Peter Baynard-Smith, the regional director for Asia of the Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide, emphasised a commitment to poverty reduction in his talk at a Greencoat Forum in the IofC centre in London, 7 November 2006.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Working for change in a world in need’, he reflected on his work for international relief in different Non-Governmental Organisations around the world, taking his audience on ‘a journey through some of the development and relief experiences that I have been part of’.
As a young boy, Baynard-Smith had been exposed to African culture, as his parents had worked for many years in Africa with Moral Re-Armament (MRA), the forerunner of Initiatives of Change. He paid tribute to the influence that this had had on his own career.
He began his work as an engineer with the Christian NGO Tear Fund. Over the past 15 years he has moved into programme management for a number of International NGO’s, most recently the Dublin-based agency, Concern.
He said that when he first worked with Tear Fund in Tanzania in 1989, he had thought of himself as a well-educated man who could help and enlighten the unprivileged and poor, in order to improve their lives. He soon recognised that he was uninformed and far from being the expert he thought he was. However, this eye-opening experience gave him insights into how poverty impacts on people. This made him try to bring change, even if it was just for a few.
In 1994, Tear Fund transferred him and his wife to the Tanzanian border, where Rwandans fleeing from genocide were seeking refuge. Baynard-Smith was part of an emergency operation which lasted for two years and became the largest international relief effort prior to the Asian tsunami. Challenges arose, as he and his organisation experienced political and human conflict for the first time. Rumours spread that, amongst the people in the camps, there were members of the Hutu militia, who were considered ‘genocidiares’.
Baynard-Smith pointed up questions that need to be answered among international NGOs: ‘Should we be facilitating the arrest of these persons even if no proof was held as to their role in the terrible events of April 1994? Should an international NGO get involved in making such judgements, even when requested by the UN and Government?’ He concluded that ‘nothing was straightforward’.
Baynard-Smith spent three years in Niger, working on a programme of child sponsorship, where the majority population was Muslim. He said that although his own Christian conviction drove him, working in development required respect for other people’s faiths. Later, he worked with Concern Worldwide to achieve community development in Mozambique. The challenges there were improving the education sector. Although budgets were increasing the level of education, local authorities remained disempowered.
According to Baynard-Smith, a rights-based approach to development needed to be a foundation of NGOs’ work. In 2005 he moved to Ireland to take on the role of Regional Director in Asia for Concern Worldwide. In Bangladesh, Concern has been focusing on a programme of maternal and child healthcare. The aim is to strengthen government health systems. The programme has been replicated throughout the country and Concern’s role has been to pilot this approach. Now Concern’s focus is in supporting local NGOs so that they can be sustainable.
In 2001, Concern decided to work in India because, he said, one quarter of the world’s poor live there. Their presence in the country has a focus on the fulfilment of individual and collective rights. They advocate for increased government responsibility and resource allocation in supporting marginalised groups such as the low caste dalits.
Another central focus has been on Disaster Risk Reduction. Baynard-Smith said that Concern has emphasised the importance of reducing vulnerability to flooding, by improving household planning.
He also visited Pakistan recently where there is still much work to do in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake which killed over 70,000 people. He said that, although the rehabilitation of the zone will take several years, by next year many international NGOs may be moving out. That was why it was important to focus on strengthening the local partners who will be staying there.
After 15 years of experience in development, Baynard-Smith said he was convinced that NGOs play a key role in disaster relief. He insisted that the development sector needs leaders that focus their interests on the poor. At the same time, he said, one of the challenges for international NGOs is to ensure transparency, accountability and equality. Expressing his optimism for the future, he concluded that, ‘The development sector needs inspired leaders, visionaries, people prepared to put their religious, political, profiteering or nationalist position aside and focus on the needs of the extreme poor.’
Andrea Cabrera
English