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Innovations, failures and the crisis in humanitarian aid
>> Foreign Aid in the National Interest >> Chapter 5 >> Innovations, failures and the crisis in humanitarian aid Jump to Chapter 5 Sections:
>> Humanitarian aid in the 1990's >> New humanitarian actors >> Innovations, failures and the crisis in humanitarian aid >> Evolving practices and future changes >> Looking ahead >> Background paper >> References
The relationship between aid and politics
The conceptual crisis of humanitarian aid also derives from its occasional failure to be complemented by effective political and military strategies. Operation Lifeline Sudan shows how aid can become a substitute for more concerted action to address the causes of humanitarian need. Although at its inception Sudanese relief groups called for Operation Lifeline Sudan to lay the foundation for a broader peace agreement, that did not occur. Much political muscle has been flexed on access for aid-while little progress has been made on peace.
Nowhere was this substitution of aid for aggressive diplomatic action more evident than in Bosnia. The groundbreaking airlift operations there (as well as in Somalia and Sudan) reflected the new heights to which the international community would go to deliver lifesaving aid. But they also showed its inability to prevent the need for such aid in the first place. The Sarajevo airlift became a symbol of the international community’s resolve to provide aid but little else in the context of the war.
This focus on aid in the absence of concerted action to stop aggression gave rise to the expression, "the well-fed dead." That is, relief efforts kept "vulnerable civilians alive only to have them brutalized by war, human rights violations, and other forms of abuse."
Safe haven failures
The international community’s willingness to address the material needs but not the physical safety of civilians in the midst of war has also been grimly evident in strategies for so-called safe havens. The safe haven concept brought with it some of the most profound tragedies of the 1990s, largely because the civilian nature of safe havens was not maintained and because the international community designated "safe" areas that it was unwilling to defend.
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Last Updated on: January 07, 2003 |
