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Opportunity knocks: why non-Western donors enter humanitarianism and how to make the best of it

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

Andrea Binder  and
Claudia Meier
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Abstract

Non-Western countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, Brazil, and Turkey have all started to take part in global humanitarian action. Their engagement raises a number of fundamental questions: how will the diversification of government donors affect humanitarian activities and principles; and how will it affect the people and governments of crisis-affected countries or humanitarian organizations? This article finds that the rise of non-Western donors involves both risks, such as normative conflicts, and great potential, such as increased access and more resources. It also finds that non-Western humanitarian engagement has become too substantial to ignore and that opportunities can only be seized and risks mitigated if traditional actors actively engage with non-Western donors on a level playing field.

Type
Changing Actors and Evolving Practice
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 93 , Issue 884: The future of humanitarian action , December 2011 , pp. 1135 - 1149
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2012

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References

1 The outcome document of the recent 2011 High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, for example, states that the ‘nature, modalities and responsibilities that apply to South–South co-operation differ from those that apply to North–South co-operation’. High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, ‘Busan Partnership for Development Effectiveness’, 29 November–1 December 2011, available at: http://www.aideffectiveness.org/busanhlf4/images/stories/hlf4/OUTCOME_DOCUMENT_-_FINAL_EN.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012).

2 This article purposely refrains from giving estimates on the total financial volume of non-Western donor contributions because available statistics are incomplete.

3 For this article, we use the definition of humanitarian action given by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), thus encompassing assistance and protection activities ‘designed to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain and protect human dignity during and in the aftermath of emergencies’. OECD/DAC, DAC Statistical Reporting Directives, 2010, p. 38, available at: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/62/38429349.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012).

4 Personal conversations with several representatives of established donors in 2010 and 2011.

5 The outputs of the project were a mapping study on non-Western donorship and in-depth case studies on India and Saudi Arabia that positioned a country's humanitarian engagement in its overall foreign policy. The studies were conducted in mixed teams, including one researcher from the respective country. A study on Brazil is underway, and further case studies are planned pending funding. For more information on the project, see: http://www.gppi.net/?id=1819 (last visited 25 May 2012).

6 OECD/DAC, above note 3, p. 38.

7 Drawn from several interviews with Indian foreign affairs officials conducted in 2010. For the complete analysis see Claudia Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, India's Growing Involvement in Humanitarian Assistance, Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) Resarch Paper No. 13, 2011, p. 8, available at: http://www.gppi.net/fileadmin/media/pub/2011/meier-murthy_2011_india-growing-involvement-humanitarian-assistance_gppi.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012).

8 This article cannot assess how non-Western donors’ commitment to humanitarian principles on paper is translating to aid practice on the ground, as this would require extensive research in crisis-affected countries. However, the question of how practice follows principles remains equally unanswered for many Western-based and multilateral humanitarian organizations.

9 UNGA Res. A/RES/46/182, 19 December 1991, first agreed in 1991 and since then reconfirmed yearly in the General Assembly, refers to the principles of humanity, neutrality, and impartiality.

10 Ministry of External Relations, Brazil, International Humanitarian Cooperation: Report 2006–2010, 2011.

11 In 2008 and 2009, India provided a total of US$ 3 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as core contributions and in response to the Gaza appeal. See C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, p. 20.

12 See for example, Michael Barnett et al., ‘Religion and humanitarianism: floating boundaries in a globalizing world’, Conference Report, Graduate Institute of International Studies, 2009, available at: http://www.humanitarianforum.org/data/files/resources/752/en/Geneva-Review-30.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012).

13 For a more in-depth discussion of the different public fundraising instruments in Saudi Arabia, see Al-Yahya, Khalid and Fustier, Nathalie, Saudi Arabia as a Humanitarian Donor: High Potential, Little Institutionalization, GPPi Research Paper No. 14, pp. 14–15Google Scholar, available in Arabic and English at: http://www.gppi.net/approach/research/truly_universal/saudi_arabia_and_humanitarian_assistance/ (last visited 4 January 2012).

14 Sadaqa is a form of giving to the poor in Islam. Contrary to the zakat, the (religious) obligation to give 2.5% of one's possessions to those in need, sadaqa is voluntary.

15 For a more detailed analysis of this phenomenon, see K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, pp. 14–15 and 26–27.

16 Nora Derbal, ‘Actors of the institutionalized philanthropic field in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: the benevolent woman and the youth activist’, paper presented at the 2nd World Conference on Humanitarian Studies, Boston, MA, 2011.

17 Andrea Binder, Claudia Meier, and Julia Steets, Humanitarian Assistance: Truly Universal? A Mapping Study of Non-Western Donors, GPPi Resarch Paper No. 12, 2010, p. 19, available at: http://www.gppi.net/fileadmin/media/pub/2010/Binder_Meier_Steets__2010__Truly_Universal_-_Mapping_Study._GPPi_RP_12.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012).

18 Ministry of External Relations, Brazil, above note 10, pp. 12–31.

19 Interviews with Indian and Saudi officials conducted in 2011. For the full analyses see C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, pp. 11–12, and K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, pp. 11–13.

20 See for example, World Food Programme (WFP), ‘Brazil and WFP launch Centre of Excellence Against Hunger’, 2011, available at: http://www.wfp.org/stories/brazil-and-wfp-launch-centre-excellence-against-hunger (last visited 13 March 2012).

21 Ministry of External Relations, Brazil, above note 10, p. 11.

22 Refer, for example, to the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative (http://www.goodhumanitariandonorship.org/) or national policies such as the humanitarian policy of the UK Department for International Development (http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/publications/humanitarian-policy.pdf), or the ‘Twelve Basic Rules’ of German humanitarian aid (http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Aussenpolitik/HumanitaereHilfe/Grundregeln_node.html) (all last visited 25 May 2012).

23 Miwa Hirono, China's State-centric Post-disaster Assistance: An Alternative Perspective to the Concept of Humanitarianism, forthcoming, p. 3.

24 Andrea Binder and Bjoern Conrad, China's Potential Role in Humanitarian Assistance, GPPi Policy Paper No. 5, pp. 11–12, available at: http://www.gppi.net/fileadmin/gppi/Binder_Conrad_2009_CHN_in_Hum_Assis.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012); C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, p. 32.

25 UNRWA, ‘Brazil contributes US$ 960,000 and announces a further donation of US$ 7.5 million to UNRWA’, Press Release, 2011, available at: http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1193 (last visited 4 January 2012).

26 For example, in the official Al Hayat newspaper. See K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, p. 9.

27 A. Binder and B. Conrad, above note 24, pp. 11–12; C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, p. 32.

28 Financial Tracking Service, ‘Table B: Somalia 2011: total humanitarian assistance per donor’, 2011, available at: http://fts.unocha.org/reports/daily/OCHA_R24_E15940.PDF (last visited 4 January 2012).

29 Abdirahman Aynte, ‘Understanding Erdogan's historic visit to Somalia’, 2011, available at: http://www.hiiraan.com/op4/2011/aug/20012/understanding_erdogan_s_historic_visit_to_somalia.aspx (last visited 25 May 2012).

30 According to data from the annual reports of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2010. For a detailed analysis, see C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7.

31 See, for example, the Indian Embassy in Havana, which describes India's humanitarian assistance to Haiti as a ‘symbol of friendship’. Embassy of India, ‘India–Haiti bilateral relations’, 2011, available at: http://www.indembassyhavana.org/?q=en/node/26 (last visited 13 March 2012).

32 Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Outcome Budget 2010–2011, 2010, p. 47, available at: http://www.mea.gov.in/meaxpsite/budget/MEAOutcomeENG2010-11.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012).

33 Tariq, Mohammad Osman et al. , Afghanistan in 2011: A Survey of the Afghan People, Asia Foundation. 2011, pp. 5Google Scholar and 67, available at: http://asiafoundation.org/resources/pdfs/TAF2011AGSurvey.pdf (last visited 4 January 2012).

34 The Saudi Campaign for Sri Lanka and Indonesia after the tsunami of 2004 raised US$ 86 million, more than the Gaza 2009 and Lebanon 2006 campaigns combined (US$ 64 million): see K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, p. 14.

35 Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Annual Report 2008–2009, 2009, p. 15, available at: http://www.mea.gov.in/mystart.php?id=500415091 (last visited 4 January 2012).

36 These contributions are difficult to quantify to compare them with cash contributions. However, they still make up a large part. India, for example, provided all but two contributions to the South Asian region between 2000 and 2010 in kind, including fortified biscuits to the WFP in Afghanistan and in-kind goods to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the ICRC in Sri Lanka.

37 Gilberto Carvalho, Brazilian Minister of State, in Ministry of External Relations, Brazil, above note 10, p. 38.

38 C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, pp. 9–11.

39 K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, pp. 11–12.

40 Based on Financial Tracking System data, the combined contributions of Brazil, China, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates to multilateral institutions (pooled funds, UNHCR, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and WFP) increased by 640% per year on average, whereas their overall humanitarian funding increased by 250%. See UN OCHA's Financial Tracking System data at: http://fts.unocha.org/ (last visited 4 January 2012).

41 Interviews with Indian officials: see C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, p. 17.

42 Data from the Saudi Ministry of Finance, 2011: see K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, p. 14.

43 Ibid., p. 18.

44 Interviews with Saudi Fund for Development and UN officials, 2010. For a detailed analysis see K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, pp. 18–19.

45 A. Binder, C. Meier, and J. Steets, above note 17, pp. 5–7.

46 Formerly, the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

47 The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), for instance, is currently working on a humanitarian policy and has also approved a contribution of US$ 3 million to the Sahel 2012 response. See http://reliefweb.int/node/477513 (last visited 13 January 2012).

48 The WFP was already reaching out to non-Western donors ten years ago, and was able to secure steadier funding and in-kind contributions than others. UN OCHA has not sought contributions from any of these donors until very recently, but has now become very active and vocal: see, for example, IRIN, ‘A bigger role for Asia in humanitarian response’, 12 October 2011, available at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=93939 (last visited 4 January 2012).

49 Personal conversations with UN OCHA staff and representatives of non-Western and Western donors in New York, 2011.

50 The Indian army, for example, supplied relief materials to civilians in the besieged city of Jaffna in 1987 during the Sri Lankan civil war. See C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, p. 4.

51 Direct observations of a GPPi evaluator in Northern Yemen, 2010.

52 Jehangir Malik, ‘Somalia famine: our agency is able to deliver aid’, in The Guardian, 29 July 2011, available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jul/29/somalia-famine-islamic-relief-response?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 (last visited 4 January 2012).

53 Personal conversation with former Mercy Malaysia staff.

54 C. Meier and C. S. R. Murthy, above note 7, p. 39.

55 See, for example, Riccardo Polastro et al., ‘Inter-Agency real time evaluation of the humanitarian response to Pakistan's 2010 flood crisis’, DARA, March 2011, available at: http://daraint.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Final-Report-RTE-Pakistan-2011.pdf; or Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC), ‘Consolidated lessons and recommendations from the TEC synthesis report and TEC thematic evaluations’, January 2007, available at: http://www.alnap.org/resource/5600.aspx (both last visited 4 January 2012).

56 UN News, ‘Ban welcomes approval of UN budget for next two years’, 24 December 2011, available at: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40837&Cr=general (last visited 4 January 2012).

57 OECD, Perspectives on Global Development 2010: Shifting Wealth, 2010, p. 15.

58 K. Al-Yahya and N. Fustier, above note 13, p. 29.