The humanitarian parent: Balancing work and family in the aid sector

Aid sector staff work in some of the world’s most challenging environments, from conflict zones to sites of natural disaster and refugee camps. For a long time, the aid worker was viewed from an eurocentric perspective, typified by the lone white male, flying from place to place and seeing his family during the holidays. But now, as the world changes and the sector diversifies, how can family life be reconciled with the challenges and travel commitments of this particularly difficult career? 

Merit Hietanen, a humanitarian specialist with over a decade of experience with the UN and international organizations, has recently published a book The Humanitarian Parent: Balancing Work and Family in the Aid Sector that delves deep into these challenges, exposing the problems that persist and pointing a path for organizations to adopt a more human-centred, staff-centred, parent-centred, feminist approach to humanitarian and development work.

Evidence-based 

Drawing on the author’s own experiences as an aid worker, as well as extensive original interviews and desk research, the book looks at the challenges faced by those who aspire to a family life, from finding a partner who is willing and able to live in the same location, to dating in difficult contexts, to being away from home and extended family, finding child care, and settling children in new countries and cultures. 

Local workers face their own challenges, often suffering from a lack of support in comparison to their international colleagues. Mays Nawayseh, a Jordanian aid worker and humanitarian expert, also provided her inputs to the book from the perspective of a national aid worker, breaking many of the stereotypes placed on national staff from the global south who the sector contractually expects to be at home with strong networks to support their ability to do the hours required in the aid sector.

For many, the cost is too great, and the sector suffers from a brain drain as experienced staff leave. It doesn’t need to be this way. The book points a way for organisations to adopt policies that support mothers and fathers. As well as being a useful guide for aid professionals who are themselves navigating these issues, the book can be helpful for organizations looking to reform and for students wishing to understand the realities of a career in aid.