Brown Bowl and Thorn Bushes
Unforeseen Impact of Funding Shortfalls of UNHCR Programme in 1989
In the early part of 1989, the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR faced what was described at the time, as the most difficult and critical financial crisis in its 40-year history. By mid-year, it became clear that the organization would only receive about 80 per cent of the amount budgeted at the end of 1988. This happened at a time when there were new influxes of refugees, the most serious of these in the Horn of Africa, where over 300,000 Somali refugees entered the Jijiga and Aware districts of south-eastern Ethiopia.
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It also became apparent in early 1989 that limited levels of contributions compared to needs would possibly mean a severe shortage in funding for the year. Throughout the year, the Office had to implement austerity measures against this backdrop of mounting needs. A process of prioritization was embarked upon an as an Evaluation Officer, I was asked to recommend which activities could be terminated across the board for all countries to ensure fairness. This was a difficult task, as it became a mathematical exercise in which only what was considered as “life-sustaining activities” were retained. Much to my dissatisfaction, I still remember having to recommend that complementary foods such as sugar and salt were to be removed from the budgets.
By mid-year, all infrastructure projects were to be suspended. Education and other activities not considered life-saving, also suffered. Only through such rigorous and continuous assessment of priorities, was it possible to complete the year without stopping some refugee operations. The cuts not only affected the refugee operations, but also the administrative activities of the offices.
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We were on an evaluation mission to Ethiopia to assess the impacts of the cuts on refugees newly arriving in Aware camp from Somalia. After a long day of traveling, we arrived at our field office. Staff had been living in a locally built grass hut, but the decision to construct prefabricated housing was most welcomed. The problem was that with no running water, the buildings of both the office and accommodation had to be provided with latrines. It was at this point that the instructions came that all construction activities were to be stopped.
The staff fetched water from the village well, but as there was no sewage system, one could not use the flush toilets. “With no latrines, what does one do?” I hesitated to ask.
After our dinner, it was getting close to bedtime, so I had to ask our field officer, a young Canadian.
“What does one do for toilets?” I dared to ask.
“Well, I have three alternatives: first, you can use the brown bowl in the toilet; second you can go outside and squat behind a thorn (acacias) bush, or you can drive a land cruiser to the village hut, which we are still renting and use the latrines there. If you use the brown bowl, we will find a convenient time after dark to empty the contents in the open.”
The second option was quite problematic, because of the sparse vegetation in the area and the large number of people around the premises during the day. The so called “thorn bushes” consisted of stunted shrubs that did not offer much by way of privacy.
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“Oh no”, my colleague confessed, I just used the brown bowl to wash my face”. Silence.
“But why don’t you just build a latrine at your own cost, for your own convenience?” I asked
“No, I will definitely NOT build a latrine at my own cost in UNHCR premises”, came the sharp retort.
So there we were — five days of mission. It was a good thing that we went on daily trips to the refugee camps, where we made sure we used the rudimentary facilities, before we left in the evening. We were very careful about what we ate, as the thought of having a running stomach was unimaginable.
I waited until dark to sneak out and find “my thorn bush.” Also, I had to wake up early in the morning to attend to my toilet needs before the compound got full.
At last, after five days, we left Aware. What a relief, as we headed to Jijiga, the Regional Capital.
It was not surprising that our field officer had to be evacuated shortly afterwards with a bout of typhoid.
