NGO's are an essential part of any attempt to restore basic services in a failed state. They are staffed by exceptional people who have given up the comfortable life that we take for granted.
A group that I admire the most is Medicins sans Frontieres - where a special breed of doctor and nurse work in the most challenging of conditions. Here is their blog aggregator for Canadian staff.
NGO's such as MSF used to be exempt from the bad guys and while their living conditions might be awful and there might be risk of disease etc, they could shield behind their name - No Longer! So how will they do their job now?
Here is part of a post from a friend of my daughter, Dr James Maskalyk, (Short Bio Here) who has recently returned from a tour in Sudan:
"are there many soldiers in the hospital?"
"only two."
you tangle blindly through the mosquito net, find your stethoscope and the pharmacy keys, walk to the car and wake the driver. you tell him that you need to go the hospital. there is a gunshot. a soldier. you are not sure why you are telling him, but you think he should know, just in case. in case of what? you don't know. in case this wasn't just an isolated, personal incident, the singular result to the equation of the number of guns in the area, multiplied by alcohol, multiplied by circumstance. in case this is the beginning of something much larger, the index case for an outbreak of gunshots that will sweep through abyei. he nods sleepily, rubs his eyes. you might have told him you were going to buy biscuits.
you touch your forehead as you climb into the car. it feels hot. you ask him to touch it. he does, and pulls his hand away, and shakes his head in disapproval. the two of you pull out of the compound, and turn right. the distance is short, and you have walked it many tmes. it takes you past one of four military compounds in the area. as you pass it, you hold your breath, your half dreams wondering what it would be to see a short, bright burst of gunfire light up your last thought.
this thought was not always so close. once, being a humanitarian carried with it a certain privilege: if you declared yourself as one, you were not a target, not even on the battlefield. it is why henri dunant started putting red crosses on the backs of the people dragging soldiers off the field in 1864, and why those of us working for MSF get teased by other NGO's for the logo'd t-shirts we wear everywhere. it marks us. it says we are here only to help, we are not part of the war; we take care of the sick. in some countries, this "humanitarian space" is all the room we have.
it is being slowly eroded. particularly in the past five years. several MSF workers were killed in afghanistan in 2005. a young woman working for MSF on her first mission, elsa serfass, was killed last month in central african republic. in recent years, it appears a shift has occurred. the red crosses and msf logos no longer provide as much protection. some don't see them, and to others, they look like bullseyes, a sign of wealth, and of resources. more worrisome, they can mark us as a potential pawn in a larger game. with one swift stroke, they drive help away from their enemy. combine this with a deft political turn, and they can cast blame on the other side and manipulate public sentiment.
once this humanitarian space falls away, it cannot be rebuilt. the newer wars will have no memory of it, and for those of us whose only protection is this invisible margin of safety, we are left defenseless.
this space is not only for us. it provides room to breathe for the innocent on either side. one of the reasons the roads are safe at night is because if they are not, if we are threatened, we will leave. the hospital, once full of armed soldiers, is now a place where people feel safe because every time someone refuses to check their grenade at the door, we evacuate. all of us. we demand the space, and with it comes air for everyone.
it is why we continue to refuse association with governments and military, anyone with guns. it is why we feel that "militarizing humanitarian corridors" is a contradiction, and resist it. we need people to remember that space. desperately. and not just for us.
so, that is what you think, gravel crunching under your slow tires, as you pull up to the gate. the hospital seems quiet, not the usual mêlée of multiple casualties. you grab two paracetamol from the nursing room and swallow them, and walk into the emergency room. a soldier has been shot in the arm and chest. by his brother. an outcome of an argument. though this is not good news, not for either of you (couldn't it have been the foot?), it is not the sign of a hell of a lot imminent bad news. you insert a chest tube, repair his arm, and because he won't stop bleeding, you begin the frustrating call for blood donors.
it is a long night, but in it, you find all the space you need.
NGO's are now targets. Here is Kilcullen on why:
The days of using the logo as a shield are over. NGO's in failed states are NOT NEUTRAL - they pose a real threat to the bad people whose interest is at least in the status quo.
So now what? Most are now pulling out of the worst places where they are needed most.
How will NGO's fulfill their mission? Have they been driven from the field?
