Humanitarian Relief - Sometimes Just a Band-Aid | War and Peace

Humanitarian Relief - Sometimes Just a Band-Aid

Published December 21, 2008 @ 05:31AM PT

They'd rather be fishing.

I had the good fortune this weekend to meet up with Michael. Aside from our epic and publicly discussed Settlers of Catan throw-down, (my wife trounced both of us two games in a row), we had a short discussion about the merits of development versus emergency humanitarian work.

Humanitarian work is easy to quantify (e.g. 14,000 people got two meals today), while development can seem more fluffy. I've been thinking about it, and I don't think it's unfair to say that the need for humanitarian relief often comes from poor development such as bad food production models or other root causes like bad governance or injustice.

I've been reluctant to talk about the Middle East because it's such a firebrand topic, but it's one of the most accessible examples I can think of to show that humanitarian relief is too often a temporary band-aid while we tolerate the root causes of the suffering. We can talk about humanitarian access in the occupied Palestinian territories until we're blue in the face, but these are not areas that need humanitarian access outside of the fact that every other kind of access is cut off. I make no judgment on the need that Israelis feel to protect their own security, but they aren't doing themselves any favors--even from a security perspective--by creating a defunct state dependent on international aid next door.

Palestinians are well-educated and live in what would otherwise be a solidly middle income economy. We see lots of video of Hamas fighters training in black face masks, but how many videos do we see of strawberry farmers with their crops rotting in their fields? It's not as exciting, but it might be a helluva lot more important in the long run.

Here's an article from 2007 in the Independent about how Gaza strawberry farmers lack access to their markets to sell. And here's an article from AP about how Israeli Navy restrictions and harassment hurt the Gaza fishing market. The UK's Department for International Development has a series of articles about how lack of access to markets hurts Palestinians as well. Now, I've talked about markets, but you need to factor in other root causes of the need for perpetual humanitarian assistance (access to drinking and irrigation water, ability to buy imported goods such as spare parts for machinery, access to fuel, access to hospitals and drugs...the list goes on; check out the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs excellent PowerPoint presentation for more info and maps on impediments to movement and access).

And there you have it. Quantifiable as it is, humanitarian relief in this case is nothing but a band-aid. It's a case of perpetual hopelessness or--if you like to think about the dolla' dolla' bills--an endless money pit. I could have easily made this blog about how Niger is a constant food aid recipient because they have rampant deforestation, a changing climate, bad agricultural practice and an exploding population, but I figured most Americans can identify more closely with the Middle East case.

The point is, while things like development assistance, institution-building or advocacy might seem like fluffy expenditures compared with humanitarian relief in conflict or disasters, we could often spend money on them forever and only be applying--at best--a temporary fix.

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Comments (3)

Humanitarian relief is just a band-aid. If not followed by longer term development aid.

Development aid is useless unless, in situations when required, it is preceeded by relief aid.

Posted by Peter Casier on 12/21/2008 @ 03:08PM PT
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I say give them one of them potatoe sacks full of hemp seed and teach em to grow it, then in 50 years they would be like america, a fully sustainable contry for a few hundred years!(or untill they make it illegal)

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Posted by rev baker aka rev420 on 12/22/2008 @ 10:06AM PT
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Israeli attack on Gaza:

It has been repeated that Isreal has the right to defend itself; I have no problem in that. However, the question is what about the right of Palestinians to restore their right of determination, dignity and even to have a normal daily life. All of these are supposed to be guaranteed by international law.
The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, was not coordinated by the Palestinain authority and aimed at creating vacuum rather than providing an opportunity to peace. Anyhowm what does the withdrawal mean if borders, air and sea are locked. Gaza has been the largest gail since about 20 years; a fact that hardly got the attention of the world, and became an axceptable situation.

I am not trying here to defend Hamas shelling surrounding Israeli citizins. But, even when Hamas agreed on the truce (last 6 months), Israel continued its blockade on Gaza strip, cutting fuel, food supplies, medicins etc. This is in addition to killing about 30 people. Isreal wanted a new truce without any committment or price; how could any one convince Hamas and others to do so. It is like telling Palestinians to surrender and carry the a white flag by just accepting whatever Israel does in return of avoiding Israeli attacks without any improvement in their living conditions, dignity or providing hope for peace.

The current attack is not more than part of the election campaign for Barak and Levny. This is a common practice, the more palestinian blood you spell the more popularity you get. Same as Shemon Perez did in Quana in South lebanon.

Humanitarian AID to Palestine is a mere shame. We know exactly that international donors provide it to coinvince them selves that they are doing something towards the Palestinians, while we all know that the root causes of Palestinains suffering is the ISRAELI OCCUPATION. I come from a village in the West Bank (Jayyous). My father had 8 children, we all went to universities and lived solely from our farm; never needed to work in Israel. Now, the farm is behind the wall, our access is under the mercy of Israel. Since 5 years, we spend money just to keep the farm green so it won't be confoscated. How many Palestinian farmers, gave up their farms that are located behind the wall as they can't afford the continuous loss due to the limitted access to their land and water, and dumping Israeli products in Palestinian markets. It is a shame that Palestinians are forced to be food aid dependents as they have no access to their land to produce their own food. Many dooners including EC and USAID have been supporting medical emergency supplies programs for the past 5 years. Once I was asked by an old man when I was delivering supplies in one of the villages in Jenin; who is giving you the money to buy this supplies; I said USAID and ECHO, the old man smiled and said; sure the give the guns to the otherside and send stretchers to us to carry our dead. This is the way foriegn aid is percieved by ordinary Palestinians.

Posted by Mohammed Khaled on 12/29/2008 @ 01:14AM PT
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Author

Brooks Keene is a development policy consultant currently living in western Kenya. Among other things, he has researched water and sanitation policy in Kenyan primary schools, climate change adaptation in Niger, sexual violence in the Congo and the U.S. military’s development work in Sub-Saharah Africa. Brooks previously worked for CARE and CNN International.