• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Page 71
08 |
Taking the long view
This chapter examines trends since 1995 to explore the extent to whichhumanitarian assistance is used to address short-term or enduring needs and thepart it plays in sustainable poverty reduction and development assistance. It raisesquestions about the type of aid architecture that is needed to address the cycles of crisis, vulnerability and poverty that dominate many people’s lives.Humanitarian assistance is traditionally distinguished from development assistanceby being short-term, life-saving and exceptional, rather than longer-term, poverty-reducing and promoting sustainability. Much attention and time is given to tryingto ‘fill the gap’or identifying how people ‘move’from humanitarian to developmentmodes. But the reality for many people is a lifetime of extreme vulnerability andconstant insecurity. While this manifests itself in periodic acute crises it alsoforces people into choices that reduce their resilience to future disasters,creating a downward spiral of increasing, and often inter-generational, povertyand vulnerability.
What distinguishes humanitarian anddevelopment assistance?
Humanitarian assistance is perceived as being more about saving lives andprotecting people than it is about sustained poverty reduction; more about timelyresponses than capacity development or long-term relationships; more aboutpeople than states or institutions. It can waive some of the rules and proceduresthat apply to development assistance and work in places where developmentassistance is politically difficult because of sustained human rights abuses orwhere the state itself is fragile or non-existent.The Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) initiative has defined the scope of humanitarian assistance and set out the objectives as follows: “to save lives,alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity during and in the aftermath of man-made crises and natural disasters, as well as to prevent and strengthenpreparedness for the occurrence of such situations.”Humanitarian action is guided by principles: “humanity, meaning the centrality of saving human lives and alleviating suffering wherever it is found; impartiality,meaning the implementation of actions solely on the basis of need, withoutdiscrimination between or within affected populations; neutrality, meaning thathumanitarian action must not favour any side in an armed conflict or other disputewhere such action is carried out; and independence, meaning the autonomy of humanitarian objectives from the political, economic, military or other objectivesthat any actor may hold with regard to areas where humanitarian action is beingimplemented.”
 
GHA Report
2009Page 72
What does the data tell us about how humanitarianassistance has been spent?
Most humanitarian assistance is long-term. It is spent in the same countries yearafter year and protracted crises have been taking an increasing share of totalhumanitarian assistance.Since 2002, long-term humanitarian assistance has accounted for over half of humanitarian spending. In 2003 and 2004, long-term humanitarian assistanceaccounted for 79% and 76% of the total respectively, falling to around 50% in thelast three years. That compares with a range of 29%-41% for the period between1995 and 2000.
1995199719992001200320052007Unspecified by countryLong-term (more than 8 years)Medium-term (3–8 years)Short-term (3 years or less)
 
14,00012,00010,0008,0006,0004,0002,0000
    U    S    $   m    i    l    l    i   o   n    (   c   o   n   s   t   a   n   t   2   0   0   7   p   r    i   c   e   s    )
The countries that receive long-term humanitarian assistance fall into twocategories. The majority of spending is in large countries in crisis: Sudan, Iraq,Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Afghanistan and Ethiopia. But the other11 recipients of long-term humanitarian assistance include neglected emergencies,countries in protracted conflicts and places where the environment fordevelopment assistance is extremely unfavourable.
IraqSudanAfghanistanEthiopiaSomaliaSierra LeoneMyanmarLiberiaKorea, Dem RepublicIranEritreaTajikistanCongo, RepublicCongo, Dem RepublicBurundiAngola
Figure 1: Long, medium and short-term humanitarian assistance 1995-2007 [Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC1 and 2a data]Figure 2: Countries that have received long-term humanitarian assistance 1995-2007[Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC 2a data]We have classified humanitarianspending into three groups based on thenumber of years that countries havereceived more than 10% of their officialdevelopment assistance (ODA) in theform of humanitarian assistance.Globally humanitarian assistance hasaveraged around 10% of ODA since 1995.This has been used as the benchmark todifferentiate occasional and small scalehumanitarian responses from countrieswhere humanitarian assistance has beena more significant component of ODA.Long-term humanitarian assistance is thefunding that goes to countries receiving more than 10% of their ODA inhumanitarian assistance for more thaneight years between 1995 and 2007.Medium-term humanitarian assistance isthe funding that goes to countriesreceiving more than 10% of their ODA inhumanitarian assistance for between four and eight years between 1995 and 2007.Short-term humanitarian assistance isthe funding that goes to countries thathave received more than 10% of their ODA in humanitarian assistance for three years or less between 1995 and 2007
    U    S    $   m    i    l    l    i   o   n    (   c   o   n   s   t   a   n   t   2   0   0   7   p   r    i   c   e   s    )
19951996
 
199719981999200020012002200320042005200620075,0004,5004,0003,5003,0002,5002,0001,5001,0005000
 
Page 73
Taking the long view
    U    S    $   m    i    l    l    i   o   n    (   c   o   n   s   t   a   n   t   2   0   0   7   p   r    i   c   e   s    )
1
Countries in chronic poverty have relatively low initial levels of welfare (relatively low GDPper capita and relatively highmortality, fertility and undernourishment) plus relatively slow rates of progress over time across all available indicators.See Chronic Poverty Report 2008-9, Escaping Poverty Traps, page 14. www.chronicpoverty.org1995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007IraqShort-term humanitarianassistanceLong-term humanitarian assistanceto chronically poor countriesMedium-term humanitarianassistance to chronically poorcountriesMedium-term humanitarianassistance to other countriesLong-term humanitarian assistanceto other countries
Figure 3: Humanitarian assistance to chronically poor countries 1995-2007 [Source: DevelopmentInitiatives based on DAC data]
Within individual chronically poor countries, humanitarian assistance is often a verylarge proportion of the total aid flow. In Chad, humanitarian assistance has beenbetween 44% and 58% of total official development assistance (ODA) for the pastfour years; DRC has received around 40% of total ODA in the form of humanitarianassistance annually since 1994. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, humanitarian assistance isnow down to between a quarter and one-fifth of ODA respectively, but was over50% in the early years of the millennium. In Burundi nearly three-quarters of ODAwas in the form of humanitarian assistance in 2004 and in most years since 1995it has been over half of ODA.Burundi’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is US$118 a year or 32 cents aday for each of its 8.5 million people. Life expectancy at birth is 51 for women and48 for men and one child in ten dies in infancy. In this chronically poor environment,it is humanitarian assistance – structured around responses to crises and based onassumptions of short term involvement – that has been the primary source of ODA.
2007200620052004200320020100200300
US$ million (constant 2007 prices)
Remaining ODABurundi general budget supportBurundi humanitarian assistance
Figure 4: Humanitarian assistance, general budget support and ODA to Burundi, 2002-2007[Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC CRS data]
Chronically poor countries account for 98% of long-term humanitarian assistanceand 37% of medium-term humanitarian assistance.
1
This is not a surprise given thestrong links between chronic poverty and conflict, disasters and insecurity. But itdoes emphasise the importance of humanitarian assistance for countries in chronicpoverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, 30% of the population live in countries receivinglong-term humanitarian assistance.
9,0008,0007,0006,0005,0004,0003,0002,0001,0000
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...