‘There has to be a functioning connection between humanitarian work and capacity building'

Ian Smillie first arrived in Africa 40 years ago. The author of ‘Freedom from Want' and research coordinator in Partnership Africa-Canada's 'Diamonds and Human Security Project', participated in the World Conference on Humanitarian Studies that was held in Groningen last week. PSO presented a panel on which Smillie presented his paper ‘Back from the Trees.'

In this paper the Canadian takes a closer look at the relationships between Northern and Southern relief organizations. He also evaluates the efforts of humanitarian agencies related to capacity development. He is not exactly hopeful: ‘Not much has changed over the last 40 years.'

Objective

The main objective of most humanitarian organizations is to offer emergency aid and save lives. Humanitarian organizations tend to distinguish themselves from capacity builders who want to help develop the local capacity of an area to solve its own problems. Now, that is a problem. ‘You cannot put such a division between humanitarian aid and capacity building,' he says.

‘There has to be an integrating function between humanitarian work and capacity building. But there isn't much connection between those who deliver short-term emergency aid and those who provide long term assistance. It's like a hospital, there has to be a connection between emergency and recovery, otherwise it's dysfunctional.'

Irresponsible

Humanitarians don't want to be criticised for mandate creep and are afraid of being dragged into expensive, long term capacity building adventures. ‘But emergency cannot be dealt with, without thinking of what happens when you are gone. Otherwise you are simply being irresponsible,' Smillie says.

In his paper Smillie gives the example of an organisation he visited in Bosnia in the 90's. After seeing the atrocities of the war in Bosnia on television six ordinary German women decided to do something. They loaded their cars with money and relief goods and set off from Dortmund to Sarajevo. They set up a shelter for women who had lost their husbands: a safe haven where these women and their small children could stay and re-established themselves.

The Germans made the trip back and forth on a regular basis. But a year after the fighting ceased, they said that the shelter had to become self-sustaining, because they could not raise money for it anymore back home. ‘For the Bosnians involved, it was impossible, but that happens a lot if it's not on television, it is not happening.'

Island

There are a lot of factors that lead to humanitarian organizations not thinking of what happens after they have left. ‘Humanitarian aid is an island in the industry. Humanitarians say: ‘Let someone else do the long term work. But who is that somebody? The money comes from the same place and it is always limited,' Smillie explains. There is more. Humanitarian organizations get their money from two sources; institutional donors and ‘$50 donors'. Smillie: ‘Neither the $50 nor the institutional donors are paying for capacity building. They are paying to save lives.'

Then there is the relationship between Northern organizations and their Southern partners. In the paper Smillie speaks of the Northern organizations relegating their Southerners to ‘errand boys'. That is possible because they have the money, make the decisions and get the credit for the work done. ‘They are the stars. This leads to patronizing behaviour. These organizations let their partners do the dirty jobs on the ground. That is why most of the $50 donors don't even know that Southern NGOs are involved in emergency aid.'

Distrust

Many Northern organizations distrust their Southern partners. And the partners also have different views as to what capacity building is. ‘I was a while ago in Sierra Leone. There were a lot of Northern NGOs that didn't trust their local partners. So I asked the Southerners what kind of capacity building they needed, they said they needed jeeps in order to move about like the Northern organizations. For them, the capacity to travel was key, but for the Northerners, jeeps were the last thing they thought about in terms of capacity building. Clearly there is a disconnect.'

There is more. The Northern organizations may pay as little as 5% overhead cost to the partners for their activities, when Northern overheads may be in the 20-30% range. Smillie: ‘It's almost impossible to operate on that amount. It's almost like asking to be ripped-off. Everybody in the system is therefore squeezed.'

Starving babies

Smillie says a lot of Northern behaviour is based on guilt, pity and anger. ‘It's about Madonna going to Malawi and adopting a child. It's not really about that child, it's about her,' Smillie explains. That is why it's time for a rational approach towards the relationship between North and South. ‘The Northern organizations have to do more than sell starving and hungry babies to their people. They have to present the whole picture by telling people why the situation is like that on the ground. If you know why something is happening, you can start looking for a solution to the problem, and for partners with the longer term capacities that you, as outsiders, do not have.'

There is some light at the end of the tunnel. ‘Some Northern governments are beginning to see that they have to fix the problem. We need to think long term; there is no quick fix. Otherwise in 10, 15 years there will be more state breakdowns, diseases, pollution and migration. Borders already don't work. People will be coming in and it's going to affect all of us.'

Economic expedition

The Chinese are very active in Africa. Is that a way to build capacity? Smillie: ‘They are on an economic expedition. They are no different from Northerners; they want minerals. And if the way to get it is to build hospitals then they will.' There is also a good side to the Chinese expedition. ‘They might force Northern governments to change how they deal with Southerners. If they see that they are losing all their lucrative contracts to Chinese companies, they might start thinking and behaving differently.'

Capacity building and lessons learned seem to go hand in hand. Suppose a tsunami were to hit the coast of West Africa. Which lesson from the past should we apply here? ‘We have to be well prepared. We have better warning systems and we learned from Bangladesh.' Smillie says the problem with lessons is that lessons are not necessarily learned, and lessons learned are not the same as lessons applied and lessons remembered. ‘We have a habit of writing down lessons. But we don't learn.'

Pessimistic

Smillie sees the prevention of conflict as the real challenge in this world. Are there places that need special attention from the world? ‘We are not good at anticipating emergency. We are always late at emergencies, because we don't learn from past experiences. Besides that, things have the tendency of getting worse before they get better. Congo, for instance, is talking with it's neighbours about certifying their diamonds.'

At the end of his paper Smillie draws two alternative conclusions. The first one is, things will never change. That is quite pessimistic. ‘Yes, I've been around for some 40 years now and I haven't seen much change.' And the second is, self interest will save the world. ‘We have to understand and solve the real problems. Northern citizens have to give their governments permission to negotiate fairly with Southern countries during trade negotiations. In the long run we will all benefit from level playing fields and greater equality.'

What does this mean? ‘If we want to build capacity, then we need to know each other and over time learn to trust each other. Northern NGOs, more often than not, distrust their Southern partners, and vice versa, because the relationship, based largely on money, is transactional rather than one based on mutual interest and benefit. That has to change. We have to start seeing each other as equals.'