Feeling good, doing harm - aid edition

Brian Stewart reviews a new book by Samantha Nutt.

Every so often a new book arrives with the force of a much-needed whack over the head.

That's the jolting effect of Samantha Nutt's Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid, which is causing a sensation within the increasingly troubled world of humanitarian aid.

Written by one of Canada's most influential humanitarian activists, it's the clearest examination I've read in quite a while of the economic incentives — and our own Western inadequacies — that fuel the seemingly intractable violence in so many war-torn countries, particularly in mineral-rich Africa.

A medical doctor and the co-founder of War Child Canada, Nutt is someone who speaks with remarkable moral authority, after spending more than 16 years struggling to help the most vulnerable targets, children and women, in the world's most dangerous conflict areas.

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On a still larger scale, Nutt warns of a growing trend towards aid competition that harms far more than it helps as the sector becomes dominated by two extremes.

At one end of the spectrum is "a virtual fiefdom of large aid organizations," while at the other is "an abundance of novelty start-ups … led by students, celebrities, and other assorted individuals" with little relevant training or experience.

Meanwhile, "the space between them is rapidly evaporating."

Some of her criticism will sting many of those who acted with the best intentions.

For example, she cites the current trend towards "volunteer tourism," in which high school, church and college groups spend a few weeks building schools or orphanages in an impoverished locale, as a classic case of good intentions breeding bad results.

These groups, she says, "make a spectacle out of poverty and expose overseas communities — especially children — to exploitation and abuse."

What's more, "a revolving door of unskilled workers on the ground in two-week increments is more a burden than a benefit to any community."

Other targets are the giant fund-raising charities that spend huge sums to promote "child sponsorship" through images that portray people as pure victims, passive recipients of charity.

"These are the vestiges of neo-colonialism, cloaked in altruism…. precisely why these appeals are highly effective."

Unless you have specialist skills in demand in poor countries, you're likely deluding yourself if you think your tourist visit is doing any particular good. Which is fine if the work is better than nothing and if it no donation would otherwise obtain. But if Nutt's right that it's more burden than benefit, the delusion is harmful.

I'll have to add the book to the queue.