'Living it up, part 2' incensed one of my friends who also works in this field. She wrote an impassioned and spirited defence, from which these are extracts:
"Back to your friend who asks why we are getting paid so much, allow me to try my luck on this one.... Do I believe that to deal with poverty you yourself have to be suffering from poverty as well? So now a doctor has to be sick to be able to treat patients more efficiently?"
"If you compare our salaries with anyone who has our background but works in any other sector other than international development you will find that our salaries are not that obscene! Take someone who works, say, in the field of business, has two Master’s degrees, has 12 years of experience, how much would this person be making? Well I just described myself, and as you very well know I’m probably making 50% of my counterparts in other professional fields. Besides we need to make a living as well."
"We can also approach it from the beneficiaries’ point of view. Do they have the capacity and the capability to manage bigger funds than what we actually give them?... And we are not a substitute bank! ... Are we expected to give these beneficiaries more money, AND build their capacity to manage these funds, AND be flexible in terms of collateral and re-payment?"
"Of course that is in addition to all the points you mention about International Development becoming so huge now that it needs professionals and not just my mom and yours who volunteer their time in church! We have multi million dollar budgets, tens of staff per program, governmental relationships to maintain, amongst other major responsibilities so we’ve earned it! Tell your friend “peanuts you pay, monkeys you get”!!! If that’s who should be managing issues of poverty, then maybe she has a point, I just don’t see it…"
"At the end of the day we chose this line of work because we love it, enjoy it, and I can’t think of myself doing anything else! We sacrifice our time, effort, comfort, and often safety in order to give others a chance in life to achieve their potential and their rights! If we make a bit of money (not much, but some) in the process I think that’s ok, don’t you?"
"Back to your friend who asks why we are getting paid so much, allow me to try my luck on this one.... Do I believe that to deal with poverty you yourself have to be suffering from poverty as well? So now a doctor has to be sick to be able to treat patients more efficiently?"
"If you compare our salaries with anyone who has our background but works in any other sector other than international development you will find that our salaries are not that obscene! Take someone who works, say, in the field of business, has two Master’s degrees, has 12 years of experience, how much would this person be making? Well I just described myself, and as you very well know I’m probably making 50% of my counterparts in other professional fields. Besides we need to make a living as well."
"We can also approach it from the beneficiaries’ point of view. Do they have the capacity and the capability to manage bigger funds than what we actually give them?... And we are not a substitute bank! ... Are we expected to give these beneficiaries more money, AND build their capacity to manage these funds, AND be flexible in terms of collateral and re-payment?"
"Of course that is in addition to all the points you mention about International Development becoming so huge now that it needs professionals and not just my mom and yours who volunteer their time in church! We have multi million dollar budgets, tens of staff per program, governmental relationships to maintain, amongst other major responsibilities so we’ve earned it! Tell your friend “peanuts you pay, monkeys you get”!!! If that’s who should be managing issues of poverty, then maybe she has a point, I just don’t see it…"
"At the end of the day we chose this line of work because we love it, enjoy it, and I can’t think of myself doing anything else! We sacrifice our time, effort, comfort, and often safety in order to give others a chance in life to achieve their potential and their rights! If we make a bit of money (not much, but some) in the process I think that’s ok, don’t you?"
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