Aid Worker Support in Uncertain Times
Surveying compound after fire destroyed office, store rooms, sleeping huts and more. How to continue after such loss?
Lessons from Injury Recovery
🕒 4 Min Read
When someone is injured, their recovery depends not just on medical and psychological care but on how those around them respond. An organization that proactively communicates, listens, and identifies both obligations and opportunities can make a life-changing difference, not just in financial or legal terms, but in trust, dignity, and long-term resilience.
The same is true in times of disruption such as what we’re seeing now with the USAID cuts.
As funding cuts force organizations to scale down and programs to close, many aid workers now face career uncertainty. How organizations treat their staff in this moment will define their reputation long after budgets stabilize.
This is where the lessons of injury recovery and program transitions intersect. Both require:
A Thorough Diagnosis – Understanding the full impact, not just what’s legally required.
Empathy & Communication – Engaging openly with those affected.
Creative Problem-Solving – Finding solutions that don’t always require financial cost but make a real difference.
A Lesson From Sri Lanka: Ending a Program With Integrity
Years ago, my first overseas project shut down, not because of failure, but because of peace. A ceasefire in Sri Lanka meant our emergency health program was no longer needed. Thirty-five staff faced job losses.
We could have focused solely on legal obligations, giving them severance and moving on. But instead, we asked questions:
What do you need next?
What are your biggest concerns?
Where can we help beyond the bare minimum?
The answers led to small, no-cost actions with enormous impact:
Helping staff prepare their CVs.
Connecting them to training opportunities.
Introducing them to organizations coming into the area.
The result? Every staff member who wanted a job found one.
Years later, when conflict returned and we had to reestablish operations, the way we had supported staff during the transition mattered. Instead of resentment, we were met with trust and respect, as our parting actions had solidified that relationship.
How This Relates to Injury Recovery
When an aid worker is injured, the organization can take a minimalist, compliance-driven approach, or it can choose active engagement to truly support recovery.
The best organizations don’t just ask “What do we have to do?” but “What can we do?”
This can mean:
Sitting down with the injured staff member to fully understand their situation, including what challenges exist beyond what’s covered in policies.
Finding no-cost or low-cost solutions that make a major difference, such as helping them navigate medical paperwork, advocating on their behalf with insurance, or offering flexibility to allow them to manage their recovery while staying engaged with work.
Showing they are valued, not abandoned, which has long-term impacts on how current and future staff perceive the organization.
How This Applies to Today’s Funding Cuts
Organizations now face tough decisions about staff reductions, program closures, and budget constraints. Some will take a transactional approach, cutting staff, meeting legal requirements, and moving on. Others will take a proactive, engaged approach, asking:
Where are the real needs? Not just in numbers, but in how these changes impact individuals.
Where are the opportunities? Are there ways to transition staff, repurpose skills, or help them land elsewhere?
What small actions can make a major difference?
A budget reduction doesn’t remove the obligation to injured staff still recovering from past work-related incidents. Nor does it prevent an organization from taking meaningful actions (many of which cost nothing) that ease the impact of transition, just as in injury recovery.
The ROI of Active Support in Tough Times
For Injured Aid Workers: Support beyond compliance builds trust, loyalty, and confidence for those still in the field.
For Organizations Scaling Down: How staff transitions are handled today will define reputation and future recruitment.
For the Sector: Aid workers talk. The way organizations handle injury recovery and workforce reductions now will either strengthen or weaken the entire industry’s ability to attract and retain committed professionals.
A Call to Action: Leadership in Uncertainty
Aid workers: If you are affected by an injury or a funding cut, ask: What would meaningful support look like for me?
Managers & HR teams: Look beyond compliance: What no-cost or low-cost actions could help staff through transitions?
Leaders & decision-makers: The choices you make now will be remembered when the sector stabilizes. Will you be known as an organization that abandoned staff, or as one that found ways to support them, even when times were tough?
How Proper Support Recovery Consulting Can Help
At Proper Support Recovery Consulting, we specialize in practical, effective Duty of Care strategies and support for injured staff. The analogies to managing workforce transitions are clear.
Whether it’s recovery from injury or recovery from job loss, small actions today shape the future of sustainable aid work.
👉 Whether it’s helping an injured aid worker recover or supporting staff through workforce transitions, your decisions now will define your organization’s future. Let’s talk about how your organization can meet its obligations—ethically, sustainably, and strategically.