23 March 2016
Dr Ishbel McWha-Hermann is leading an international team exploring different pay systems within the international aid and development sector as part of an ESRC Impact Grant. Often organisations within the international development context adopt a dual salary approach, where local and international staff are remunerated on vastly different scales.
This project builds on earlier research Dr McWha-Hermann has undertaken with colleagues across ten countries. Named Project ADDUP (Are Development Discrepancies Undermining Performance) this original project looked across the land-locked economies of Malawi and Uganda, island economies of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, and emerging economies of India and China. The study found an overwhelming disparity between national and international pay and benefits, and a feeling of injustice, demotivation, and disengagement, particularly from national staff. Given the goal of much aid and development work to build capacity of national staff, we concluded from this research that the aid organisations’ compensation and benefits policies have the potential to undermine the very poverty reduction goals they aim to achieve.
In collaboration with CHS Alliance (formerly People in Aid), Birches Group, and Massey University, this study aims to work with HR and rewards managers at major international non-government organisations to identify successful alternatives to the dual salary system. In doing so we will begin to build an evidence base for what works, that other organisations can in turn utilise to implement fairer pay and benefits systems.