The sudden, illegal, drastic dismantling of USAID — and other recent aid cuts from countries including France, the Netherlands and the U.K. — is a clear demonstration of some of the problems with that model. Depending on governments, it turns out, is risky — particularly when they feel able to break existing commitments with impunity. Governments are rarely disinterested altruists; they approve aid based on their political priorities, whether those are seemingly as benign as the idea that improving standards of living around the world is good for everyone, or if they are more determined by national security and economic goals. USAID intermittently required compliance with the Global Gag Rule, regardless of how it affected public health outcomes, while United States’ international food aid prioritized economic support to U.S. agriculture as much as helping those in need.
Many of us who work in the nonprofit sector are aware of some of the subtler harms of the way giving is framed: the white savior complex so often embodied by donors; the related tech savior complex embodied by rich individuals who want to dictate every detail of programs despite knowing little about the sector, location or history. The way NGO staff from rich countries are, all too often, paid more than those from poor countries; the way the international aid sector has been talking for decades about localization and still largely fails to grapple with fundamental inequalities. Aid is ugly, despite the fact that most individuals working in the sector care deeply and think urgently about what they’re trying to do, and keep doing it because it seems to be the only way to make any difference at all.
Is the current approach really the only way? That, like so many other illusions of our age, is false. There are many other models of how people can help each other, and the confusion and sense of betrayal following the destruction of U.S. international aid institutions makes this a crucial time to start building toward a new system.
Read the rest at Inside Philanthropy
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