Staffing priorities for the Gaza humanitarian crisis

The ongoing war in Gaza has resulted in a devastating loss of life, with at least 44,000 Palestinians killed, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The humanitarian affairs agency also reports that more than 100,000 people have been injured, and an estimated 1.9 million — nearly the entire population of 2.1 million — have been forcibly displaced. Many aid organizations have shifted their programming priorities and scaled up the delivery of services on the ground. However, staffing these operations has proven challenging. Chessa Latifi, an emergency coordinator at Project HOPE, explained that initially, the global health and humanitarian organization was looking for experts “regardless of where they were from.” However, regulations put in place by Israel have severely limited its candidate pool by excluding those with certain passports or backgrounds. The organization is now prioritizing national staff and building local capacity in-country or remotely, and with such a history of humanitarian work in Gaza, Latifi said there are a lot of very qualified nationals. But there is also a pressure “from the populations that we serve … and [to] do the best work that we can in [these] horrendous, awful circumstances that are unlike any response that I've worked on.” UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which has been present in Gaza since 1950, had approximately 13,000 staff members working across the city before Oct. 6, 2023, according to Sam Rose, the agency’s senior deputy director in Gaza. With growing competition for talent as aid organizations arrived or scaled up their work, staff have been poached, which is natural, said Rose. Gazans are generally well-educated, have high levels of English, and are adaptable, which makes them marketable across the region, he continued. But they are also living under daily bombardment, and some local staff evacuated with their families when the war started. Previously, UNRWA had a small pool of internationals in Gaza — around 15 people. However, staff members from the agency’s other field offices and headquarters were brought in to provide urgent support in procurement and logistics, among other areas. But having to adhere to the World Health Organization’s guidelines on cholera when staff take their rest and recuperation period in certain countries, on top of unpredictable border closures, means staff can be stuck outside Gaza for longer than planned, said Rose. Devex found out more about the programming and staffing priorities for organizations supporting the crisis response in Gaza. Priorities shift to service delivery UNRWA has been providing “quasi-governmental services” in the form of education, as well as primary health care, social welfare, microfinance, and sanitation, said Rose. “We had 300,000 children in school, [were] providing three-and-a-half thousand patient consultations each day … collecting garbage from refugee camps, providing … microfinance loans,” he explained. The agency also periodically scaled up its programming in reconstruction and psychosocial support following hostilities and conflict. However, staff are now mainly working as part of the emergency coordination structure and managing shelters, with health, sanitation, and security among the few roles that haven’t pivoted. Most of the schools the agency had been running have been turned into emergency shelters, with staff there setting up and maintaining water tanks and solar panels. Based out of its office in East Jerusalem, the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, had been running its global programs on women protection, reproductive health, young people, and population data with a focus on advocacy, capacity development, and policy dialogue. With many staff members no longer able to travel to that office, a functional base was set up in Ramallah. From there, as well as the field office in Gaza, the agency is now working with partners to deliver services such as mobile units for delivery and cesarean sections, and provision of shelter and hygiene kits, explained Nestor Owomuhangi, UNFPA’s representative to Palestine. According to the agency, an estimated 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers in Gaza are currently caught up in the conflict, and around 130 women will give birth every day. Reproductive health needs are also growing in the West Bank, said Owomuhangi. Direct service delivery usually wouldn’t be UNFPA’s remit in Gaza in “normal circumstances,” but much of the previous work around capacity development and policy has been put on hold, Owomuhangi explained. Other programming shifts have redirected efforts toward mobilizing youth volunteers and protecting the most vulnerable. Health and WASH expertise Project Hope didn’t have a presence in Gaza or the occupied Palestinian territories prior to the current crisis. From Israel, and with support from Egypt, where it has had a presence for decades, the organization’s response began with medical supplies and commodities before moving into primary health care centers, Latifi explained. “We are scaling up our existing primary health care work — mobile medical units, static health care points — and then we also have some sexual and reproductive health care clinics,” said Latifi. The organization’s staff include social workers and mental health and psychosocial officers, among other profiles. UNRWA has strengthened its expertise in WASH — water, sanitation, and hygiene — shelter, and site management through a partnership with the International Organization for Migration. The agency had previously worked in these areas, but not on “this emergency scale with hundreds of thousands of tarpaulins, latrines, and tents,” said Rose. Its security efforts have also been bolstered through additional international support while new roles have emerged in civilian-military access and coordination — an area the agency had not previously engaged in on a sustained basis, explained Rose. This includes an access unit that not only handles internal matters for UNRWA but also supports broader coordination across the system. Conflict and crisis experience Despite the logistical challenges, most organizations have had to bring in international staff to meet urgent technical needs. International staffers are expected to have significant experience in similar humanitarian crisis situations, said UNFPA’s Owomuhangi, who has previously been based in Iraq and Yemen. So far, the agency has brought in staff with experience in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, among other places. While Project HOPE isn’t hiring directly for clinical roles, one of its partner organizations does recruit for emergency medical teams and has a team of Jordanian physicians and nurses on rotation as surge staff in Al Aqsa Hospital. These staffers tend to have combat experience or have responded previously in the occupied Palestinian territories or Syria, said Latifi. Opportunities for international staff to support Project HOPE’s response primarily focus on country directors and deputy country director roles, as well as technical leads. And, while fluency in Arabic is an important skill to have, it’s not a deal breaker for someone who is otherwise the right candidate, said Latifi, adding that technical leads in water and sanitation, protection, and health have been tough openings to fill. Are you actively looking for a job? Or are you just passively open to new opportunities? Either way, don’t forget to update your Devex profile now — hundreds of recruiters are searching daily for talent in our database of over 1 million global development professionals.