right

you know so I mean the easy answer is oh let's have more on non-traditional donors right um you know let's envision a day where um kenya has sends a lot of money let's say for example right there's there's a way to think that way or to think that oh you know wfp is significantly american right like biggest funding sources united states so what would That's always like the most disruptive kind of thinking is like, what if when WFP is mainly funded by Mozambique? right and so and and how that would look and how how how we could get there but that that is way beyond not only my research but i think also a lot of the expertise of people working in the sector right it's a lot more more of a political global political question And similarly, I think finding different sources of money would be very effective, actually.

When I was working, there were some interesting...

So there's different kinds of funding models that...

We tend to think that the only way that we could get money is to apply for these tenders or call for...

From the USAID, from FCDO.

When I was working in the sector, it was still DFID, right? And all these, all that.

Yeah,

and just maybe your journey towards coming into contact and deciding to study race and gender dynamics in the humanitarian field.

Thank you so much for having me, Wairu.

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa.

I used to work in the humanitarian and development sector for an international organization um in a number of different places in mongolia in ethiopia and in myanmar and also some kind of work profile in tajikistan too but it was quite brief so you know i never really considered doing research right in the sector it was you don't at least for me i was never really part of my plan my idea was to pursue a career in the sector Because I had, you know, I had considered the sector to be quite impactful and it's meaningful work.

And, you know, I had the same mindset as anyone who wanted to join the sector, how I thought about the sector.

But after a few years working in the sector, I realized that, you know, there are some experiences working in the sector that is quite specific to me that some people don't experience or some people experience even more than me.

Right.

who can respond, but why is the system structured in that way?

And maybe there are different experiences to that.

Yeah, I mean, personally, for me, I think, well, I never, I think, yeah, you do get paid, like, you know, a specific amount, but you have to understand a lot of the expat contracts are very short term, right? I think with what you get comes precarity, right? Like comes with every six months, every one year, you're like, okay, let's apply for the next job that you don't know.

friends who would go six months jobless in between and go back to the stage or go wherever they're from and live with their parents for a while a few months and then get another job and they will come to another place right a brand new environment leaving family and that's all kind of counts into it right and also there's some there's a type of contract with expatriate contracts also that I think some call it consultancy contracts some call it like short-term limited contract where organizations will pay you by the day so they will hire you for 90 days they'll hire you for 60 days A lot of American organizations would do that, and you get, because you're paid by day, you don't get weekends, you're like on the clock, 24-7, you get one off day a month.

So you have this, I think that's why the misconceptions sometimes happen with a lot of national staff to expatriate staff, being like, oh, why are they so hardcore all the time? Like, why, you know, I just got here on a Monday and you already have 10 things to ask me to help you with.

Because they're likely to be on a day contract.

And sending emails on the weekends.

On the weekends or working on the weekends.

that's not amateur.