Q: W hy doesn’t humanitarian aid money trickle
down to the people most in need? A: VanRooyen: When the NGO machine steps into
a large-scale humanitarian emergency, it quickly provides water and sanitation services, food aid, health care, housing, and security. Most organizations don’t effectively prepare for long-term sustainability—they don’t build water delivery systems for the city, they don’t build housing that will last, they don’t build infrastructure for program delivery. In many ways, the NGO community creates an alternate economy, and much of the money is spent on the delivery of emergency services. So it’s a valid complaint from local residents: “Where did all the money go? We don’t have pipes, we don’t have ditches, we don’t have farmland, we don’t have tools.”
On the other hand, it is difficult to deliver
resources directly to affected individuals and families. And money delivered to a nonfunctional or nonexistent government rarely gets to the people in need. Those who argue that the humanitarian field needs to get more cash to recipients should instead
“ We are now sufficiently globalized that even the most remote community that falls into calamity can discern the difference between being isolated or having the world pay attention.” —Jennifer Leaning
HUMANITARIAN FACTS
Death toll in 2010 Haiti earthquake: 222,000 + Source: Report of the United Nations in Haiti 2010
30 Harvard Public Health