September 2, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
As natural and man-made disasters grow more complicated due to terrorism, climate change, and other factors, charities that provide relief overseas will need to rely heavily on employees and offices around the world, according to a new report.
The report, commissioned by several of the world’s largest disaster-relief organizations — such as CARE USA, Oxfam, and World Vision International — says those groups will face increasingly complex humanitarian crises and urges them to prepare for the new situations by establishing offices in additional countries and recruiting employees from those countries to work in them.
“Greater complexity means a much greater focus on knowing the locale, long-term presence, and probably local competence,” said Peter Walker, director of Tufts University’s Feinstein International Famine Center, in Medford, Mass., and one of the authors of the report. The most effective response, he says, “is not some ex-pat sitting in Hanoi; it’s a Vietnamese team sitting in Hanoi.”
In particular, a staff consisting of people from outside the United States and Europe would help groups in war zones, such as Iraq, said Mr. Walker. “In conflict situations, it’s becoming harder and harder for NGO’s to achieve independence, impartiality, and neutrality on the ground,” he said. “One of the problems is that disaster NGO’s are perceived as being Western because they are both funded by the West and staffed by the West.”
The report suggests that aid organizations also should consider rejecting government funds to finance recovery from some types of disasters. “Each of the major sources of funds for humanitarian work, too, has its costs and benefits,” says the report. “A review might help restore integrity to the ‘non’ in nongovernmental.”
Mr. Walker admits the international-aid groups cannot predict what will happen tomorrow, but said their boards of directors and executives need to do a better job of planning. “You know those wonderful martial-arts films, where the guy is standing there, ready for anything that comes at him because he’s got the training, he’s got the mental attitude,” he said. “That’s what the NGO’s have to be like.”
The report, “Ambiguity and Change: Humanitarian NGO’s Prepare for the Future,” is available on the Feinstein Center’s Web site at http://famine.tufts.edu.
