Humanitarian in Crisis: Employment Crisis in the Somali region (Ogaden)
Photo © 2006 by Britta Radikea
Overview
Somali region (Ogaden) is Ethiopia’s ‘own Darfur. Government runs organized war and genocide, and blocks trade and food aid delivery in the region. Women, children and older people are the most vulnerable groups to suffer abuse and violence and misuse of humanitarian aid in the region. The 2013 Federal Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) HRD (Humanitarian Requirements Document) confirmed approximately 2.4 million beneficiaries in need of relief food assistance from January to June 2013. About 39% of those in need of assistance in Ethiopia are in Somali State (Ogaden).
To hide facts from the international community, Ethiopian government banned cross border commercial movement, relief aid delivery, and humanitarian operations in the region. Foreign missions and media are not allowed to travel to the region and visit drought and conflict affected areas and monitor the situation on the ground. Relief food is only source of income “salary” for the government officials and militias at local level. UN World Food Programme (WFP) relief food goes through the government channels. Relief food is monitored and controlled by government army and militia forces, and delivered where there are militia presences only. NGOs are not allowed to monitor humanitarian situation and share information about these incidents, otherwise the government will close these organizations and arrest staff. An aid worker who concealed his name for fear of repercussions had recently told the Christian Science Monitor that, “if anybody were to push their agenda beyond a limit considered acceptable by Ethiopia’s notoriously strong and rigid government, then they would risk being expelled from the country”.
For security and other reasons federal government controls all flights to the region. Journalists and aid workers have been arrested, tortured, abducted, and killed by government forces. In December 2007, two humanitarian workers with Save the Children UK were expelled on accusations of “diverting food aid to rebels” after the organization published report about malnutrition levels among children. As a result many of local staff members haven arrested and others have forced to leave their organizations, and faced risks of losing their jobs. In 2010 and 2011, two UN WFP staff (Yusuf Mohammed and Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan) and two Swedish journalists have been arrested by government. Head of the UN Field Security and Safety Officer (Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan) is still in the government detention center without trail. Mr. Abdirahman’s arrest in July 2011 came shortly after he negotiated the release of two abducted WFP workers with leaders of the ethnic-Somali insurgents.
Ethiopian government punished pastoral people and those who support them; humanitarian actors and their staff, by accusing them that, they support rebel groups; Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Poor humanitarian management with serious human rights violations, restriction of aid operations and absence of role of law will complicate the humanitarian situation and community livelihoods in the region. Therefore, UN agencies, donor organizations and international community should take urgent actions about the crisis of the pastoral people in the Somali region (Ogaden).
Employment Crisis in the Somali region (Ogaden)
Government officials from Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime claim that, about 75% of international NGOs work considerate in the Ogaden region. However, this claim is far from reality. The number of the NGOs and their operations and contributions in Tigrey and Amhara regions cannot be compared with the situation in the Somali region (Ogaden). Because of the ongoing military operations, humanitarian agencies (NGOs and UN agencies) and media have no access to the Somali region (Ogaden) region. Most of the NGOs work from Addis Ababa and operate in few towns in the region. Some NGOs directors never had seen what they do or visited project sites on the ground.
Because of the government influence and involvement in the NGOs and UN operations, there are difficulties for local staff to get employment from these organizations. Hundreds of highlanders from Amhara and Tigrey have been recruited by these organizations without or with less qualifications and experiences. Employment of these staff has been done through their relatives and friends in the decision making places with these organizations. Most of the staff in the higher positions (i.e. department heads, programme managers, specialists, advisors, etc) with these organizations are highlanders with no or limited qualifications and skills, and have link with security and army forces. There is few local staff with these organizations, but in low level positions and with limited contracts. Therefore, they have no job security and cannot get better employment, payment and benefits (including staff trainings and skills development opportunities, etc) from these organizations. For instance, most of the staff with UN agencies UNDP, WFP, UNICEF, UNHCR head offices), IOM, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, CHF, Islamic Relief, Save the Children, COOPI, ADRA, ZOA, World Vision, and other organizations are from highland areas.
In Dollo Ado only, there are about 40 UN agencies and international NGOs with about 2,800 – 3,000 staff. Most of the staff members are highlanders from Amhara, Tigrey and others. Most of the staff in the refugee camps, refugees’ reception and transit centers are from non-Somali ethic groups (highlanders), who lack basic knowledge and language skills to deal with the refugees and registration issues in the camps, and contexts in the host communities and district. There is no local staff (Somali staff) at the head offices of these organizations both UN, NGOs and GOs, especially with UNHCR, IOM, Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) and ARRA (Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs; security agancy). In several events, community elders and refugee representatives have different complaints, including language barrier, poor camp management, food and employment related problems, widespread of corruption in the food aid system, and issues about livelihoods development for refugees and host communities.
Warder and Gode: officials from UK and USA-based NGOs who said they work in these zones failed to explain what they do and the way they monitor and control their operations on the ground. One of them failed to tell the location of their operations, while other one said “they recruited their staff through recommendations made by the local government officials”. This means “staff recruitment was based on the recommendations of the government officials and their relationship with the government authorities”. The NGOs officials said “they have local staff on the ground. Normally, they fly by air to the area through Ethiopian Airlines or UNHAS, and meet their staff, community elders and government officials in the towns. They discuss with them project status, implementation progress and other issues. Without going to the project areas and meeting beneficiary communities in the implementation sites, they return from there and back in Addis Ababa”.
The fact is that, staff of the organizations are members of ruling party and “government officials” who are behind this deal “connections between these NGOs and government authorities and staff recruitment facilitations”. These officials are actual contractors with these NGOs, and implement NGOs operations on the ground, through transportation and logistics facilities, office rent, construction and maintenance of water points, purchase of materials and goods, food delivery, staff recommendations and recruitment, etc.
Local Staff in the Ogaden region: Treat Us like Human Beings
The guiding principle in the Code of Good Practices in the humanitarian sectors is that ‘people are central to the achievement of the organization’s mission’. To achieve that, humanitarian stakeholders (i.e. UN, Non-Governmental Organizations, Governmental Organizations and local communities) need to work together and have clearly defined, integrated people management strategy, which enables to maximize return on their investment in people, respects local cultures and supports culture of learning and continuous improvement (i.e. human resources planning, recruitment, deployment, management, development, safety and security, etc) throughout programme management cycles.
Based on the above facts, humanitarian and role of law are in crisis in the Ogaden region. In Ogaden region, aid and trade have been blocked by the Ethiopian regime. But employment of employees from outside the region and blocking employment opportunity from the local staff is another crime and worse than what the regime is doing in the region. These things are not acceptable and urgent actions should be taking by the heads of these organizations. We must raise the voices of those who have no space to channel their demand regarding employment issues.
Employment-based discriminations are not acceptable in any humanitarian operation, and employment creation for the local staff is vital humanitarian concern. Evidence shows that, local staff are out of work, there are getting difficulties to get job from UN agencies and International NGOs in the Ogaden region, which will affect their future. In Tigrey, Amhara and Oromia, most of the local staff with the UN agencies and International NGOs are from local, but the situation in the Afar, Gabella and Ogaden regions is different from the rest of the country. The problem of local staff unemployment concerns the whole community. When local staff are un-employed they lose their employability, which leads to loss of productivity for and creates negative thinks about these organizations and staff from other regions. It is therefore crucial to create jobs for the local staff in their region and not to create a lost generation.
Regional authorities and humanitarian actors should give serious consideration to the local staff employment issue and coordinate and lead humanitarian operations in the region. Government, UN agencies and NGOs should create employment opportunity for local staff and stop bringing unqualified staff from highland. Humanitarian operations and employment process in Ethiopia should be reviewed and evaluated. Local communities and their authorities should be involved in the programme management cycle, as well as evaluation of operations and recruitment process. The regime should be forced to allow free humanitarian operations and access to the humanitarian actors in the Ogaden and other parts of the country.
Call for Actions to tackle employment discriminations crisis in the Ogaden region
It is no secret that, Ethiopian government punishes local people and humanitarian actors in the Ogaden region. The UN’s mandate is to help the needy and vulnerable people specifically in the disaster and conflict places like Ogaden region. This mandate has not been followed in the Ethiopia case. The reason for having big number of the UN agencies and international NGOs in Ogaden is to help the needy people (both local people and refugees). It’s clear from the above facts (i.e. Dollo Ado case) that, there are employment problems in the region, which was created by UN agencies and international NGOs.
Jijigea, Shinille, Gode and Dollo Ado are bad models for employment and role of law crisis for local staff. In Dollo Ado, there are no single restaurant, cafeteria, hotel and hospital in this town. Local people get dirty water from river, while UN and NGOs staff get clean water from Mandera (Kenya). During the night, the color of the main road is changed; full with federal army members and UN and NGOs staff, Bars and Rock (Music) houses, and you believe that, you are in somewhere in Chicago or with Hollywood actors. All benefits and money of the UN and NGOs staff are invested outside the region and waste is only left for the Dollo Ado people.
There is no problem to have big number of national staff in any part of the country, but the Ogade (Somali) staff should be allowed to compete with others and get their right positions with the UN agencies and international NGOs in the country. Employment requirements should be based on the qualifications, skills, and experience of the staff on the field area, not on ethnic and religion issues. If Tigrey and Amhara Regional Governments decided to employ their staff in their regions, the Somali Regional Government and community leaders should implement the same approach for the benefit of their people in the region. The same should be for the local staff in Afar and Gambella Regional Governments who face the same problems by the UN agencies and International NGOs. The Somali, Afar and Gambella Regional Governments should evaluate employment of the Highlanders and also check qualifications, skills and performance of international staff with UN agencies and International NGOs in their regions. Based on these evaluations, the international professionals should stay in their positions, but those who fail to fill the requirements should leave these regions.
UN agencies and international NGOs should respect their obligations and principles on accountability and ethics in humanitarian operations, aid delivery and employment requirements in emergency and normal situations. There are cases of corruption and misuse of aid by staff members from highlanders from Amhara, Tigrey and others. Some NGOs have been closed by the government security officials after they tried to evaluate their operations and performance, as well as staff performance.
Abdi Mohamed Omar is the current President of Somali Regional State, who is also Head of Security and Liyu Police “Special Police” (since 2006/2007 – present) and Ethiopian Somali People’s Democratic Party (ESPD) didn’t complete regular primary education or attended professional training. Prior to joining the Regional State, he worked with the Ethiopian Electric Light and Power Authority (EELPA) as an electrical helper in Degahbour town. The Military Officials assigned him security forces head, and then promoted to the presidency. He lacks basic knowledge and skills for people’s leadership and good governance. Local people believe that, the president and military commanders are behind current human rights abuses, corruption, restriction of trade and humanitarians operations, and against peace and sustainability in the region. The president, deputy presidents and military commanders in Harar have established big business through duty free privilege and illegal trade with Somalia. The current Prime Minister is powerless and at the hands of these military and security officials. Therefore, it’s not easy for him to take actions without these officials or remove them from their positions, deal with ONLF on peace issues, and correct the situations in the Ogaden region.
The Head of the UN Field Security and Safety Officer (Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan) was arrested in 2011 and still under woyane detention without trial. Therefore, UN Secretary General and UN Resident Representative / UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ethiopia are responsible about this crime against the UN staff. International community, donors and human rights organizations should protect pastoral community and their professionals in the Ogaden region from Ethiopian crimes, and think about the future of the pastoral people in this region, through ensuring accountability, human rights protection, livelihoods security, and dignity of the local people in employment process and humanitarian operations in their region. Human rights organizations should follow-up and monitor the situation in the region, and share with donors and international community the facts in the Ogaden region.
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