What two or three critiques should people who want to do humanitarian work be aware of, and how should they respond to or address these critiques? (You may answer this question in general, or focus your answer on a specific humanitarian issue)
please use sources from
Barnett and Weiss – Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics
Séverine Autesserre – Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention
Critiques on Humanitarian Work
Introduction
Humanitarian work is any kind of work that is aimed at giving aid to those who are in need due to humanitarian crisis. Humanitarian crises can be a result of natural disasters, human-made disasters or even complex unforeseen crisis. Most of these humanitarian works operate under various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that get their funding from various well-wishers who hope to see their help reach the needy. Even though the fundamental goal of humanitarian work targets at meeting the needs of those under predicaments, there has been various critics concerning the service delivery of these humanitarian works. Criticisms are justifying the failures of the humanitarian aid in attempting to promote self-sustainability of the economic growth of the individuals of the recipient country. By looking at three critiques that argue that humanitarian works are usually lacking accountability, humanitarian works are usually carried out to source fund from donors, humanitarian aid usually do not incorporate the need of the victims.
- Humanitarian Aid Lack Accountability
The main critique about the humanitarian aid is based on the embezzlement and corruption within the humanitarian sector. With excessive fraud of high-profile corporate leaders and companies do not make it immune to exploit (Barnett141). NGO’s can be particularly susceptible to corruption from outside influence. Corruption can involve the area government in collaboration with the NGOs or even the manipulation of by the NGO’s leaders that start wars or another crisis. Local authorities may have bribed NGOs to supply them with various aids within their countries. “…Even remote donors can shape conflict-resolution projects on the ground” (Autesserre 209). That aid was directed to those in need are misplaced and then given to those that caused their misery. There are also those instances when corruption does not involve the government but the aid agents themselves through mismanaging of funds.
- Humanitarian Aid is only Aimed at Sourcing Funds
The aid agencies usually operate under different bodies with different sources of funding. So usually in the event of disaster they tend to attract the publicity of the media where they can get great coverage appeal for the funding from the donors. An article published by Elon University called ‘The Many Problems of International Humanitarian Aid’ argues that several aid agencies only go to those areas where the media existence is largest such that their effort can be made known such that they can attract more donations.
This criticism implies that NGOs are inclined to portraying and popularizing the woes of the victims they beg donations for, and again even engage in personal invention of the problems ‘affecting’ the victims. Popular journalist had much more influence on setting the objective then the locals (Autesserre 210). By such behavior, the NGOs would rather flock together in a common place with massive media coverage where they could even overlap their duties to attend to a few victims at the expense of several other victims that lack media coverage.
- Humanitarian Aid Do Not Address the Needs of the Victims
Critics also argue that humanitarian aid usually serves the interest of the donor rather than the needs of the clients. Donors have usually been associated with the conflict of interest where they put their interests above the recipient’s needs. Such donors do not supply food aid to those victims that are experiencing food dearth but instead would favor other projects where they have political, economic and military strategic preference. Eggleston (1987) for instance, found out that the United States in the years of 1955 to 1979 weighed the food aid allotment by some of its military and political interest to the needs of the recipient nation.
How Humanitarian Worker Could Address these Critiques
As seen from the introduction, the fundamental duty of humanitarian works is to address humanitarian crises. Effective humanitarian work can only bear fruits when aid improves wellbeing of the victims via appropriate empowerment programs and at the same time assist the recipient government to create jobs that will eventually improve victim’s standard of living.
All the above critiques can be addressed by developing an accountability plan on the use of resources and setting plans on how to get feedback from the recipients. Without accountability then the motivator for determining what works best is likely to fail. Strict accountability will imply that all aid agencies will take the blame for non-profitable services they offer. The humanitarian heads should also collaborate with other independent bodies that can evaluate their task performance. Then independent evaluation will create a strong motivation for performance to meet the true needs of the victims.
Works Cited
Autesserre Séverine. Peaceland Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Barnett, Michael N., and Thomas G. Weiss. Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics. Cornell University Press, 2008.
Eggleston, Robert C. ‘Determinants of the Levels and Distribution of PL 480 Food Aid: 1955-79’, World Development, 1987, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp.797-808.
Elon University, The Many Problems of International Humanitarian Aid, June 9, 2013 https://blogs.elon.edu/soc376ol/?p=1748