the problem with aid in protracted crisis

in general, in spanking new crisis, food security has always been associated with food gap and the solution for that is seen as food aid. food aid does not solve the problem - it is not meant to be a long term solution. a short-term intervention, it is meant to keep people alive as they survive the crisis.

1 out of 4 (correct me if i am wrong) crisis turns out to be protracted. 90% of aid goes to these protracted crisis. and in many cases, food aid still continues, wrecking havoc with local market and production, dividing communities into eligible and uneligible thus breaking existing social networks, subduing local effort to survive and initiating the culture of dependence.

the problem is aid activities are mainly divided into two: humanitarian - relief and rescue, and development - rehabilitation. humanitarian comes in in a hurry with 1% of overall budget for analysis, while development comes in when there is a 'government' in place.

the question is, what about those protracted crisis where a government is not established or does not recover after, say, 3 weeks? in any case, many of these governments increase the transactional cost as more are diverted to fund corruption.

with not enough analysis are carried out to figure out local efforts to cope and survive, many international organisations 'assume' that the affected locals are totally dependant on them. with free aid, locals learn and adapt to be dependant, and as the crisis protract this 'adaptation' sometimes are non-reversible. international organisations should instead be supporting these local efforts. coordination between organisations are also low, and coordination with local organisations are even lower in fear of being seen as 'taking sides' in conflict areas.

the real situation is different from the assumption. affected locals are organised, they usually have some sort of network and efforts in place, although very much limited. and when there are local efforts that are innovative, these efforts are mostly not mainstreamed and extended.

the challenge is to figure out a way for international organisation to work in the situation between ideal humanitarian and development situation - beyond the immediate danger period, before the government is in place - supporting with deeper analysis that will allow them to support local efforts, with coordinated collaboration, supporting long-term livelihood and resilience pattern.

BUT the very first move is for all international organisation - FAO, WFP, IFAD, NGOs to name a few - to agree that this is the way to go, and that is a huge challenge in itself as we all know how 'easy' it is for these organisations to see eye to eye.

check out Beyond Relief: Food Security in Protracted Crisis, by the two lucas (with whom we had a discussion yesterday in class) and a gunter.

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