The nineteen-chapter, two part book starts off with a brief introduction. This introduction sets up the first part of the book, where the
Humanitarian Aid’s main purpose is to provide aid to those who suffer from natural or man-made disaster . Some of the humanitarian aid organizations include American Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, and the Mercy Corps. The number of humanitarian aid in countries is increasing to around 1-2 million organizations in India and 277,000 organizations in Russia. Some of the rescue missions that humanitarian aid attends to are disasters such as Hurricane Havrey or Hurricane Katrina. Although some look at humanitarian aid as a good and positive outlook, there have been many incidents where humanitarian aid has been selfish and has been done wrong. Humanitarian aid should be banned because “…humanitarian aid did as much or even more harm than good” (Gourevitch) by prolonging war, creating reasons to call for aid, and taking advantage of the profits and donations given to those companies.
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 leader needs to instill urgency into the workers and volunteers of the ARC. Taking an organization that’s on its knees requires great cooperation, initiative, and willingness to make sacrifices from many people (Kotter, 2011). Based on the case study, the ARC lacks all these characteristics for change to occur. It needs to look how to improve its response times, how to become more efficient in collecting denotations and how to prioritize and quickly distribute the donations it receives in a fair and efficient manner. It needs to hold its leaders to a higher standard that will instill a culture of high moral standard in its employees and volunteers. Once the nation sees a change in the behavior of the ARC they will be more willing to give donations and their time to support disaster relief efforts.
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
Lesley Boone once said, “We are a country that prides itself on power and wealth, yet there are millions of children who go hungry every day.” When people think of world issues, many do not consider America’s stand point on the ordeal. They are unable to fully comprehend the growing lack of jobs, poverty, hunger, poor health care, and meager education that takes place across the nation. American charity foundations are often eager to jump to the rescue of other countries, but what about the detrimental issues that occur and worsen here every day? In the past, the majority of organizations are predominantly directed at foreign countries; helping places such as Ethiopia, India, Somalia, etc. While here, poverty and debt are increasing by surmountable amounts. Charities for other regions are beneficial, but shouldn’t people here be first priority? The majority of problems have the potential to be easily fixed. What happens when we have nothing left to give? If the United States does not soon take this into consideration, it could be hazardous and irreversible to the American society. When considering where America’s charitable hands should go, many things need to be taken into consideration such as; charities outside of the U.S., should America put more effort into problems here, the increasing debt and poverty levels, and how benefits of focusing more here. The first point of this essay will discuss problems within the
The year 2017 has seen a plethora of deadly disasters. Disasters, natural or man-made, are extremely disturbing events that cause hardship, suffering, injury, and death. A disaster can be detrimental to human societies and their way of life. Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, mudslides, and wild fires can cause everlasting changes to humanity, biomes, and the planet. Likewise, man-made events, such as war, terrorist attacks, or toxic spills can be just as damaging. One job of the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) is to insure that humanitarian aid is provided to relieve the pain and suffering caused by all types of disasters. In addition, saving lives by utilizing our resources is the main goal of the UN. Norman Borlag once stated, “The destiny of world civilization depends upon providing a decent standard of living for all mankind.” Therefore, the issues that will be addressed using the $50,000,000 plus anonymous contribution will involve providing humanitarian aid to disaster torn areas in order improve the standard of living and preserve human dignity. This is the most important dilemma facing the international community today.
The example of Typhoon Haiyan response upholds how a more organized and relevant approach to approving AAP will initiate more support of networks. Aside from the Haiyan response, there are have been other attempts at improving accountability within humanitarian agencies. Another example is the Pakistan Accountability & Learning Working Group (ALWG) is a way to link accountability both globally and locally. Lastly, Sierra Leone is an example of how humanitarian agencies attempt to collect data about the affected areas in hopes of a more comprehensive approach. In order to develop better accountability methods, it must have a consolidated approach, which means that the agencies must understand the area they are serving. Humanitarian agencies should have the intentions of listening and responding to the needs of these affected areas, listening is not adequate. By having a more consolidated approach, the agencies are able to obtain data about the crisis areas, and with this data they can provide a more realistic approach.
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
The Red Cross is one organisation that provides cares the ones who need it most. The network of the movement is composed of all the donors and other supportive and assisting people that are there to help. The movement is providing support with its employees and anyone who wishes to help. They take care of the disasters and are the relief disposers of the reconstruction of any of the problems and the shelter provisions in the time of the disaster that is their main focus with other activities like the supporting of the people of the military personnel’s that are protecting the nation and they help the people respond to the challenges of the military life that is there and that needs to be attended to in order to be compensated. (American Red Cross, 2015)
The acts of Medecins Sans Frontieres results in the better being of others. This is demonstrated through their tireless efforts, resulting in less people at risk. This is well presented, as evident in the events of March 1999. The expulsion of ethnic
In the post-Cold War era, the nature of conflicts and events that give rise to the need for humanitarian assistance have significantly evolved. For those caught in the middle of the “war on terror” in the Middle East, or unprecedented violence in Africa, the need to build relationships with the spectator in order to motivate donations is ever present. The relationship between the spectator and the suffering has significantly changed in the past few decades and NGOs and individuals seeking to motivate people to donate must find new ways to motivate this charitable action. In the post-humanitarian era, relationship between the individual donating and the cause has into one that is decoupled from grand emotions and based on moral agency.
World Relief is an agency that comes with various values. It has a vision and mission statement which reaches throughout the whole community as well. Moreover, World Relief is dedicated to “empowering the local church to serve the most vulnerable is the mission
Although volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontiers are commonly stationed in various countries with a dire healthcare worker shortage, regions with refugee camps and internally displaced persons are also a focus for this organization. Refugees and internally displaced persons often come from war torn regions and live in close confines with poor sanitation and limited resources. These living situations become a breeding ground for diseases and other health issues like malnutrition, yet the individuals lack access to any sort of healthcare. The organization also responds quickly when regions suddenly experience an increased need for healthcare, for example in times of an epidemic or a natural disaster. Medecins Sans Frontiers’ involvement across its varying regions and their attempt to address a broad spectrum of healthcare truly show how altruistic the organization is to individuals regardless of race, gender, or religion.
The Article “NGOs, A Tainted History” by Firoze Manji and Carl O'Coill is about how NGOs form a prominent part of the development machine in the developing world. With the thousands of NGOs that are now present in the world, their role in development is increasing every year. While their work contributes marginally to the relief of poverty, it also undermines the struggle of the African people to relieve them from economic, social and political