Lunch time at the AHA Centre’s office has become merrier since the beginning of 2019. The laughter, casual conversations, as well as thought-provoking discussions shared during the break involves a new friend from a neighbouring country – Australia. Ms. Jenny Lee has been assigned to support the AHA Centre as a Senior Civil-Military Coordination Specialist through the Australia Assists Programme – for the first half of 2019. Her temporary assignment with the AHA Centre aims to strengthen humanitarian civil-military coordination, safety and security policies for the ASEAN-ERAT members, and AHA Centre staff. With more than 12 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, Jenny has established her expertise in civil-military coordination, safety and security, and gender. She has contributed to numerous emergency responses, in parts of Central America, Asia and the Pacific as well as supporting the search for missing MH-370 in the Southern Indian Ocean. The AHA Centre is pleased to share with you one of our in-depth conversations with Jenny.

“I was drawn to the humanitarian work because of my late grandmother. She did not introduce me to organisations like the United Nations, or different NGOs or other humanitarian agencies, but she showed me the positive impact a person can make if they have the right attitude and intentions for the community”, Jenny explains when asked about the start of her professional journey. As she recalls her childhood memories, Jenny remembers her grandmother being the unofficial “community leader”, whom neighbours turned to whenever they needed help, often creating a safe space to listen and provide support for others. This experience created a lasting impact leading Jenny to believe that becoming a humanitarian starts in one’s own home and community – regardless of education or experience.

Having worked in the humanitarian sector for over a decade, Jenny saw the impact of conflict and disasters from the affected communities. In the topic of gender, she saw similar challenges for men, women, boys and girls in 12 countries. It was common to see women and girls consistently experiencing the same obstacles that stem from gender inequality. Challenges to accessing schooling, challenges to balancing professional lives as mothers and wives, to difficulty in accessing basic female hygiene kits and health services to mention a few things. This exposure has drawn her to realise that addressing root causes of gender inequality would need to be a collective effort from everyone in all parts of the community, organisations and at the political level regardless of gender. She’s also learned that perspectives do matter, and it is crucial to understand different perspectives are important for suitable solutions.

Adopting gender lens and understanding the impact of inequality takes time and effort, and may not come naturally for many people. In this context, advocacy is difficult, and “buy-in” (convincing people that this is worthwhile) from the right people is also difficult to achieve. Advocating for anything that deals under the umbrella of gender – from organisational policy, safety and security in the field, gender balanced representation in leadership and staff, emergency humanitarian aid – can be very challenging. However, the courage to raise such issues and empowering both men and women that their perspectives are important, and can be rewarding and lead to better solutions to different issues.

Jenny has learned over the years that “how” you start the advocacy discussion makes all the difference. She’s come across soldiers, military officers and police officers who were not only keen to addressing gender inequality and wanted to make a difference on changing the structural discrimination for women to ensure they have a more effective force. However, many did share insights of how it wasn’t pleasant to be cornered into a “gender-insensitive” individual by many activists. To Jenny, she’s learned this from a friend who admitted that understanding the concept of gender perspectives and seeing what this looks like from a practitioner’s point of view was difficult as this is asking him to shift away from the mindset that he has built for over 30 years in the security sector.

Moreover, Jenny acknowledges strong leadership is a key to achieve gender equality. Leadership starts with individuals at all levels, but executive leadership is crucial for an organisation to learn and adapt to the needs and requirements to ensure that everything within the work of an organisation is gender sensitive. She’s observed different approaches of senior leaders on how they do this. Some show leadership on this as a result of personal experience and ideas, some leaders who are new to this concept choose to rely on their gender expert and rely on them to ensure that all issues are addressed.

Jenny learned that with all these leaders (male and female), when asked why they decided to take this forward, they simply stated that “it is the right thing to do”. Organisations should reflect the global 50:50 male/female ratio at all levels to ensure that the work they do sees better quality, better effect and better solutions. Another key characteristic of their leadership was that they empowered those who were working for them, giving them chances to make “productive mistakes” which always helped everyone to become better at what they do. This helped everyone on their learning journey on understanding the intricacies of gender sensitive policies and what this looked like at the practitioner level which made a huge difference.

She concludes that, “Back in Australia, in my previous role without the leadership support, I would never had the freedom and the confidence that I have today to advocate for this. So, leadership support is key, and their empowerment of my work was also a key. On reflection, the amount of trust they gave me, was quite phenomenal and I think this helped in achieving a lot of huge tasks – as well as their open-mindedness to learn new things to make the world a little bit better than yesterday. Everyone has a room to contribute and no contribution in this sector is small.”

Written by: Shintya Kurniawan | Photo : AHA Centre

Prof. Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto is one of Indonesia’s and ASEAN’s leading figures on disaster recovery and reconstruction. With a deep background forged through a variety of governance and private business roles focused towards energy and natural resources, Dr. Mangkusubroto is also the founder of the School of Business and Management of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). His leadership as the head of the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency from in 2005-2009 – which saw him oversee post-tsunami reconstruction and utilisation of local and international assistance to rebuild the shattered region – elevated Dr. Mangkusubroto to become one of the region’s most renowned leaders in disaster management.

Dr. Mangkusubroto’s success leading post-tsunami reconstruction efforts has seen him become a go-to resource in other ASEAN disaster response and recovery efforts – being invited to engage in disasters across ASEAN Member States including Myanmar and the Philippines, as well as international efforts in Nepal and Japan. During 2018’s AHA Centre Executive (ACE) Programme’s Leaders Talk series, participants had the opportunity to learn about the key concepts and integral elements of strong leadership in disaster recovery from Dr. Mangkusubroto himself. Central to Dr. Mangkusubroto’s message was the importance of trust and integrity of ASEAN leaders in disaster management and coordination.

To gain this trust, Dr. Mangkusubroto says, leaders must be able to approach key players and parties to ensure efficiency in logistics and other disaster management processes. He emphasises that knowing who to approach and what to say is key to overcoming the variety of obstacles that can arise during a disaster response. It is through these approaches and the conveying of succinct and clear information that shows one’s integrity, and with this integrity the trust is then strengthened. Dr. Mangkusubroto also highlights the importance of understanding specific contexts and cultures of communities across the region, and that leaders must be prepared to recognise and, importantly, overcome issues for better results for the people as a whole.

“As a leader, people will come to you continuously – they may be angry, sad or unstable due to their losses”, he said. “Just let them release, listen to them, and just give them your sympathy, as once you’ve finished your work, they’ll realise you are serious.” .

To gain this trust, Dr. Mangkusubroto says that leaders must be able to approach key players and parties to ensure efficiency in logistics and other disaster processes. He emphasises that knowing who to approach and what to say is key to overcoming the variety of obstacles that can arise during a disaster response. It is through these approaches and the conveying of succinct and clear information that shows ones integrity, and with this integrity the trust is then strengthened. Mr. Mangkusubroto also highlights the importance of understanding specific contexts and cultures of communities across the region, and that leaders must be prepared to recognise and, importantly, overcome issues for better results for the people as a whole.

Recalling the experiences from the huge reconstruction efforts after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Aceh, Dr. Mangkusubroto highlights the importance of remaining calm and focused during the midst of high emotions and traumatised communities. “As a leader, people will come to you continuously – they may be angry, sad or unstable due to their losses”, he said. “Just let them release, listen to them, and just give them your sympathy, as once you’ve finished your work, they’ll realise you are serious”. These are just some of the challenges faced by disaster managers and leaders in the field, and overcoming these calmly and reasonably are a big part of what regional leaders must aim to achieve.

After discussions on a range of contexts and experiences faced by leaders in disaster management, Dr. Mangkusubroto concludes on the key elements of efficient and effective disaster management leaders – particularly when in the field in the period after large disasters strike. He emphasises the importance of coordination and communication, whether with governments, local and international responders, logistics providers and the affected communities themselves. He highlights that all parties are there to help and support in their own way, and it is up to the leaders to ensure all parties come together to achieve the greatest results. Dr. Mangkusubroto insists that regardless of the mix of contexts, cultures or political influences at play, the best outcomes can and must be achieved for an effective and sustainable recovery and reconstruction phase. And this, he reminds us, is the key role of ASEAN leaders on disaster management.

Written by : William Shea | Photo : AHA Centre