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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]why are humanitarian and international development organizations staffed almost exclusively by white people?

i've been working in the development community for the past five years and im surprised by how all the jobs are held by white rich trust fund girls. it kind of baffles me because these are the most privileged people and they're trying to tweet about female maternal mortality in Kenya or India. The whole thing seems to fake to me. [/quote]

I work in this field (human rights, not water sanitation or infrastructure) and our organization is actually pretty diverse.  The teams with a regional focus often have folks from that region, or whose parents were from that region.  [/quote]

This was very true in my major non-profit as well. A common thread, however, was that they came from wealth. At the NGO level, they did try to hire locals because they had the most impact on the community we were trying to reach.

On the issue of hypocrisy: I absolutely saw it too and it bothered me quite a bit.[/quote]

NP here.  My assumption has always been that NGOs aren't socio-economically diverse.  Most of the people who work for them come from wealth.  The reason (again, my assumption) is that they all went to prestigious colleges/universities (and that is sort of expected at NGOs), but most low and middle income people cannot afford those colleges -- even with a partial scholarship.

I kind of think of NGOs as being similar to academia -- there's a preference for status (be it prestigious school, being published).  I also think it's difficult to get those jobs without having the right connections, as it's the only way to get your resume seen and get in the door.

I could be wrong, but that's the impression I've gotten.  [/quote]

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