Key contacts

This table can be used as a checklist of the people to meet during your briefing in head office and a reminder of the people to meet once you have taken up your post. The ticks indicate the subjects you may need to discuss.

1. Logically there should be only one; in reality it is not always so clear. There may be more than one head office department which feels that they should manage you; there may also be someone in the region who feels that they should. It is important to find out.
2. Depending on the size of the organisation, there may be only one or there may be several people you need to meet. The key question is who is responsible for each of the activities listed.
3. The Accounts Department may have their own team of experienced accountants who can be deployed rapidly in emergencies. Alternatively they may be part of a department dealing specifically with emergencies.
4. It will depend on whether fund raising is organised by programme, by donor or otherwise.
5. Useful to discuss their understanding of your programme – it may be very different from yours.
6. This is an important and often challenging relationship to establish. For example, if there has been an established but small office supporting development programmes run by national staff and you are coming in with a large expatriate emergency team in response to a major crisis, both sides will find it difficult to find out how to work together.
7. Especially programme managers and financial staff.
8. Do not assume that they will know as much about what their head office has promised as you do – but they should appreciate your efforts in making contact.
9. It is often a challenge to get the right balance between asserting your independence as a humanitarian organisation and the need to recognise that you are working in an independent and sovereign country.
10. Coordination structures vary greatly. They may be formal or informal; Government or UN organised; under or well resourced; inefficient or highly effective. You need to find out.