Comments on: Cash handouts: When aid runs short of ideas http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/ aka Ishtar News Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:33:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Esther Garvi http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4521 Esther Garvi Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:09:21 +0000 http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4521 Dear Owen, I see you continued the discussion on today's post "The controversies of the aid industry". I have posted my reply there as well. http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/29/the-controversies-of-the-aid-industry/ Dear Owen,

I see you continued the discussion on today’s post “The controversies of the aid industry”. I have posted my reply there as well.

http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/29/the-controversies-of-the-aid-industry/

]]> By: Owen http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4266 Owen Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:46:01 +0000 http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4266 Safe flight! Safe flight!

]]> By: Esther Garvi http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4196 Esther Garvi Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:21:34 +0000 http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4196 @Owen: I am flying to Niger in a few hours, but I'll get back to you on this as there's much to be said on the subject. Talk to you in a week or so! @Owen: I am flying to Niger in a few hours, but I’ll get back to you on this as there’s much to be said on the subject. Talk to you in a week or so!

]]> By: Owen http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4134 Owen Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:01:09 +0000 http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4134 And governments do hand out cash to the unemployed, even in the UK, and thank goodness they do! It doesn't necessarily result in dependency, for most people it gets them through crises. Quite often that cash is not only important to the recipients, it's also important in sustaining local social infrastructure which can take a long time to reconstruct after it's been lost during the crisis. That's not to argue against your observations that Nigeriens may have been on the end of some ill-planned and counter-productive interventions. And governments do hand out cash to the unemployed, even in the UK, and thank goodness they do! It doesn’t necessarily result in dependency, for most people it gets them through crises. Quite often that cash is not only important to the recipients, it’s also important in sustaining local social infrastructure which can take a long time to reconstruct after it’s been lost during the crisis.

That’s not to argue against your observations that Nigeriens may have been on the end of some ill-planned and counter-productive interventions.

]]> By: Owen http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4133 Owen Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:56:05 +0000 http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-4133 I heard Vanessa Rubin on Radio 4 a couple of days ago. She was in a difficult situation, because she was being interviewed about Care's refusal of US food aid (after doing the full costing Care's own contribution would be more effectively spent in other ways). She was saying that pre-crisis spending was 80 times more effective than crisis spending. But the reporter was trying to push her into saying that people should choose between giving in an emergency and giving in advance. She obviously tried to say that there had to be both. I think you're a bit harsh in your assessment of the major aid agencies' interventions. Not all crises are regular and predictable. Of course it's better to prevent conflict, but conflict happens. I've been approached during bucket collecting by a former refugee who asked me how he could do a covenant to the organisation I was collecting for because of his thankfulness for assistance in the refugee camp in Somalia. And in the long run crises, even routine ones, alert the developed world to the precarious existence that many people face in the developing world and in the long run my impression is that crisis giving over the last fifteen-twenty years has made the British public generally far more amenable to the general idea of development cooperation. I'm not arguing against your general point of the importance and effectiveness of the work that people like Eden are doing but just suggesting that the picture isn't quite as black and white as this confrontational debate seems to suggest. I heard Vanessa Rubin on Radio 4 a couple of days ago. She was in a difficult situation, because she was being interviewed about Care’s refusal of US food aid (after doing the full costing Care’s own contribution would be more effectively spent in other ways). She was saying that pre-crisis spending was 80 times more effective than crisis spending. But the reporter was trying to push her into saying that people should choose between giving in an emergency and giving in advance. She obviously tried to say that there had to be both.

I think you’re a bit harsh in your assessment of the major aid agencies’ interventions. Not all crises are regular and predictable. Of course it’s better to prevent conflict, but conflict happens. I’ve been approached during bucket collecting by a former refugee who asked me how he could do a covenant to the organisation I was collecting for because of his thankfulness for assistance in the refugee camp in Somalia.

And in the long run crises, even routine ones, alert the developed world to the precarious existence that many people face in the developing world and in the long run my impression is that crisis giving over the last fifteen-twenty years has made the British public generally far more amenable to the general idea of development cooperation.

I’m not arguing against your general point of the importance and effectiveness of the work that people like Eden are doing but just suggesting that the picture isn’t quite as black and white as this confrontational debate seems to suggest.

]]> By: Allen Taylor http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-3526 Allen Taylor Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:34:53 +0000 http://esthergarvi.com/2008/09/05/cash-handouts-when-aid-runs-short-of-ideas/#comment-3526 Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road. Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.

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