When emergency relief turns into a protracted crisis, what happens to the aid that falls between short-term humanitarian relief and development assistance over the medium-term?
Who should deliver it? Who should oversee it?
In the current aid architecture, it’s not always clear who is responsible for ensuring funding and resources in complex humanitarian situations.
In a commentary posted recently in Indepth News (IDN), I discussed how gaps persist between where humanitarian relief ends and development assistance begins, and there is a lack of clarity on delivery agents (i.e. NGOs, sometimes UN agencies, or some combo), and oversight. In short, a very messy system – numerous gaps, and overlaps and other inefficiencies. We are unprepared to face a new round of looming humanitarian disasters. And yet, several are brewing: a growing food security crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa, and a violent government crackdown in Syria.
Additionally, some questions for future research:
- Do the emerging donors face similar challenges when providing assistance on protracted crises? If so, what do the challenges look like?
- Or are the problems of “complex humanitarian” specific to the traditional donors?
Shaping my view this week:
Tweeters with ideas on global development:
- @glassmanamanda: Global health policy with a focus on financing and economics. Tweets are personal views, RT not endorsement.Washington, DC
- @anoukdey: deputy curator of @thecic's opencanada.org. founder of @rchildhood. @actioncanada fellow. cyclist. nomad. (my views.)
- @FAOnews: News & info from the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) aka #unfao, the UN agency that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.