The Flaws Of State Led Humanitarianism

The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster is an inside look into the realities behind international aid and intervention. The book answers the question of whether or not international efforts in Haiti really benefited the nation in the long term. The book argues that the international community failed in their efforts to rebuild Haiti due to their mismatched military approaches, failed monetary pledges and how the how billions of dollars were ineffective, having served only short term needs instead of, rebuilding solid foundations and institutions that would serve as the first step toward sustainable development.

Over the recent years the military has had a greater involvement with aid programs, this was most notable from her experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Militarization of aid politicizes it for something that shouldn't be political. As the author believes humanitarian aid needs to exist in a neutral humanitarian space in order to remain its legitimacy and maintain close ties to the community level. From one example mentioned in Damned Nations, during the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, international aid agencies that worked closely with communities showed greater progress and effectiveness (Nutt, 92). In essence this administered a positive attitude towards westerners, and symbolized progress within hostile nations. Aid that is not militarized allows civilians to feel safe access to services and without the fear in putting themselves or their families at risk (Nutt, 92). In comparison military administered aid has proven to lack the same level of trust because civilians inherently become worried about being targeted as collaborators (Nutt, 92). In addition the militarization of aid proves to bring further danger towards humanitarian workers. “Over the past decade, attacks against aid workers have increased 177 percent, with reports of rape, violence, extortion, abduction, and killings” (Nutt, 94). The author states this was reflected from a misjudgment that involving armed militants into

The efficiency of humanitarian intervention is normative because of people having different views on the output and the unlikeliness of every one being pleased by the new regime therefore it is very hard to affirm the real results of the intervention. In 2011, a group of countries intervened during the Libyan civil war, which lead to the abolition of Muammar Gadhafi’s regime. The Operation Unified Protector by NATO was partly successful because they achieved to kill the dictator on 20th October, but partly ineffective because the standards of living in Libya have not increased and the state is facing a lack of government’s ruling. This case study supports the statement that HI could be an abandoned project as it is not always favourable to everyone.

It is not the responsibility of individuals to help their fellow man. Our resources are dwindling, and there’s no room to share. People and countries should learn to mend their own ways, and with reliance on others for aid, they won’t be able to do that.

David Rieff talks about the idea of the “international community which gives both the humanitarian worker and the victims of crisis “false hope” that something will be done (Rieff, 2003). He says that “the moment one taps on to the idea of the international community, it (humanitarianism) falls part like a toy” (Rieff 2003, p.9). The concept of international community, however vague or disastrous it might seem or sound, is also the source of logistics for

Haiti is a good example of a nation that suffered from very negative results from compassionate aid and that now has the tools and applies these toward sustainable development. As learned on week 2, Haiti had been able to produce their own rice, but the constant pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the United States to restructure their economy and lower tariffs, collapsed the rice production. The negative results from this collapse were seen after the earthquake, when Haiti’s economy also collapsed, there was not money to buy imported food, and there was no sustainability in the country, since there was no local crop to provide food. After the terrible mistakes from the United States and Haiti, the latter has been able to put

Haiti experienced an earthquake on January 12, 2010 that left the people in a substandard state. It is reported about 3,500,000 people were affected by the earthquake and 220,000 people estimated to have died from it (2010). Many homes and institutions were destroyed including schools, hospitals and government establishments. Leaving much of the population in a dire need of humanitarian intervention. Humanitarian Intervention and development conducted over many years by the United States have hindered the country's government and people. In the attempt of rebuilding the worth and state the country once had, humanitarian intervention has done more harm than good. I will prove how intervention prior and post the earthquake has in more cases, continued to further diminish the possibility of development. The notion of United States intervention in Haiti is controversial; although interveners construct methods and policies that allow dependence, their

Haiti is well known throughout the world as being a country to take pity. As a result lots of aid in the form of mostly monetary needs is sent to Haiti. Haiti is very much in need of this aid. They accept any aid they get. The aid, in theory, is good. It would give Haiti a foundation on which to build on so they could develop infrastructure which is their main solution to their problems as a nation deep in poverty. However, this aid usually disappears or does not go through with its intention. This is due to the intense corruption contained in Haiti’s unstable government. When Haiti had an earthquake in 2010 half a billion dollars were donated by the Red Cross so Haiti could rebuild its infrastructure (Sullivan, 2015) . Five years after the earthquake the money still could not be seen. Barely, if any, houses were built. Haitians have no idea where it went and the Haitian government cannot be trusted to handle aid money (Knox,

Importantly, my project raises questions about how to better understand the relationship of donors and recipients to reduce the disconnection between projects that donors support and actual needs of recipients. The disconnection of donors and recipients caused damage to Congo, and the disconnection is a issues that effects how effective international aid is to a country. Importantly, further research needs to be conducted to gauge the impact of community-based projects, over the issue-based project to understand if one is a more effective use of aid. The aid process needs to involve native intellectuals, community leads, and other the communities to better accesses issues that affect the recipients of aid. Ultimately, there needs to be further research on the consequences, intended and unintended, for over reporting on a single issue of a conflict, because the simplification of a conflict into a single issue can cause damage by those with the intention to

American foreign aid, when utilized appropriately and with a clear organization and planning, ultimately does help U.S. national interests. However, when the United States doles out foreign aid carelessly and with little prior planning and foresight of possible negative consequences, American foreign aid can also hinder U.S. national interests. Such an example of inadequate planning can be seen in the humanitarian relief given to Haiti, where much of the aid was utilized inefficiently and mostly spent on relieving Haiti’s debts and just barely keeping people alive. The United States’s mistake in this regard was that it had only planned for a short term humanitarian aid package to Haiti, while not considering how to map out a developmental aid

The question at hand is not whether aid from the developed north should be given at all, but whether or not it should be increased to help ease the suffering of the developing countries in the south. Every country, whether rich or poor, should have compassion for the suffering. However, it is not the duty of the developed north to completely take care of every developing country. In the present, there are serious problems that need to be addressed dealing with how aid is given out: misuse of funds by governments, the corruption it creates, economies it destroys, lack of votes it buys at the United Nations, and finally the question of who has priority.

From recent disasters like the earthquake in Nepal and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines to the Colombo Plan in the 1950s, Australia has a long history of foreign aid. This foreign aid has helped Australia create links with the rest of the globe which has helped cement Australia’s position in the world as one of the largest foreign aid providers. The effectiveness of this foreign aid by both government and non-government organisations (NGO) of Australia in relation to its cost vs benefits will be evaluated in this response.

Canada’s aid policy has been the subject of significant criticism in recent history (Johnston, 2010). There have recently been exceptions to the criticism, the best known having been Canada’s impressive response to the Haiti earthquake (Johnston, 2010). The Canadian International Development Agency has been the focal point of the criticism, despite the fact that aid is a responsibility amongst numerous government offices (Johnston, 2010). When the Canadian International Development Agency was first developed, it was considered highly innovative and was attracting innovative and talented workers (Johnston, 2010). Now however, the Canadian International Development Agency is considered “bureaucratic, hidebound, out of touch, ineffectual, risk averse, contradictory, vacillating” (Johnston, 2010, 3). Most critics would argue that “nothing less than fundamental cross-government reform of

Accountability is the foundation for humanitarian aid because it dictates the level of effectiveness of the response. Also, it allows humanitarian agencies to manage risk in disastrous situations and affected populations. As defined by HAP, “Accountability is the means through which power is used responsibly. It is a process of taking into account the views of, and being held accountable by different stakeholders, and primarily the people affected by authority or power” (HAP, 2010). HAP clarifies that when referring to power and accountability, it does not mean that the agencies have power over the community. However, the agencies have the responsibility to control the way power is used within these crisis-affected populations. Regardless,

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 250,000 IDP’s are displaced because of the conflict in South Sudan. Lizabeth Paulat, a member of Truthout, a think tank, writes that the violence is directly causing a potentially massive famine within the region. “This threat of starvation is not occurring because of a natural scarcity, or even a political attempt to starve out opponents,” says Paulat, “rather, this is an issue of South Sudan’s internal refugees, forced to flee their homes to escape violence.” With such a high volume of IDP’s and a projected record breaking famine, the international community must intervene to assist President Kiir and the South Sudanese Government.