Why Aid Workers Persist : Supports and Impediments for Long-term Engagement

Abstract: This thesis aims to explore what factors support aid workers to continue in the humanitarian sector, even with the knowledge that their personal well-being, and sometimes their lives, may be in danger due to risk-filled settings and assignments. To find out what factors that encourage aid workers to continue, the thesis also examines their backgrounds and paths into this profession. It further aims to determine what factors the aid workers find difficult in their work and what coping strategies they use to deal with the difficulties in order to prevent and recover from exhaustion and burnout. Data was derived from semi-structured in-depth interviews with experienced aid workers from both global south[1] and global north[2] countries, working in different organizations, countries and contexts. This material was complemented by an unstructured literature review. The theories that have been used for the analysis and as a guiding framework is mainly the notion of habitus by Pierre Bourdieu (1986, 1996) and, as a complement, the theory of intersectionality (Mattsson, 2010). A number of factors that encourage humanitarian aid workers throughout their careers have been identified. In the research findings, the following themes were distinguished to answer the aim and questions at issue; impeding factors, social background and supporting factors. Impeding factors are included and investigated since they can help to explain what it is that encourage aid workers to persist despite the difficulties they face. Results indicate that the aid workers to a certain extent have been affected by role models and cultural, social and economic conditions and experiences in their upbringing, which have all played a role throughout their careers. Other supporting factors have been gained through the aid work over time, such as developing ways to make it more effective to avoid exhaustion and burnout. The study further shows that a person’s background, as understood via Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, may affect the supporting factors over time. The initial motives to engage in aid work tends to perpetuate throughout the career, and aid workers return back to, and find strength in, such motives after facing burnout. Moreover, it is demonstrated that finding one’s personal coping strategies is essential, such as hobbies and spending time with loved ones. When recovering from exhaustion and burnout, innovations in behavior and more efficient ways to work can be developed. Hence, the supporting factors can change with time.