Field Experience: A Critical Reflection

Fall 2013: 

Introduction

My Field Experience at the Refugee Law Project (RLP), in Gulu, Uganda, has not only highly informed my career ambitions to become a better peacebuilder, but has also provided me an insider’s view into the Ugandan culture and deepened my understanding of the theories and discussions of our peace studies course. Here, I will first summarize my experience by looking at the most important activities I was engaged in and the most critical insights I have gained. I will then proceed to illustrate how certain incidents at the organization relate to major issues discussed in the peace studies course. I strongly feel that, by grounding my study abroad experience in a local community, this internship has become a central facet of my academic experience in Uganda. My internship experience proved to be valuable in terms of the exposure and knowledge I gained at RPL.

Critical Analysis and Course-related Insights

To begin, as I wish to be cognizant not to repeat some of the issues I have already shared in my oral presentation and in my field journals. In this reflection paper, I will merely highlight some of the most significant happenings of my experience based on the insights, I gained in the field the readings and our sharing in class during the individual presentations.

I went to Uganda with a very open mind, to “test” how the theory of peacebuilding would work in such a region and environment. My impression of the country changed over the course of my time there significantly. I had some knowledge of the civil war between Lords’ Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda that ended in 2006, but never fully comprehended the magnitude of the problem. Many victims and survivors I encountered were struggling to rebuild their lives and communities, compounded by such complex issues surrounding justice, reconciliation, and reconstruction. I was eager to learn how these victims of violence, the Government and civil society were grappling with how to implement effective mechanisms to help deal with this legacy of war and violence. I was really fascinated by how everyone in Gulu seemed so resilient.

Major Tasks and Activities

In my field experience, I undertook a wide range of tasks and activities, some of which I already shared in my oral presentation. My principal task, among others, at the RPL was to work closely with the project officers of two projects—Beyond Juba Project II (BJP II) and Advisory Consortium on Conflict Sensitivity (ACCS), to do analyze policy through the research and documentation work and produce a monthly newsletter.  This newsletter was aimed at raising public awareness on conflict issues in Northern Uganda and make policy recommendations to the government and CSOs on ways to address the situation. This process involved receiving ideas and feedback from the staff, and stakeholders as well as conducting research into some policy areas that were relevant to the situation where the organization felt it had enough expertise or valuable input to make a contribution. The research involved examining contents, processes, and target audiences.

As part of the process of research and advocacy for transitional justice, RPL was invited to lead in consultation meetings with the various stakeholders to generate further ideas on how to move forward. I attended these consultations along with project officers and several other RPL staff. Following from these consultations, CSOs and the Local Government structure invited RPL to partner with them in furthering its community engagement efforts to promote the victims’ rights to reparations, healing, and reconciliation. This gave rise to another one of my major tasks - the development of an advocacy strategy for RPL. This task was especially challenging since there was no framework for me to follow and apart from a consideration of available resources.  I was given very few boundaries within which I needed to work. This task allowed me to integrate my real-world knowledge of advocacy with the public policy agenda of the RPL

Supervision

During my field experience Mr. Stephen Oola, a Kroc alumnus supervised me throughout my internship. Although he was based in Kampala her traveled regularly to Gulu to followup with the work and to consult with the staff there. Some of the supervision took place over the phone or on Skype, even though I worked very closely with the project staff in Gulu. This, however, did not affect the quality of instruction, guidance, and feedback I received it from him. I found him very approachable and encouraging throughout my time with RPL.

The work process usually involved Stephen sending me an email or speaking to me on phone about the general objective of a particular task. If applicable, he would point out whether I could refer to an earlier event, publication or document that the organization had produced for guidance. I would do the vast majority of the research, planning, and writing. I would then send it to the project officers before emailing it to Stephen. In addition to the individual mentoring, Stephen provided guidance to all staff in the office on basic writing skills which included practices on copy-editing and other general rules to be followed when coordinating one of the organization’s publications. Skills from the workshop were put to use when editing the Conflict Watch Newsletter.

Expectations and Key Learning Opportunities

The FE provided me with a great opportunity to learn new skills and develop existing ones. At a basic level, I believe I was able to improve my skills to analyze policy and expanded my understanding of Uganda’s transitional justice processes. I feel that these are important to help me make a comparison of the processes of similar processes implemented in other countries such as South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, and others, and the hope that the Uganda process still holds hope to recovery, healing, and reconciliation. I also believe that the work I did to review the Conflict Watch newsletter helped me improve on my writing skills. I now feel more confident with my skills I am now better able to write clearly and succinctly, without the convoluted language commonly found in academic writing.

I also gained knowledge of networking with key influencers in Uganda, information that would be useful for a future career in this sector. The events, meetings and public information sessions that I attended as part of the field experience exposed me to some of the biggest players in Uganda’s political and CSOs sector. As part of the Northern Uganda Conflict Analysis team and the National Transitional Justice process, I attended meetings that brought together senior members of the government, some with whom I still communicate with.  At the launch of the Northern Uganda Conflict Analysis report (September and October) I was exposed to networking opportunities with Uganda’s leading officials in the Department of Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Many of the events also allowed me to meet and interact with CSOs, government officials and eminent academics in the area of peace studies and development work.

Professionally I really gained a lot of good insight into how NGOs, specifically in foreign countries are run, and all of the hardships they encounter. Funding was a major issue because grants and donations were the main sources of money for RPL. This caused a lot of stress because there is no consistent source of revenue, but it was very exciting when we were given a large donation that a person or organization wanted to donate to something specific, like money for a roof. I was able to get hands-on experience working in the administration department of this non-profit, and helping them with computer work and data entry. Although at times these may have no been the most exciting days at work, they are incredibly crucial to the success of the organization. I learned that the reason for having to enter the hours worked in every part of the organization (gardening, community outreach, building the vocational school, etc) had to be documented for grants.

 My expectations of RPL reach and influence was significantly altered during this field experience. Initially, I had been somewhat unaware of the major role that a non-profit organization could play in the discussion of public policy in Uganda. I did appreciate that non-profit organization and think tanks often make recommendations and submissions to government departments. However, RPL dealt with high-level leadership both within Uganda and globally, garnering respect and recognition for their contribution to international affairs debate and decision-making. The organization runs more than 200 events per year and creates several publications, all of which are well regarded in the international affairs community.

I was also surprised at how RPL managed to achieve the above activities on very limited resources and very few paid staff. I believe this made the field experience much more valuable, given that interns were responsible for a bulk of the fundamental processes that went into the planning of events and preparation of publications. I was given a wider range of responsibilities than I had anticipated and I believe that this exponentially increased the skills I developed and the rate at which I developed them.

Public Policy

RPL provides a forum for discussion of Transitional Justice issues, governance and conflict transformation issues at the local, national and international levels. RPL characterizes itself as a “knowledge-broker” in the area, disseminating ideas without promoting its own institutional views, educating the community, collaborating with other civil society organizations (SaferWorld, International Alert, JRP etc) as well as relevant government departments in Uganda such as Justice and Law Order (JLOW). Although RPL does not directly formulate or implement policy, it makes submissions and recommendations to the government. A good example of this is the recent Transitional Justice Draft Policy, which is currently being debated in parliament, and the Northern Uganda Conflict Analysis report which were major projects during the internship. These documents have made policy recommendations to the government that would boost meaningful engagement between the Ugandan government and CSOs in a way that would ensure Uganda’s road to sustainable peace, reconciliation, and stability in the future.

My the academic study of peacebuilding policy was useful to the extent that it gave me solid background knowledge to some of the concepts and ideas in the seminars and publications. This facilitated the ease with which I was able to help provide inputs to the research work, topics or submissions that were made. However, as expected, policymaking in the reality is a long-term process which depends less on theory than it does on political, social and economic factors. One important lesson I learned is that there is always a need to couch arguments for a policy recommendation in the potential economic and political benefits that it may bring. Arguably a cynical view, these are often the deciding factor for implementing a policy in the peace studies sector.

Conclusion

The field the experience helped me to identify which of my skills require further development. First, I believe that although I am good at propagating ideas and formulating policy considerations, my work would have benefited from in-depth statistical analysis. This is a research skill that I should develop further. Second, I need to further develop my awareness of the economic and political influencers and consequences of a particular policy, especially in the context of making policy recommendations. In my opinion, practical work experience reinforces this aspect of consideration, which is often not examined in-depth in the academic study of public policy theory.

The field the experience overall was a very positive learning experience for me and it helped to reinforce my career choice. The RPL provides interns the opportunities to develop their skills and learn new ones, making it a valuable experience for any students interested in international peace studies. The opportunity to serve as interns deeply enhanced my academic, professional, and personal experiences throughout my time in Africa. Academically, the concepts and topics discussed in theory in the peace studies classroom, such as the Political Economy and the organizational leadership were illustrated in practice in my interactions with and observations of the daily activities in the clinic. Professionally, I reaffirmed my desire to work in a peacebuilding sector, and proved to myself I could indeed envision myself happy in a career working for several years within a developing peace sector.

Finally, with this internship I was able to ground my personal experience of Uganda in a local community isolated from my close friends and distinctly mine to experience. Further, in explaining aspects of Kenyan culture, I came to be more critical and cognizant of my ingrained perspectives than I would otherwise have learned to be. I am grateful for the value of this internship, and I plan to continue this line of interaction through my next work with the Mennonite Central Committee in Kenya.