by Ben Woodruff
I found this very interesting personally because I have worked in frontier economies and I have seen the systemic issues which exacerbated the catastrophes which occur virtually everywhere. Clearly Haiti is an example where a storm or earthquake which would be a small concern in the United States has a larger impact because of the lack of infrastructure.
I was not surprised that the organizations that focus on how to help the local people achieve their local goals had better results. Instead of this, most NGOs serve only to further the aims of the donors which are the governments of the United States and European powers. This allows those countries to open up those markets for their services and goods. This disaster capitalism allows for the countries to enrich themselves while at the same time looking to the rest of the world as if they are doing good.
I personally had another take on this issue of post disaster aid. When I was in Switzerland last year, a coauthor and I looked at the economics of pre and post disaster aid. Giving money to a developing economy before a disaster and allowing them to build infrastructure is far more efficient than responding after a disaster. It is like the adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" writ large.
It feels good to come in as the savior at the end of the day. You get your photo in the paper back home and you have the locals tell you that you are doing a wonderful job. The boring work does not get that same result even though focusing on helping countries build roads, build hospitals, build sanitation systems, and train locals to provide medical care will prevent much of the suffering from ever happening.
I found this very interesting personally because I have worked in frontier economies and I have seen the systemic issues which exacerbated the catastrophes which occur virtually everywhere. Clearly Haiti is an example where a storm or earthquake which would be a small concern in the United States has a larger impact because of the lack of infrastructure.
I was not surprised that the organizations that focus on how to help the local people achieve their local goals had better results. Instead of this, most NGOs serve only to further the aims of the donors which are the governments of the United States and European powers. This allows those countries to open up those markets for their services and goods. This disaster capitalism allows for the countries to enrich themselves while at the same time looking to the rest of the world as if they are doing good.
I personally had another take on this issue of post disaster aid. When I was in Switzerland last year, a coauthor and I looked at the economics of pre and post disaster aid. Giving money to a developing economy before a disaster and allowing them to build infrastructure is far more efficient than responding after a disaster. It is like the adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" writ large.
It feels good to come in as the savior at the end of the day. You get your photo in the paper back home and you have the locals tell you that you are doing a wonderful job. The boring work does not get that same result even though focusing on helping countries build roads, build hospitals, build sanitation systems, and train locals to provide medical care will prevent much of the suffering from ever happening.
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