files and get an idea of what kind of files were important enough to save on the Drive.
Best Practices Project. This was a very interesting project. I needed to decide on topics which
would be relevant to collect and collate best practices on. I decided on several topics, discussed it with my supervisor and together we decided to go ahead with four priority ones which were: 1) notification system for humanitarian deconfliction 2) CMCoord Platforms 3) armed escorts 4) general CMCoord tips. I needed to collect the available documents on the subject, create templates out of the existing documentation and create an overview of the available documents. Also, I indicated what type of documents were missing and reached out to the offices or deployed personnel in request of mission documents, e.g. Terms of Reference or Standard Operating Procedures.
World Humanitarian Day Organisation. Halfway the internship, the acting Director of OCHA
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Humanitarian Day on the 19th of August. This annual event is to celebrate humanitarian workers
worldwide, as well as commemorate those who gave their life. Together with other interns, we developed a concept note in which we outlined our ideas. Through several meetings with different departments of the UN in Geneva (OCHA, overall office of UN in Geneva, Partnership Branch, Media and Public Information Branch) we had an important say in the organisation of this event. We together organised a panel discussion, a digital campaign, an art exhibition, short film screening session and were also responsible for the PR. Unfortunately, my internship ended before the event will take place.
Next to my main tasks, I was involved in several other smaller tasks throughout the internship. I helped organised webinars (online learning) for my supervisor and other colleagues. During these webinars, I often needed to compile the questions coming in from the participants, rewrite them if necessary and send them to the moderator of the Q&A session. Also, I needed to help out with technical issues of participants. Besides, I was involved in a recruitment process in which I needed to review over 30 applications for a P4 function within the Section. Next, as the World Humanitarian Summit took place during my internship and CMCS was hosting a Side Event, I was asked to design a flyer and a programme for this event. Finally, I helped facilitate as well as participated in a UN-CMCoord Training Course in Berlin with civil and military participants.
4. Supervision of the Internship
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5. Living Conditions
Living in Geneva while doing an unpaid internship is a challenge. It is an extremely expensive city. Not only in terms of housing, but also concerning food, things to do and going out. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful and lively city and interning at the UN, especially at the Palais des Nations, is special.
Geneva is an international city, it took me a while to meet ‘real Swiss’ people. Meeting people while interning for OCHA was very easy, as OCHA has an Intern Committee that takes care of new interns. On my first day, I was approached by the Committee (existing of other interns) and we went for lunch together. They introduced me directly to the other OCHA interns, which became the “OCHA intern family” for the rest of my stay. It was good to have friends that were also unpaid and living in the same expensive city. Together we found cheap options to enjoy ourselves.
Finding accommodation is quite difficult in Geneva. However, several Facebook groups and websites can help a lot. Most people who stay for a longer period (more than three months) need to move several times. Luckily I found a room for the entire period of my stay. There is a lot going on in Geneva: film festivals, music performances, silent disco’s which are free of charge, music festivals, conferences, lectures, etc. Plenty of opportunities to fill your evenings with a variety of activities. Especially towards summer, people are going much more out on the streets and barbecue and picnic at the lakeside. Swimming in the lake is a good after work and weekend activity as well.
Since food is so expensive in Geneva, a lot of people do their groceries in neighbouring France. It is easily to reach by public transport, or, in my case, by bike. Public transportation is very well organised. You can get a monthly public transport card for a reasonable price. With this card you can take all trams and buses. Trains are however excluded and really expensive. A good way of transport to visit other cities in Switzerland is blablacar, which is a type of car sharing.
6. Conclusion
a. Intrinsic and personal learning effects
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received emails and could attend meetings on other humanitarian topics of, for instance, who needed to deploy after the Ecuador earthquake. A great learning experience was also the (lack of) communication within the team and also with the field. It became clear that clear and precise communication is essential for good and efficient teamwork.
b. Fulfilment of expectations
As indicated above, before starting my internship I had several expectations: of the insights I would get, about how OCHA and the team would work. I realised later on that I also held some expectations that I had not realised or spoken out beforehand. I had not expected that the team would be travelling that much. There were several weeks that there were only four colleagues in the office, while the others were giving trainings or speaking at conferences. I also had not expected that the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) of May 2016 would have so much impact on the work of a Section working on civil-military relations. The first few months leading up to the Summit, the WHS dominated the discourse as CMCS was having a side event at the Summit. My expectations about the insight in the work of OCHA and civil-military coordination are fulfilled to a greater extent than I could have hoped for. I could join in any OCHA related meetings, as well as through my tasks I had a great insight in all the activities of the Section, and specifically the Operations and Field Support Unit. What is however really disappointing, is the lack of passion during important, high level meetings where for instance new Humanitarian Response Plans were presented. It was just taken as business as usual and very little passion and motivation were portrayed even though the message was that people would die without additional funding… That was quite shocking for me to see that happening within the organisation that is responsible for humanitarian advocacy and supposed to be the voice of the voiceless. Nevertheless, my expectations were exceeded when I could participate in a UN-CMCoord Course given by my colleagues and obtained a certificate. This is a really important step in the process of staying involved in humanitarian civil-military coordination.
c. SWOT analysis of internship and organization
Strengths
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Great insight in the work of OCHA
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Great insight in the UN system
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Great insight in the field of civil-military
coordination
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Network of people working at OCHA,
CMCoord Officers and Focal Points, other
UN related contacts.
Weaknesses/limitations
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Civil-military coordination not very popular
within OCHA itself
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Still a lack of clarity on UN-CMCoord among
UN system, NGOs and broader public
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Headquarter level distanced from the field
despite frequent travels
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Very important work in coordinating
humanitarian affairs to make it more
effective
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Small CMCS team, doing important work
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Very good at creating visual tools for easy
understanding
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Great at preparing and giving CMCoord
training: well thought through
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Lack of portrayed passion in meetings on
Humanitarian Response Plans
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Bureaucratic procedures
Opportunities
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Knowledge and network required on UN
System, OCHA, civil-military coordination
can help in future internships/jobs
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Experience with OCHA and UN system can
help in future internships/jobs
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UN-CMCoord Certificate first step in a
career in civil-military coordination
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Increased awareness by continuation of
CMCS trainings and advocacy on
UN-CMCoord
Threats
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Lack of personal field experience might
hinder entrance on the humanitarian job
market
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Lack of awareness on (importance of)
CMCoord does not contribute to greater
motivation of actors for this subject
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Budget cuts reducing programme
possibilities and personnel in OCHA
d. Internship and NOHA Master
The NOHA Master was a great background to have for this internship. Within the Master we touched upon the UN system, the cluster system, the role of OCHA, civil-military coordination, etc. This contributed to a surprise and appreciation of my knowledge by my colleagues. The different aspects of the humanitarian world studied on paper and through simulations became real throughout this internship. I needed to use the tools as the Virtual OSOCC, ReliefWeb, Humanitarianreponse.info, where we touched upon during the Master, in real life. The interdisciplinary nature of the Master was of great help. During the NOHA Master I already became familiar with the topic civil-military coordination. Through this internship at the focal point for CMCoord, I obtained great insights of how this is organised in practice. My knowledge on the subject (I am writing my thesis on CMCoord) was very helpful and facilitated quick adaptation to the internship and colleagues.
e. Internship and job market
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military coordination is a very specific area, one needs to have a lot of experience to be deployed as a CMCoord Officer, preferably experience with the humanitarian as well as the military side. So this is something for in the longer run. NGOs are more easily accessible to begin with. For a job with NGOs, having a UN experience is a great asset, as almost all will at some point have to do with the UN system and with OCHA in emergencies.
