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Doing Good Better
- 1. DOING GOOD BETTER IN THE WORLD Jennifer Klein International Education Consultant Twitter: @KleinJenK
- 2. Lesson 1: Good Intentions ≠ Doing Good.
- 3. $2 Billionmarket for global volunteer experiences in 2008 1.6 million volunteers/year. Source: Tourism Research and Marketing (TRAM). 2008. “Volunteer tourism: a global analysis”
- 4. Army of Amateur International Development Workers
- 5. There are limited resources for doing good. Let’s use them effectively.
- 6. Lesson 2: Identify the need.
- 8. Giving Stuff ≠ Sustainable Solution.
- 10. The need in many cases may be the development of systems: • Education • Health • Infrastructure • Social protection • Land ownership • Environmental protections
- 11. Lesson 3: Use research/data to do the most helpful and efficient intervention.
- 12. Source: SMBC via https://80000hours.org/career-guide/high-impact-jobs/
- 13. Source: SMBC via https://80000hours.org/career-guide/high-impact-jobs/
- 14. Source: SMBC via https://80000hours.org/career-guide/high-impact-jobs/
- 15. Source: SMBC via https://80000hours.org/career-guide/high-impact-jobs/
- 16. People want to follow their hearts and don’t want to take time to do the research…
- 17. Bad people in our world are exploiting the empathy of good people… …and producing terrible consequences.
- 18. Lesson 4: Volunteering Free Labor can help. Sometimes. [And sometimes not.]
- 19. Labor is cheap. Unskilled volunteers can insert free labor into an already difficult job market for locals.
- 20. Volunteering Free Labor Spectrum Unskilled Free Labor Mutually Beneficial Free Labor Skills in High Demand
- 21. Unskilled Free Labor What it looks like: Volunteers pay to travel to a country to see the country; meet locals; and do activities that locals already have the skills to do. Short Term Volunteers may have no local language skills. Driven by volunteer interests rather than by community needs.
- 22. Unskilled Free Labor Examples: Flying to other countries and distributing stuff (toys, books, etc.). Volunteering with children Building schools/health clinics/libraries/houses
- 23. Unskilled Free Labor Examples: Building Stuff. If you wouldn’t be qualified to do it at home, you shouldn’t travel abroad to do it. Staffing
- 24. Let’s do the Math… 1 Week Volunteer Program with Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua: $2200 – Accommodation, meals, local transport, fees $800 – Airfare $3000 – TOTAL X 10 Student Volunteers $30,000 No Free Labor from Volunteers: $30,000 Donation to effective local organization $1940 – Average annual income 15 Livelihoods Created Source: World Bank, 2015. GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$); Picture Credit: http://endhumanitariandouchery.co.nf/
- 26. If unskilled volunteering doesn’t usually benefit locals, why do they keep accepting volunteers? They need: • money. • advocacy. • fundraising. • connections to the outside world. • ??
- 27. Volunteering Free Labor Spectrum Unskilled Free Labor • Focus on Volunteer: Cultural Exchange Mutually Beneficial Free Labor Skills in High Demand
- 28. Mutually Beneficial Free Labor Reciprocity. Partnership. Volunteers are meeting a need expressed by the community/organization. Stay longer term Service Learning?
- 29. Mutually Beneficial Free Labor
- 31. Volunteering Free Labor Spectrum Unskilled Free Labor • Focus on Volunteer: Cultural Exchange Mutually Beneficial Free Labor • Focus: Reciprocity Skills in High Demand
- 32. Skills in High Demand What it looks like: Meeting local needs with skills that aren’t locally available. Candidates are screened based on skills. Location is less important than the task. Lower cost to volunteer Longer term
- 33. Skills in High Demand Examples:
- 34. Skills in High Demand Hard Skills: • Grant writing • M&E + data analysis • Web development • Water/sanitation systems • Advocacy/Marketing • Accounting • Entrepreneurship • Agriculture • Healthcare • Legal skills • Graphic Design Soft Skills: • Cross-Cultural Communication • Flexibility • Teamwork • Ability to work independently • Patience • Creative Problem Solving
- 35. Success = We don’t need you anymore. Work yourself out of a job.
- 36. What if I don’t have the skills yet? Volunteer locally. Find an organization, internship or job that helps you develop the required skills here. Document proof that you have the skills. Find a mentor. OR….
- 38. Homework Assignment: 1. Would you volunteer abroad if you could not post photos to social media? 2. Do you want to do good or feel good? 3. What do you hope to gain from volunteering personally and professionally? 4. What impact can you realistically have given your skills and time constraints?
- 39. Lesson 5: Travel Responsibly for Poverty Reduction and Job Creation
- 41. 190 182 286 182 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 Global Youth Travel Market Official development finance (ODA) to all developing countries 2009 2014 2020 Travel as a Resource Sources: UN World Tourism Organization Global Report on the Power of Youth Travel and OECD DAC USDBILLIONS
- 43. Sustainable Development Target 8.9 By 2030 devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism which creates jobs, promotes local culture and products. + Goals 12.2 and 14.7 (for coastal and maritime tourism).
- 45. The 5 Lessons 1. Good Intentions ≠ Doing Good 2. You have to know what they need in order to fill the gap. 3. Act based on evidence/research. 4. Free Labor can help if you have skills and time. 5. Sustainable travel can create livelihoods and reduce poverty.
- 46. 5 Lessons + Good Intentions + Time, Resources and Skills = Better Volunteering. Better Travel. Better Work. Doing good better.
Editor's Notes
- Good Afternoon everyone! I’m thrilled to be here today and to have a chance to speak on this broad topic – Doing Good Better in the World. I’ve been nervous about this talk because I’m scared that all of you are going to be listening to my comments and thinking – “WOW- This woman is so critical. She’s a bad person!” But, hear me out and know that my comments are grounded in my background in the field of international development, which is poverty reduction in low and middle income countries as well as research on Effective Altruism – which is a movement to use the limited resources in this world to do good in the most efficient way. My comments are also grounded in my years of living, working, and travelling in low and middle income countries, which is an interest that I’m guessing many of you share.
- Volunteer work = helping. Mission work = helping. Donating stuff = helping. “I started an NGO to help people!!!” does not = helping. Service Learning may or may not be helping. You can’t assume that because it is called helping that it is actually doing good.
- [not about what you think they need; want to do; what you have to give them..]
- I’m sure you’ve all heard the old saying, “Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” … But what if he already knows how to fish, but you never asked what he needed and so didn’t know that it was actually that he needed a fishing pole to be able to do it… or maybe it was that he ran out of bait? … or maybe the real root of the problem of why he doesn’t have fish is because the new factory down river was polluting the water and they couldn’t eat the fish anymore…. Maybe advocacy is what the real need is… We have to find out what people actually NEED to know how to help.
- People want give something tangible and get warm fuzzies and immediate thank yous. They want to see the results of their work in a tangible form and get instant gratification… but Haiti really doesn’t need your old t-shirts and you won’t save the world on your 1 week volunteer trip. Development is a long term process where each person contributes a piece to a greater puzzle… it takes months and years.
- The trouble is that this kind of process of using data and research to do the most efficient development intervention takes time and research, and many people are more interested in following their heart and acting spur of the moment than they are doing lots of research.
- The trouble is that this kind of process of using data and research to do the most efficient development intervention takes time and research, and many people are more interested in following their heart and acting spur of the moment than they are doing lots of research.
- The trouble is that this kind of process of using data and research to do the most efficient development intervention takes time and research, and many people are more interested in following their heart and acting spur of the moment than they are doing lots of research.
- The trouble is that this kind of process of using data and research to do the most efficient development intervention takes time and research, and many people are more interested in following their heart and acting spur of the moment than they are doing lots of research.
- Greg Mortenson “Three Cups of Tea”’s schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan were vacant because no one could pay the teachers or furnish supplies. Health Clinics don’t treat patients, health care workers do and you have to pay their salaries. Building stuff is complicated. There are years worth of research on how to do it better, and this certainly doesn’t involve unskilled tourists doing it themselves.
- Books, toys, sporting goods, food, candy, etc. Short Term Teaching
- Greg Mortenson “Three Cups of Tea”’s schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan were vacant because no one could pay the teachers or furnish supplies. Health Clinics don’t treat patients, health care workers do and you have to pay their salaries. Building stuff is complicated. There are years worth of research on how to do it better, and this certainly doesn’t involve unskilled tourists doing it themselves. MAINTENANCE
- Exchange free labor/skills for learning, a work experience for your resume, or free room/board.
- https://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/is-peace-corps-right-for-me/peace-corps-response/
- https://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/is-peace-corps-right-for-me/peace-corps-response/
- When I looked on Idealist for remote volunteering requests, there were over 2000… You’ll have to screen the positions carefully to be sure the organizations are actually doing good and are legit… and develop/document some skills!!
- The United Nations 70th General Assembly has designated 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development
- The Global Youth Travel Market in 2009 was $190 BILLION, and has been steadily rising despite the economic downturn and ebola. In 2014, it was worth $286 Billion. The official development finance to ALL developing countries in 2009 was less than the youth travel figure at 181, and it barely rose to 182 in 2014. Furthermore…. Youth travel expenditures are projected to rise to $400 Billion by 2020… twice the aid budget. This means that you are a HUGE MARKET. The market is oriented toward giving students what they want…