Translated by Irene Cecchi
During an interview with the New Humanitarian, Degan Ali, activist and CEO of Adeso Africa, accused the international aid system of not respecting the programmed goal to relieve the suffering but, instead, only acting with the purpose of supporting its own existence with programmes that will not make a change in the long term for Global South. Ali states that the modern humanitarian system is still perpetuating the colonies dependence on the countries of the North.
The history of humanitarian aid
The history of humanitarian aid is strictly related with the colonialism one, mining the idea of a historically and geographically neutral aid. Since the nineteenth century, the colonial powers were the main promoters of humanitarian goals in order to legitimate their control over the territories. The civilizing missions of the french empire, as well as the spanish and portuguese ones, was aimed to “save” the indigenous population from their cultures, religions and identities, considered to be regressive. Race is considered to be indicative of inferiority and it becomes a justifying factor for humanitarian efforts and a legit reason for discrimination and exclusion.
When these countries finally gained independence, they had to adapt to the international structures designed by their former colonizers. As a consequence, it is believed that the decolonization only transformed the colonial dynamics instead of eradicating them. Most of the African Countries, already deprived of their valuable resources by 75 years of colonial exploitation, switched from one economic crisis to another, leading to political frustration and the related waves of military uprisings and political turmoils in various parts of the continent. All these fragilities opened the way to “reformed” imperial powers that carried on with an extractive economy, using these territories as raw material sources.
At the same time, there was a new professional class of humanitarian actors, funded by donations from rich countries to help populations in a poor and fragile condition, often caused by these same countries. It is not a surprise that, geographically, the main European organizations operate in their former colonies where, for decades, European people worked for a better salary than locals.
The concept of localization
The idea that locals working with the big international organizations represent a useful assets, since they know the actual needs and how to sustainably solve them, is quite recent. The shift towards a localization, the contrary of white savior centered organization, it’s clear if we see the spots with a white man, well dressed and smiling, giving food or medical treatments to lonely, malnourished and half-naked local children. (a parody at this link)
This concept is considered to be outdated but still leaves some masks, especially when it comes to humanitarian operations where there is a clear asymmetry of power: the rich white savior elaborating projects to help the incompetent poor locals. This point of view created a shadow over the humanitarian operations started within the affected areas: for example, during the 2005 earthquake in the North of Pakistan –when more than 85.000 people died and 3 million were displaced– the massive local response that provided donations, volunteers and medical aid took a back seat to the international community’s humanitarian aid. The same happened in Syria during the civil war, where Syrian organizations like White Helmets saved millions of lives but suffered the consequences of numerous media campaigns against their work.
The enduring and unfair power distribution increases the distance between the affected organizations and communities and the decision-making process. The concept of localizations aims to create a humanitarian sector that is developed from the bottom upwards, underlining the importance of a strong leadership and more effort from the local and national actors.
The main localization initiative in the humanitarian system is called Grand Bargain and it was launched during the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 as an effort by the main humanitarian donors and organizations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian actions. During the years, the Grand Bargain was committed to increase the funds for local and national actors, to simplify the accountability requirements, to potentiate the capacity building and to encourage partnerships between local and international organizations.
All these efforts aim to shift the humanitarian system towards a more inclusive and cooperative approach that values the local actors' contributions to crisis and recovery responses. The localization is no longer a marginal matter only between the policy-makers and the humanitarian agencies but it became a formal priority in the Grand Bargain framework. However, the advancements are slow and there are still deep gaps between the theory and the reality when it comes to partnerships, fundings and coordination, making the “decolonization” of the humanitarian aid system still a chimera.
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