My article on per diems can be found online here.
Please contribute your thoughts on the controversy of per diems by leaving a comment.
Is the prevailing system of payment dysfunctional? Do they create unintended consequences? Are they necessary for communities and institutions? If so, when?
Hi Brianne,
ReplyDeleteI am Dhruba, Coady graduate 2009.
Thanks for nice and creative article......I don’t like to say per diems is to be paid or not. I just want to share my own experience.
In 2005, I was working with a community development project funded by UNDP, DFID and SNV Nepal, joint partnership with government organization in Nepal. It was designed for a pilot project to reduce the poverty through rural tourism promotions. It was almost the beginning phase of the project so we have to find the local situations (like a baseline survey). We need lot of information what are the strength and the weakness. So we organized appreciative participatory planning and actions (APPA) and integrating with development wheel (like spider web), using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools. I was there as a key facilitator with other two colleagues. Besides that, I also have two professional observers from another organization. They want to know our working modality and interested to replicate in there working community.
In the second day, one of the observers asked with me whether the per diems system to participants. Then I told them, we have a provision of Rs. 50.00/day for each individuals. Then they feel uncomfortable with our rural tourism/community-based project. I explained them, most of the participants are very low profile in terms economy. They don’t have food/grain tonight; if we pay them they can buy 2 kilogram rice.......
Our conversation was continuing for a long time; however, they were interested to visit community wants to see live. On the way, we met one of the woman participants with her a 7 years daughter. It was a coincident she also holding a dalo (grain storage box made by bamboo) with exactly 2 Kg. of rice form the local market. Then they realized the necessity of per diems for the poor people. We also continued towards her house and we looked inside her house. It was really unforgettable event for us even now too, she has only six utensils including cooking and eating (plate) purpose and two thick blankets, nothing than that. They immediately decided and gave three thousands to buy necessary utensils and blankets. This is only one example; I have lot of bitter experiences.
Finally, I would like to say the per diem is necessary.
Hi Brianne,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your article, I believe the issue regarding the payment of per diems is a crucial one that must be addressed before the ABCD approach can truly take hold on a policy basis. My experience in this matter comes from an internship I have just completed with an organisation in East Africa that is attempting to embed the ABCD approach within all their existing and future projects.
I believe that per diems are necessary for some activities involving some groups of people, but that the practice can both be abused by community members and applied indiscriminately by NGOs.
For example, I have observed the payment of per diems to 'Chiefs' (government representatives in a given Location or Sub-Location) for them to travel within their allocated locality in order to introduce the NGO party to the community. I believe this practice of using Chiefs is necessary, both in order to work in conjunction with the government and to assure security and order during a meeting. However, the introduction of an NGO to their own community, taking maybe an hour or two, seems so far within the Chief's job description that I find it somewhat ridiculous for them to be paid a day's per diem for it. Also, you then find Chiefs from other Sub-Locations or Assistant Chiefs turning up out of the blue, saying a few lines and demanding to be paid!
The payment of community members is, I agree, a very tricky business. I have spoken to many community members, trained by our NGO and now doing valuable work at home as leaders, facilitators of group meetings and as trainers in various areas of development, who have expressed how difficult it is to continue in this never-ending role without some form of encouragement or support from the NGO who invited them to take it up in the first place. Perhaps the solution here is in the selection of community members who are already devoting such time and efforts to helping others, but how many of them are there out there? I personally believe they are there, we just need to take more time to find them and help them find that spirit in themselves.
As regards per diems when you take community members out of their locality, I think its a balancing act. How much of the objective is for them and how much for you? This then should be discussed and agreed upon before anyone goes anywhere. In the end, working with one person who wants to be there is as beneficial as working with thirty and only one caring. Costs of travel, food and accommodation should, I believe, be covered if you have asked people to come to you rather than you come to them.
Finally, it may be harsh but if people can't afford to miss a day's work to attend a meeting, perhaps they aren't in the right situation to be able to help others, or even to apply the time to help themselves as a member of the community?
Thanks again for the article, apologies if my reply's too long-winded or meandering!
Dear Brianne,
ReplyDeleteThanks for you article on per diems and the blog to share concerns with many developmental paractitioners.
I have been working with Save the Children UK for about 6.5 years, Austcare for 1 year and now with Fred Hollows Foundation now.
I have been very familiar with the joys and disappointments 0f perdiems
I agree to give per diems to target communities when the purpose of per diem is clear and we need to bear in mind that those communities we support basically are vulnerable.
I only completely do not agree to give per diems to government officials at higher levels because they can get double per diems, NGO support them to extend their reach and provides huge tangible support.
But I agree to give per diems to low levels of government officials because they do not have power to steer the finance official. If s/he can steer the finance official then s/he should be either doing conscription with the finance staff or getting warning from managers.
Low level officials also mostly do not earn equal amount of money with their work load and the substantial needs for the family and they have to do other works to make up the family economy.
If we say per diems have negative impact to the achievement of our organizational objectives that is possibly because our approach are not effective where communities focus more on per diems rather than the objectives of our main support.
I have the experience, I did training of teachers and volunteers in around 30 outreach villages which are extremely vulnerable. We gave them per diems. After 4 years when I was no longer with the same organization, I met the teachers I trained and they talked only about the training I did compared to other training. Another example, some teachers share per diem because we limited the participants, and some also pay their own cost.
Overall, there are also barriers created among developmental organizations because
1. not all organizations are charity
2. not all organizations are need based
3. not all organisations are right based
4. not all organisations provide tangible and intangible supports
5. not all organisation are doing emergency relief
6. not all organsations are doing transitional programs
7. not all organsations are doing developmental programs
8. not all organisations deal with governments (politics) the same way
9. organisations are looking for their own profiles/ competing each other
10. donors are different
A most vulnerable group of communities is very sexy to developmental agencies.
All agencies come to offer help. Mostly people who are selected volunteers are always active for all agencies.
So agencies confuses them.
When they are becoming volunteers that doesn't mean they are not part of the vulnerable group.
And the measurement to show that per diems do not bring significant impact is not true in the areas I have been working because for example agriculture programmes have improve the variety of products in the markets, prices are not so high for not well of families, farmers do not only farm during rainy season but also wet season.
So per diems is fine as long as your strategy is allowing our participants to value development much higher than per diems.
If you do a training where people come and listening to you like what I see in your illustration, then that's the problem because vulnerable groups spend all their time and energy thinking and struggling with their daily hardship and you keep them passive so you do not help them but add their burdens.
Thanks,
Alberth
Dear Brianne,
ReplyDeleteThis is a powerful article.
I think people should not get per diems simply because they are going to benefit from this meetings. Donors will not be there always and it is important to understand from the beginning and to convince them of the importance of the project as it serves their needs. For sustainability's sake it is of paramount importance to note that if the people really want the project and can predict the outcome, then they will easily buy it without per diems.
I think that people will focus more on the task at hand and the ownership of the project as opposed to the amount they will get at the end of the meeting. In this way you will know how committed they are in serving each other.
For me the emphasis need to be put on 'everyone has something to contribute' so as to steer their thoughts from ' i am here to get' attitude and this will enhance their relationships, commitment and sharing.
Thanks
Anna
Well said noted and observed. In Antigua where I am from we refer to per diems as an allocated of $15 EC per day given to individuals who are traveling outside the country on government business.
ReplyDeleteWhile this is warranted and some times not enough depending on the country; within the countries borders this is not practiced. What is practiced is the provision of a snack or lunch depending on the length of the workshop once it is organized by outside agency, and this seems to be the source of the problem.
Programs are not truly community driven, agencies are demanding what they want done at the expense of the citizenship and as a result individuals don't mind assisting for a small fee, if that is the case, however, community members will work long hours, provide their own food for a worthwhile cause in their eyes.
I have seen too many occurrences of these, persons exploit travel opportunities, while those who do the work are left out of the loop.
I say, work with the communities to develop realistic projects that they want to see accomplished, let them call the meeting and make the pitch soliciting the workforce of the community, assigning responsibilities while the outside agency show how they can assist rather than lead the way.
This will get the work done, without outside dependance but instead assistance.
There is not one answer to this question we do info sessions all the time and although the participants gain so do we Info from stories as to how to proceed stuff that only First voice can provide But there are times that we don't have money or gift cards that is when we do or best to let people know and provide at the least a good meal thank you debra pp
ReplyDeleteIn my Opinion it depends on the context that the per diems is being paid and it is relative to this key questions?
ReplyDeleteI am most times of the opinion that it should not be paid but there are a few exceptions based on the following questions
1) Is it the culture we want to create?
Over the year donor funded NGOs running projects in community provided per diems to community participants either as end users or volunteers, initially they may have decided to participate because of the goodwill in their hearts but as time and the years went on the major appeal became the per Diem paid hence imparting negatively on the spirit of volunteerism.
Per Diem has developed to be a 'means to an end' project on its own, it sometimes the major reason why a person or a community decides to engage in the project, therefore projects which may not have the funds to pay per Diem rates like other per Diem paying projects running cur -currently in the same community may become challenged. Do we want to promote a culture of volunteerism or per diem?
2) Is it Sustainable?
How sustainable is the periderm being paid in the community? My suggestions are the community culture should determine “what should be paid and how much should be paid and does the community consider necessary to be paid. For example; If a meeting is held within the community for 2 hours and it is community driven and organized on a project the community wants to undertake?
Key Considerations/Questions -
• Did the community provide a meal for that meeting?
• Did the community pay seating allowances to attendees?
• Did the community pay for transportation to the attendees?
The community responses to these key questions in their situations determines what should be per diem or not. This would ensure that at the end of the projects communities can carry on the projects if they have ownership of the program and believed it was of value to them
3) What is the Value for Money? Key considerations should be what is being spent making a difference versus what is being spent on per -diem.
4) Did the community /Government initiate, lead and drive the project?
Per diems can be a smoke screen to achieve project targets and results rather than actual project buy in that leads to real community development. On the short-term individuals from the community or government staff can buy in to the project with the main incentives being the per -diems and not the stated project goals. These projects end up not making the change needed for community development. The project comes to an end with the end of the per diems.
I believe per diems should be paid when an individual is taking from his/her community to a location that the individual is away from home requiring accommodation, travel and meals. This per diem should be based on the current market economic prices of that location and not just a flat rate for all per diem. For government officials, I think per diem should be one of the discourses donor organizations have with government, that government of countries engaged should be able to cost share on donor funded projects and per diems should be paid by the government using the government rates to its staff.
Winnie
ReplyDeleteIf the program is to be community owned, the people must be involved in their own development and take responsibility for it. As development catalysts, we must be willing to work with the people at their level, time and on their agenda. They identify their opportunities, they set their own plans and resource for their own assets. We are only development catalysts,not development bulldozers. Per diems take away this pride and ownership from the people, and more often than not, they are not sustainable,they cause dependency and people develop a sense of entitlement, which is unhealthy for any community initiative
Paying per diems shifts the agenda and ownership from community to the development agency. There are ways to have people engage in community initiatives without totally taking time off work, and when they do, they do it voluntarily for the benefit of the community, with the only expectation being a better community.
(Hold meetings in the evenings or during the weekends when people are off work. Hold training two afternoons in a week instead of a full block of a week or two weeks,break tasks into 'bitable' sizes that people can accomplish in a short time etc, are are just a few examples)
There are other ways of appreciating/motivating community members who stand out, e.g periodic spirit of volunteerism awards, that in turn motivate other people to be involved. These too are mobilized largely by the community and the community also nominates who receives the award each period. This minimizes the necessity of per diems and improves community spirit and volunteerism, ensuring people keep the motivation long after the development agency is gone.
My take!
From my experiences of working in the NGO sector, I have encountered varying views on per diems. Some would be more concerned about the total amount they would receive when travelling for work purposes instead of focusing on the mission of the trip and some would even try extend their days in the name of "building partnerships" with other organisations so as to attain more per diem. Personally I feel if you are travelling for work purposes(conference,meeting or workshop etc.), then you should receive per diem as you cannot be expected to use your own money for such. I do think some per diem rates for certain countries should be revised as they are extremely little in comparison to the costs in that particular country(I do believe organisations use different rates). However,when you have been invited by an organisation to attend an event that will benefit your organisation and yourself, where all costs are covered, then a per diem should not be requested. I do also feel that if you have been invited to attend a conference outside your country where all costs are covered, for example an event for women informal cross border traders then a small amount should be given as contingencies as you have to leave the work you do to make an income so you can attend a meeting. As much as it would be of benefit to attend the meeting you also lose your only source of income on those days.
ReplyDeleteIf an organisation wants to host a meeting or training in a community for a particular initiative or project that the community wants to achieve, then refreshments should be arranged. If a project is benefiting the whole community and you want to volunteer then you should not expect per diems as that creates a culture of entitlement which I feel is totally wrong.
The per diem has been a motivation factor for the staff to attend their duties in the field despite less work or output from their visits. This brings harm than benefit since the target group wont feel their effort due to lack of passion and determination to deliver change. what could have been paid as per diem can be accrued to help in buying materials for facilitation during capacity building trainings to the target community.
ReplyDeleteFor the community-driven initiatives, most of the work is voluntary and therefore the members knows the end benefit goes to them. Therefore, there is no need to pay per diems.
my opinion!
Hi Brianne.
ReplyDeleteI think per diems really are a tricky subjects and the biggest issue for me is the question of sincerity in the intentions of both the development organisations and the community participants. There is no doubt that some development organisations have the best of intentions; they want to do social good, uplift communities, empower them and leave sustained benefits. These development organisations might pay per diem as a way to attract the community to initial meetings. The unfortunate result may be that the community participants have the expectation to receive a per diem for every meeting, but this could be a way to sift those with commitment from those that simply show up for per diems. On the other hand, there are also development organisations who want to exploit communities just to tick boxes, haul statistics, take credit for short term and unsustained projects that leave communities worse off than before and dependent on donor assistance. These organisations may more easily pay per diems until their own objectives are met and then they leave.
In the same way that development organisations can be exploitative, community members can do the same too. They can pretend to show interest just so they can be paid per diems. In other cases, community members show up so they can eat "nice lunch" brought by the development organisations in addition to per diems.
As much as the cases above are very much present, there are cases of mutual sincerity on both sides where both equally benefit.
However, the reality is that development does not happen immediately and the road to sustained development is paved with hardships not only of meeting project/programme goals and objectives, but also of personal life and livelihood. One project I went to visit which did not pay per diems to its volunteers because it could not afford it faced the problem of having volunteers leave the project as soon as they found jobs because they needed the money to take care of their families and children, which for me is justified. Poverty is a reality for most South Africans. For this purpose, the per diems are much needed as a means of support, but only those who have shown enough of an interest to develop their community even without the promise of a per diem (to measure commitment and sincerity). Per diems should not be payed for general meetings, they should be payed to people who show a genuine interest and work towards community development. There is no need to pay per diems when the community is met at its own location. And organisations should only ask those community workers already committed to go outside the community for meetings/trainings and pay for accommodation, food and transport, and not call the general public for specialised occasions.
It's only fair that per diems are paid. We are also passionate about our jobs and are committed to them, but we also get paid for them.
Yolisa
Interesting article Brianne. This is a tricky subject as we deal with communities that are really struggling with real issues that at times you as the person who is playing a role of facilitating development need to also address immediate needs e.g. a hungry person.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think payment of per diems would result on dependency which is something that is at the opposite end of community driven development. Trainings and workshops are for the benefit of the community as the skills and knowledge acquired from them will be left with them forever. If per diems are to be paid, I think they should be based on cases where attendance is outside of the community and even then specific to expenses incurred by each person on accommodation,food and transport. Nowadays refreshments are a standard practice during trainings and workshops.
Where I see some form of payment justified, even when it is a community driven initiative, is when it is to be done for labour intensive activities especially in areas where hunger/unemployment is a stumbling block that people are struggling to see beyond. This could be a win-win situation as the development agent becomes a low hanging fruit for the community and in the process gaining their trust. Again, those that are to benefit from that immediate support should be selected by the community as they have the knowledge of households that have that urgency in their households. In that way people start to think of self help when they are on equal footing kind of...
At organizational level, I think the organization should pay for actual expenses incurred for travel, accommodation and meals.
The article is very educative Brianne and this is what is happening in the communities.Organizations sometimes get enough funds for community development activities but staffs are after their own gains first.Per diem is a big issue and financial staffs allocate huge money to this section since everyone in an organization would want to enjoy money while the project assist.
ReplyDeleteThe government officials are never available for organizations which do not provide the per diems. This has made most of the communities to lack various skills and knowledge whenever per diems are not available.
communities also rely on per diems that when given in the first sight then they will never afford to loose. Per diem has brought discrimination among communities since those not liked by the leaders rarely gain from per diem.It has also made communities behave like they are very busy with their activities yet when the project funding end they also relaxed and stopped participating.
I believe communities should be approached i a non per diem system in order to have ownership and sustainability of their own development.
Victoria
Dear Brianne,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the fruitful article with lots of information and vivid examples from different areas in the World and as well different perspectives and opinions from different authors as quoted within the Article “Per Diems: To pay or not to pay? That is the question”. In my opinion basing on the country which I come from,Tanzania per diem is used to cover the travel costs, accommodation, incidentals and refreshments (breakfast/lunch/brunch) but this depends on the policy of the organization or stakeholders and the community themselves. It is not necessarily to pay per diem but I commend on “to pay”. Therefore per diem can be paid to community, individuals or staff only if they agree themselves that there is necessity of it after realize the value or worth of it either socially or economically to individual or members in order to sustain more time to contribute on the project that are engaging with to provide space and priority to community to engage more on it separately from their usually/daily engaging activities. Further, per diem should be considered and used in proper manner and not for personal benefit by staff or community as a source of income instead it should be used as a means of motivating people to accept on what will be available during the time for stance if per diem will cover either refreshments, transport costs or accommodation when necessarily.
Warm Regards,
Farida Abdallah.
Hi Bri
ReplyDeleteI don't think its such a good idea, people should no get per diem for their attendance. Where is the leadership/ownership in all of this? People have to understand that you're the one who's doing them a favour by coming to them with some trainings/information and it's for their our benefit. Once people heard the word per diem 1) I do not think they will concentrate, they will be focussing on what to do when they get this get this payment? At the end of you day you wasted your time and resources. Please don't hear me wrong we do respect their value and time they took but paying them is not a solution to all of this, what I can say is a good meal at the end will be good because once they get per diem and ask them the following day what did they learnt they will tell you with pride that 'I don't know and I don't care' which is true. What he cared about was the day to end and get his payment.
From where i'm coming from my community (South Africa, KZN) we do lunch/refreshments for the attendees, not as the payment but for their whole day spend attending and they are thankful for it... And when they have to attend the whole weekend they will be provided with transport, accommodation, food and refreshments...
Thank you :)
Nonku
Hi i personally think Not To Pay, giving people money will only encourage people to come to meetings with a plan to get per diems and not really paying attention to what the meeting or the initiative is about! Its true that people are more likely to attend if they will be given something in return like money or sometimes food, i feel its important to go with the people who understand and support the idea then to take everyone who in return will ask for something in return like moola...
ReplyDeleteMukelani