Development

This topic speaks about the world development, what it is and how it relates to us

From humanitarian crisis to development

Where is the border line?

How many people is in the situation, that requires relief?
Correct answer: Only a small percentage of poor all over the world
Only a small percentage of poor all over the world needs relief. Those might be people with physical handicaps, some elderly or children, orphans, victims of man-made or natural disasters. Those people are not able to help themselves and needs relief. But the majority of people who needs help are not “bleeding” any more. If we treat them like they need relief, we do more harm than good to them and to ourselves too. That does not mean that they do not need help. It means that rehabilitation and development is the appropriate way to help them. In this kind of help financial support might also be involved, but this should be conditioned by active participation. Relief itself can support rehabilitation and development if we will work with people, and not for people. Not to do everything for them, but involve them in everything we do – from planning and implementing activities to their evaluation. It is advised also from a psychological point of view – not to support the dominance of donors and inferiority of beneficiaries.
Sources
Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert: When Helping hurts, Moody publishers, 2009
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In spite of that most organizations focus on relief. Why?

  1. They have a material definition of poverty, - providing finances and material resources solve the problem of poverty.
  2. It is easier and quicker than development – it is easier to throw out food from the planes that create long-term relationships.
  3. It is easier to raise funds for it – Donors like reports like „We feed thousands of people today“ more comparied to „Today we spend time with dozens of people and built our relationship.“

But even though working with the poor through relationships is a much longer process, it makes more sense because it has a long term impact on people.

An inability to distinguish between these 3 types of interventions is one of the most frequent reasons, why helping have the opposite effect of what is desired. One of the biggest mistakes done by rich countries is providing relief, when the right intervention should be rehabilitation or development.

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