in 2005 the International Organisations’ Staff Associations in the Netherlands (IOSA-NL) undertook an informal survey to assess how international civil servants felt about their working/living conditions in the Netherlands.
This was carried out after emerging problems became apparent early in 2005, when even the Mayor of the Hague expressed his concern that changes in current local and national policy were making the Netherlands an unattractive venue for international organisations.One organisation has in fact left, stating that representatives of other IOs were free to make use of that fact during their negotiations with the relevant Dutch bodies. The findings are not new and, in fact, simply confirm the existence of problems that have been spoken and written about for a very long time. IOSA realises that the findings of its report may not make pleasant reading for some, but believes that this survey, with all its limitations, gives a clear image of the feelings of its member organisations’ staff members. To summarily dismiss the findings by stating that the survey is “biased” and not representative is to shoot the messenger instead of listening to the message.Instead of viewing this report as a “problem” that needs to be “solved” or worse, suppressed, it might be more constructive for various authorities (including the authorities within the relevant organisations) to consider the provision of this information as a valuable opportunity to put matters right, to reverse certain negative trends that have been developing over recent years, and to formulate a positive way forward. It would surely be remiss for all concerned not to carefully consider the information and feedback that have been articulated in this report. If IOSA can help to foster a constructive dialogue between the management of IOs and the relevant Dutch authorities, then it will have fulfilled its mission.
IOSA has offered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs an opportunity to exchange views about a number of the issues that the survey has pinpointed as being of special concern to its membership, and has even offered to post any responses from the MFA on its website. In addition, it has made the offer to conduct another survey in a year’s time (after an appropriate time of dialogue) to see whether perceptions of the staff members of IOs have improved.
Source: IOSA-NL
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