[MUSIC] Welcome to this course on the importance of listening. In the humanitarian field, communication does not merely relate to the delivery of a message. Communication is also about listening. Listening to the people, to the country, to the situation. It is about everyday interaction with the people who matter to you, the beneficiaries of your action, the civilian and military authorities, armed groups, political groups, other organizations, the press and media, and of course, the population at large. Listening is actually crucial for six main reasons that concern you as an aid worker. First, listen to offer an adequate operational response. Listening helps you do the right thing. Before you design an aid project, even if you have done a thorough and objective assessment, you'd better listen to the future beneficiaries before hand, to know where they stand, what are their perceptions about this situation, how they express their needs and their resistances. In aid, there is no standardized response, and you want to hear the people a about their own needs and priorities, and how best to respond to them. I remember the story of an organization that wanted to dig a well that was requested by the village chiefs. This was because women had to walk long distances to get water from the river. Before launching the actual drilling, someone thought of asking the actual women what they thought. And they were very surprised that the women were opposed to the well, and why? Because they were walking everyday to the river together, which gave them the opportunity to discuss all their issues and problems, they had their space, and were not put under pressure to do all sorts of other work. So the well was not drilled. Another example in another continent, an NGO decided to connect a village to a water source to get them running water. This actually saved women from walking five hours a day to get the water. What happened? Actually, women who had not been asked about the project, didn't know what to do with all this additional time. And instead of spending it with their children or on other activities, they started drinking alcohol together during the afternoon, and this turned out to have a very negative impact on the social ties and on the village life as a whole. Remember that there is an important principle in aid. It is the Do No Harm principle. The second reason why listening is important, is that it opens the space for participation. This means that even if a community is badly affected by a crisis, people within this community may have specific skills and resources that can contribute to the response. They all had jobs before. They are farmers, nurses, plumbers, schoolteachers, drivers, and so on. All capabilities that you might need. Listening to them allow you to involve the local communities, not only to understand their needs, but also to let them come up with their own proposals to be involved in the decision making process, and in the actual implementation of the project. The third reason why listening is important, is that listening to the beneficiaries will help them regain dignity. In this dialogue with them, they will engage as partners actively participating in developing the suitable responses to their needs, instead of remaining passive recipients of decisions made by other people. In a situation of disaster, where people have lost so much, when they stand up and work for their own community, they regain a sense of shared purpose, of hope, and of dignity. The fourth reason is that you need to listen to monitor your project. You might have a wonderful project, yet environments change, and they can change fast. And what was relevant one day might become irrelevant the next day. Or what looks like the best approach, might have missed an essential point. So you need to adjust your project. For doing so, it is key to maintain a constructive dialog with all your network of stakeholders throughout the project implementation. And you need to keep all your listening channels active to collect reliable feedback. For example, during the recent fight against Ebola, while the virus continued to spread, in spite of the sick being isolated, it was established that one cause in some areas was due to a tradition that implied physical contact with the diseased during the burial rituals. It was thanks to continued dialogue with the communities, and listening to them, that alternatives could be identified and applied, alternatives that respected this period of the tradition and at the same time safeguarded against the risks of further contamination. Five, you also want to contribute to your organization's accountability. Today, people want to exercise their right, not only to be helped, but to be helped adequately. So aid organizations are keen to enable the people that they assist, or any other stakeholder concerned, to raise complaints about their work, so that these issues can be investigated and processed. So these processes need to be accessible, safe, and effective for the people. And you as an aid worker, you will listen to their grievances with full objectivity and without preconceived idea. You will make sure to collect the necessary information to enable your organization to take the useful, corrective measures. And finally, you need to listen to strengthen your own security. Listening to all stakeholders, whether the population, armed groups, the authorities, and of course, your national colleagues, listening to them all will help you understand how you and your organization are perceived. Humanitarian aid workers usually mean well. Their intentions are good and fraternal. However, they can be perceived negatively for different reasons. Because of a misleading interpretation of their presence. Because of their nationality. Because of a specific political context, or because the organization uses a logo, or a sign, that is not well interpreted. It might be perceived, for example, as a politically affiliated sign. Or is it a religious symbol? Or, their presence can be negatively perceived simply because their work has been considered as biased, useless, or insufficient. And this often happens, and might nurture aggressiveness, and attempts to harm. Therefore, gaining a clear sense of how your organization is perceived is essential to enable you to assess its acceptance in the situation, and to devise the most effective communication strategy. How people look at you, how they read your presence here, will determine their willingness to collaborate with you, or simply to let you do your work. Keeping open ears is crucial to manage and strengthen your own security day by day. To summarize, I invite you to listen proactively, and with attention and care, because you will learn information that is highly valuable, to ensure the relevance and the quality of your humanitarian work. You will involve the people who will participate in doing the work. You will honor the people you listen to, and help them become real actors in the aid programs, thus regaining in dignity. You will monitor and adapt your program to fast changing environments. You will contribute to your organization's accountability. And last but not least, you will enhance your own security. And don't forget to listen also to yourself, and to your intuition and your good sense. [MUSIC]
