Dear Tsunami Relief Committee,
Up front, I would like to acknowledge the amount of time and hard work that has gone into raising money for relief efforts. But where is this money being channeled?
Terms such as “grass-roots” or “non-governmental” are of very limited value in determining anything about the organizations in question. In fact, since the mid-nineties, non-governmental organizations have been increasingly funded by bilateral or multilateral governmental organizations such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or the World Bank. These are not charitable institutions, but powerful agencies with underlying political-economic ideologies and objectives.(1) Health and aid-related non-governmental organizations can reinforce inequalities at both personal and structural levels, can fragment health programs (geographically, and can be tied into a wider package of “structural adjustment,”) can weaken Ministries of Health by sapping away funds and professionals (de facto privatization), and are not necessarily any more efficient or “community-based” than governmental health agencies. Additionally, by and large, non-governmental organizations are not primarily accountable to the people or governments they serve, but rather to their funding institutions (private or public).
But many non-governmental organizations do outstanding and “culturally sensitive” health aid and relief. If you do choose to send money through them, though, please do it carefully.
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