Hard truths and soft solutions: the aid industry’s approach to the emergency in Zimbabwe
Source: SARPN
High-profile relief operations have become the lifeblood of the international aid industry. On the back of mass appeals - fronted by wide-eyed, starving children - aid agencies rally attention and gather funds and roll in food-filled trucks to where the hungry people wait. Again and again we feel that we have made a difference, that the rich world has fulfilled its obligation to the poor, and that the rescue missions have been accomplished. But, in reality, no humanitarian emergency is ever quite so simple in its machinations or its solutions. This paper looks at how the aid industry portrays and responds to emergencies, how it interprets and presents people's lives and needs, and how it devises relief operations that too often fail to address the real and difficult causes. In 2002, aid agencies poured into Zimbabwe to avert a famine triggered by bad weather. But the weather was not the issue, many of those who got food did not need it (any more than usual), and the real needs were not addressed.
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