Western governments have become much more stingy about humanitarian aid to Africa. Curiously, this may be good news for many famine vulnerable Africans. For all is not well in the aid business. Morale is low and some relief workers are questioning whether they are really doing something worthwhile.
The last decade has seen a rapid expansion and deregulation of the “humanitarian international”-the industry providing emergency relief to disaster stricken people in poor countries. Private and official aid agencies have proliferated; relief consumes ever larger proportions of aid budgets; and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) now dispense more aid to Africa than the World Bank. There has been a boom time in the emergencies business, but rarely for the recipients.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the international relief network was a smaller and more clubby place. There were vigorous NGOs, strong third world national governments and weak UN specialised agencies. They were often at loggerheads with one another, but there were informal codes of practice and self-regulation. Relief was rarely sufficient or quick enough, but there was a gradual development of better techniques of health care, therapeutic nutrition and the like; a cadre of professionally qualified relief workers was emerging. Things were improving.
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