Voices from ALNAP’s first 25 years | Jessica Alexander: “I often turn to ALNAP to understand how aid is changing, current trends and practices”

Jessica Alexander, Policy-editor-at-large at The New Humanitarian, professor and author of Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid, tells us how she has used ALNAP’s resources throughout her career. Read more testimonials from our 'Voices from ALNAP's first 25 years' blog series.

My first deployment as a humanitarian was to Sudan. It was 2005, and I was fresh out of graduate school. I was hired by an international NGO to collect insights from displaced children living in camps in Zalingei, the capital of central Darfur, to inform a psychosocial program it was launching.

My only experience conducting a survey or running a focus group was in the classroom. I had used ALNAP’s resources back in school, but now I was turning to them as my guide.

The assignment was thrilling - gathering the perspectives of children, parents, teachers to help design elements of the program - accountability in practice! But as a young professional, in many ways I felt out of my depth. My only experience conducting a survey or running a focus group was in the classroom. I had used ALNAP’s resources back in school, but now I was turning to them as my guide.

[Resources from ALNAP’s HELP library] made me feel as though there was a knowledgeable and trusted companion with me on this first assignment

Before I got on the plane, I downloaded as many resources I could find on the ALNAP Help library - everything from research methodologies, to enumerator training, to survey design, to practical tips for carrying out research in camp settings. They proved invaluable and made me feel as though there was a knowledgeable and trusted companion with me on this first assignment.
 
The survey, carried out by 18 enumerators from Zalingei, asked children about their daily routine in the camps, what they missed in their homes, what they liked to do for fun, and what they would like out of the programme. Children said they missed mangoes and sugar cane from their villages, they longed for the ability to roam freely and be children and play. Fetching water from the bore hole in camp was the girls’ favourite time of day. They’d put their jerry can in line and go off and play - braiding each other’s hair, playing a jumping game, or pretending a brick was a toy house. Boys loved playing football and took pride in collecting small amounts of firewood which they used for reading at night. 

Staff took these and other findings from the survey and focus groups to help tailor the program to the likes and needs of children.

As a professor, I now assign resources from ALNAP’s Library to my own students, hoping that they will be as valuable for them as they were and still are for me. 

As a journalist, aid professional, and policy writer, I often turn to ALNAP’s Help Library and the State of the Humanitarian System to understand how aid is changing, current trends and practices. As a professor, I now assign resources from ALNAP’s Library to my own students, hoping that they will be as valuable for them as they were and still are for me.