Getting Real about Relief
Mike Van Rooyen, director of Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative and an emergency room physician with experience in international disasters, recently outlined 12 Myths and Misconceptions in Humanitarian Response. He criticizes the humanitarian aid “industry” for making incorrect assumptions about the vulnerabilities of disaster victims and for propagating incorrect public perceptions about international emergencies.
The list neatly encapsulates general public views about a disaster, and showcases how that perspective diverges from the reality that NGOs face while providing response. And while his encouragement to the field to be self-critical rings true, I’m not sure those public misperceptions can be blamed in total on the humanitarian aid “industry.” It does raise the question of whether NGOs could be educating the public much more vigorously about the realities of disaster relief, and be more honest about its limitations.
This is no small issue. As Sir John Holmes, the UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator continues to emphasize (see his remarks in Helsinki at the Humanitarian Agenda 2015 Seminar), the demand for humanitarian relief will only grow, especially as extreme weather events increase due to climate change. Relief may ultimately require a different system altogether than the current method of injecting resources from the outside to help local communities deal with the aftermath.
Tags: Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Initiative, humanitarian response, Mike Van Rooyen, Myths and Misconceptions, Sir John Holmes