Natalie Wirt , EFSL Humanitarian Support Professional
Natalie Wirt talks about her recent deployment to design the liveilhoods component of Oxfam's emergency programme in Somalia.
Which programme have you been working with over the last couple of months?
After my mission in DRC, in October 2007, I was deployed to Nairobi to support the Somalia team until mid May 2008. This was a great opportunity to better understand the context of Somalia.
I was in charge of designing the livelihood component of an emergency programme in the outskirts of Mogadishu. As you may know, despite the establishment of a transitional government in 2000, Somalia has been very unstable since the fall of Siad Barre in 1991. At the end of 2006, serious fighting broke out between Islamic militias, who had gained control of the south, and the forces of the transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops. These clashes are still going on in Mogadishu and it is estimated that 60-70 per cent of the population have fled their homes.
Oxfam is running a programme in an area around 14km from Mogadishu, where more than 200,000 displaced people have settled since the beginning of this conflict.
Our water component aims at providing water to 120,000 displaced people. With our partner Hijra, we designed a pilot livelihood project for the most vulnerable families with low labour capacity, as they depend entirely on the food distributions to survive. These families now receive US$30 a month from Hijra, which enables them to complement the WFP food distribution and meet their basic needs.
As Hijra was not confident on the acceptance of cash relief by local communities, we asked the beneficiaries to perform low intensive community work, according to their capacities. The project is flexible enough to accommodate people who cannot work at all. Beneficiaries have now decided to produce handicrafts, such as mats, brooms, clay pots and baskets, which are widely used by people and which could be distributed to other Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The project has been quite successful until now, but it cannot cover the large demand as it targets only 1500 families. We are hoping to get more funds to extend the activities.
What has been the most innovative example of EFSL work have you seen in this time?
Conducting cash transfer programmes in Somalia was quite an innovative experience for me, taking into consideration the conditions in Somalia. The implementation of activities was done entirely by our partners, as we could not access the project sites for security reasons. Somali people are quite business oriented and it was in fact much easier than what I thought. Cash transfer companies are numerous and well established in the country. They know how to deal with clans and militias and could bring the money to the beneficiaries in a very safe way. We never met any security problems during our intervention.
However, with the rise in inflation rates, I think it’s important that we should think more of combined interventions (cash and in-kind), at least as a contingency plan.
What is the most important thing you have learned?
Working with partners was definitely the big lesson of this deployment, particularly how to develop trust relationships, which would allow sharing not only progress but also any issues encountered and mistakes made. Somalia is a unique context where we cannot access beneficiaries and visit the project sites. We rely entirely on our partners and we have to be very sensitive in identifying the issues that are arising and are not specifically mentioned.
What is your most amusing or memorable experience?
The training session we organised with the Somalia team in Baidoa (South Somalia) last December, was quite memorable. This workshop included all Oxfam’s partners working in Somalia.
Baidoa is the capital of the TFG (transitional government) and is quite a hot political place. After landing in a field and being harassed by people from the army/local militias requesting US$50 for a visa, we were informed that we had no accommodation (and the plane had left) and that the only “safe” hotel of the town, booked for the training, was occupied by the ministries.
We finally found a shelter for night at Concern Worldwide, and were relieved to know that the hotel would be available for the following day (we were expecting 40 participants). I won’t go through the grenade attack in the city centre during the night, or on the fact that the hotel could not accommodate all of our participants, who ended up sleeping on the ground altogether in a room, but I will mention that, amazingly, we were able to conduct our training as planned and partners kept their motivation and were delighted with the experience.
What is the best thing about your job?
Working as an HSP allows me to be deployed in several missions over a short time and to face very diverse and challenging contexts. I have the feeling that despite the difficulties of the work, I have learnt a lot in my job and I am much more flexible and adaptable to a changing environment. The work is never the same and we don’t have any fixed routines. I have enjoyed getting to know different cultures and many Oxfam teams all along these years.
What three words that sum up the country/region you are currently deployed?
Complex, diverse, challenging.
