<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;
color:black"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Calibri-BoldItalic;mso-bidi-font-family:
Calibri-BoldItalic;color:black">Humanitarianism </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"MS Gothic";mso-bidi-font-family:"MS Gothic";
color:black">‐</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:
Calibri-BoldItalic;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-BoldItalic;color:black"> Moving
Beyond Medical Rescue to Poverty Reduction, Sustainable Development and
Justice?  [excerpts]<br></span></i></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri-Bold;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-Bold;
color:#000081">David McCoy</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri-Bold;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-Bold;
color:#000081">Peoples Health Movement, NHS London, Centre for International
Health and Development, University College London.</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">I want to
place humanitarianism ‐ defined simply as the relief of human suffering ‐
within a political and global economic context. I want to extend the concept of
humanitarianism beyond the common frame of rescue, relief and aid (often by the
rich for the poor; or by those who can for those who can’t; and usually in
conflict zones and at the scenes of natural disasters) to a view of
humanitarianism that incorporates social and economic justice; and the relief
of suffering caused by chronic poverty; chronic</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">food
security; chronic violence; chronic unemployment; the massive exploitation of
people’s labour; and the theft of their lands. Put another way, this is a
humanitarianism that goes beyond the </span><i><span style="font-family:Calibri-Italic;
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-Italic;color:black">relief </span></i><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">of human
suffering to include the </span><i><span style="font-family:Calibri-Italic;
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-Italic;color:black">prevention </span></i><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">of human
suffering. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">The world
we live in is far from perfect; but may be the best of all possible worlds. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">For many it
justifies and excuses the neoliberal foundations for our political, social and
economic relations. Because the implication is that we don’t need radical or</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">revolutionary
change ‐ we merely require a humanitarian and welfare industry; and some green
regulation to address the problems associated with war; famine; natural
disasters; and disease. Such people would say that we can do better at making
our world safer, fairer and more sustainable. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">My expectations
for the human race are simply much higher. I expect a much better world; ‘another
world’ is not just possible, but is desirable and to be strived for; it requires
change though. Real change. And it is change that demands a broadening of our
conception of humanitarianism. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">We
frequently hear that the world has made astounding progress in reducing global
levels of poverty; and that we may even be on track to reach the MDG poverty
targets. Triumphalist rhetoric often accompanies the facts and figures used to
describe the absolute and relative reduction of people living on less than $1/day.
</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">But let’s
consider a few alternative facts. In spite of three decades of global economic
growth, the burning of fuel at a rate greater than at any other time in human
history and an explosion of scientific and technological advancement ‐ the
number of people living in poverty has actually grown over the last three decades
‐ but only if you use a $2/day measure of income poverty. In this instance,
nearly half the world’s</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">population
lives in poverty.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">Furthermore,
we know that the income poverty line of $2/day is a poor and crude measure of
poverty and that it uses a methodology that is biased in favour of an
under‐counting of people living in poverty. And if we consider what Peter
Edwards has called an ethical poverty line which is defined as “the income
level below which further income losses materially shorten life expectancy” and
which is calculated to be between $2.80 ‐ $3.90 / day, it would not be
unreasonable to argue that the majority of the world’s population lives in
poverty. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">On the
other side of the coin, we have the most incredible concentration of private
wealth. For example, here are some facts taken from an annual publication
produced by MerrylLynch in which you will find a categorisation of human that
does not appear in any UN report: </span><b><span style="font-family:Calibri-Bold;
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-Bold;color:black">“</span></b><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">the high
net worth individual” and the “ultra high net worth individual”.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">According
to Merryl Lynch’s World Wealth Report, in 2009 there were 8.6 million ‘high net
worth individuals’ identified as having investable (financial) assets over $1
million (excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer
durables). Together, they own $32.8 trillion (or 35% of total global wealth).
And there were 78,000 ‘ultra‐high net worth individuals’ defined as having
investable (financial) assets over $30 million.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">It is no
wonder that inequality is so high. According to the World Bank, the gini
coefficient for income inequality at the global level is higher than for any
individual country. And even higher for wealth inequality.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">But this
inequality is not produced by accident; or through inevitable or natural
processes. For sure, there are certain geographical and natural factors. But
much of the inequality, dispossession and deprivation that we see today is
produced or sustained through violence; oppression; theft; bio‐piracy; tax
evasion; fraud; and corruption. And</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">increasingly,
it is being reproduced through the degradation, commodification and destruction
of the planet.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">The very
same processes that result in widespread human suffering existing side by</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">side with
immense wealth and overconsumption, are the ones that have possibly</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">brought us
all to the brink of cataclysmic climate change. The rise in frequency of severe</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">weather
events; the projected migration and displacements of peoples as a result of
sea‐level rise and failings crops; and the conflict that will be spawned by
ecological disruption and collapse threatens to literally drown the
humanitarian community with a deluge of human suffering.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">And so we
come to the perpetual need for ‘humanitarian and development aid’; and its
perpetual inadequacy. But how does the humanitarian community address this
state of affairs? Before I answer this, I think it needs to ask some questions
about humanitarian assistance itself.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">Here are a
few questions we might consider:</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";color:black"></span><span style="font-family:SymbolMT;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
SymbolMT;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
Calibri;color:black">To what extent is the current practice of humanitarianism
effective?</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";color:black"></span><span style="font-family:SymbolMT;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
SymbolMT;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
Calibri;color:black">To what extent is humanitarianism an expression of
political or moral conviction?</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";color:black"></span><span style="font-family:SymbolMT;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
SymbolMT;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
Calibri;color:black">To what extent is it an act of solidarity or an extension
of the social justice movement?</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";color:black"></span><span style="font-family:SymbolMT;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
SymbolMT;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
Calibri;color:black">And to what extent might humanitarianism be part of the
problem ‐ not so much an extension of</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">social
justice; but an extension of the machinery, systems and vested interests that
create the crises</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">in the
first place?</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">These are
of course rhetorical questions. In any case, there could never be a single
answer to these questions. The humanitarian complex – consisting of many
different NGOs, as well as the UN, military establishments; donors and
governments ‐ is not homogeneous. It consists of different interest groups; different
value systems; and different motivations. There is the good, the bad and the
ugly. Many of us will have witnessed the co‐existence of cynicism; hypocrisy;
deception and abuse of power with many and extraordinary examples of
solidarity; courage; and generosity within the humanitarian complex.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">Aid and
charity can be and is at times captured by ‘un‐humanitarian’ political and
military interests; or distorted and corrupted by commercialisation,
competition and self‐interest. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">I suppose
the main message is that there is a constant need for critical self‐reflection
in what we do as humanitarians ‐ whether it’s in the field of emergency
humanitarianism or more long term development.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">But this
critical self‐reflection requires a political analysis and a clear moral
framework. The solutions to the problems described within the humanitarian
complex is only partly about creating new structures and systems; or better
accountability frameworks; or more effective performance management indicators.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">More
fundamental solutions include speaking the truth to power; drawing lines in the
sand beyond which you will not compromise even if it means reducing your
chances of funding or being kicked out of a country; recognising that noble and
well‐meaning intentions can have harmful and unintended consequences; and truly
considering how we can give the dispossessed and deprived not just relief, but also
power and agency. This means not using charity as a means to reinforce
hierarchies and dependency;</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">but rather
replacing it altogether with solidarity and real development.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">But critical
self‐reflection in the way we deliver relief and humanitarian aid needs to</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">be linked
to a broader effort at addressing the </span><i><span style="font-family:Calibri-Italic;
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-Italic;color:black">causes </span></i><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">of human
suffering. Here again,</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">there is
no political, managerial or technological blueprint for addressing the</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">problems
we face. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">I am often
struck by the sense of how, for vast numbers of the western public, we have
out‐sourced our global politics to the NGO sector. It seems to me that we need
to reconceptualise the role, place and function of professional NGOs; and to
see how they relate to civil society more generally. We need a revolution of
thought; new ways of doing politics; a redistribution of power, wealth and
property. It is so often said that the revolution will not be funded. But the
professional NGOs that </span><i><span style="font-family:Calibri-Italic;
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri-Italic;color:black">are </span></i><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">funded,
have an</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">important
role to play in the popular struggles that are going on all around the world
today.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">A second
element of a political strategy must be to build horizontal linkages between
the progressive elements of the NGO community and civil society. Break out of
our silos. Those of us working in global health and humanitarian relief need to
forge links with those political struggles designed to reform global governance
institutions; the banking and credit system; tax evasion; the utterly
discredited regime of intellectual property rights; the corporate media; and so
on and so forth.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">And at the
same time we need to build the global community; strengthening our cross‐border
and transnational allegiances. I</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">If we look
closely enough, it is the same struggle of millions of people living in refugee
camps across the world.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:
  Calibri;color:black">Independence</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">,
neutrality and impartiality – these are the cardinal principles of humanitarian
relief. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I fully appreciate the principle
of neutrality and impartiality on the battlefield and in the conflict zone; but
in most other instances, humanitarianism involves taking a side. Being neutral
and impartial is far too often used as an excuse for not taking sides; or worse
still, used to camouflage the reality that sides have been</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">taken
either unconsciously, inadvertently or covertly. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">We can and
we must find ways to combine rescue, relief, charity and aid (some of which may
be provided neutrally and with impartiality) with a political agenda that is
NOT neutral but which sides firmly with the interests of the oppressed; the
exploited; the poor. Perhaps this needs to be another element of the political
strategy – how do we do both; without one compromising the other.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">The unique
role and position of the humanitarian community – operating at the coal face of
human suffering <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>means that your voice
and actions may be more important than most. Not just in providing relief to
human suffering. But also in preventing human</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;color:black">suffering
and acting upon its root causes.</span></p>