Talking about colonialism is problematic. People might label me a reactionary or a radical...but since I’m neither, I have to have the courage to open my heart to you, so we all can learn from one another.
The world has been facing numerous emergencies over the past few years. Some were manmade while the rest were natural disasters. The individual humanitarian response was overwhelming – to the point where we as international humanitarian organisations could hardly deliver the dreams and desires of our donors. The last few disasters – the tsunami; Darfur; the Asian earthquake; Yemen – proved that the international community cannot do it alone, even if we had the resources and the expertise.
We’re at a time when we have ample money to respond to disasters. But how do we allocate it? It’s my belief that we need to use some part of this money in building the local infrastructure of Civil Society Organisations in disaster areas. Five years on from the tsunami I’d like to raise a question: How much have we spent on relief, and on capacity building of local civil society, and how much has been drained and wasted because of inefficient delivery and overspending on bringing in our own experts, imported from Country A to Disaster Area B, when we could have utilized the expertise and knowledge of local organisations?
If we’re honest enough to answer such questions, I propose we change the policy of our funding with the intention of building stronger, more independent CSOs in such areas. I propose we ask our governments, institutions and INGOs to allocate 10-15% of funds to the future of local civil society in these areas.
This would be an important step, but funds alone are not enough. If our long term goal is to hand the capability for disaster response over to the local and national organisations, we need to shift our entire attitude. Rather than supporting our own organisations exclusively, our emphasis must be on partnering, training and supporting local humanitarian actors in becoming more effective, sustainable and accountable. In short: treating local actors as equals.
Changing the way we work will take time and investment. It will not happen overnight; rather it will happen over a generation. But by beginning that investment now, we will eventually build a truly global humanitarian society – one which really does ‘think globally and act locally’.
We need to be courageous - to admit that it’s impossible nowadays to respond to these terrible disasters from an international perspective alone, and to admit that it is indeed preferable to reach beneficiaries in their own communities and through their own communities. Because if we don’t work this way, we’re missing the most important players or stakeholders: namely the local civil society organisations, whom we should use as active partners from the time of planning to the process of delivering and monitoring. This could only be done when we change our mindset from a top-down, ‘colonial’ humanitarian approach to a grass roots humanitarian approach.
Our new role should be complementary to the emerging new role of stronger local civil societies. It should not replace them or exclude them. It is for us to be honest enough to step back, and instead empower those people who are already ‘on the ground’ when disaster strikes, and will continue to be there long after our operations have left.
Shall we be a colonial humanitarian movement - or a people’s humanitarian movement?
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