Question

What were the implications of continuing humanitarian work under the terrible conditions in Somaila?

Answer 1

Somalia has been one of the most unfortunate country in the recent times. The country has suffered through civil unrest, drought, famine, diseases, etc. This has made the task of humanitarian work in the country extremely challenging. However, organizations still continued to support the people of Somalia and as a result there were many complicated situations.

The first implication of such activity has been the cost. The cost of providing humanitarian aid to Somalia has been extremely high. One of the key reason is that the aid provided barely reaches the actual needy people in the country. Many of the aid gets stolen and used by the militant groups and there is hardly any way to avoid this.

The next implication is the political instability. Due to the intervention of the global organizations such as UN, the country has become dependent on the relief aid work. Due to this, the political situation in the country has not motivation to improve and this may have severe long term bearings.

The next key implication that we see is the economic dependency on relief. Consider an example of providing free t-shirts to the people of Somalia. When we provide free t-shirts, the people will not start garments industry because they cannot compete with free products. As a result, if we stop the aid, for a long period of time, the people will have nothing to wear. Now, replace the t-shirt with any other aid like medicine, food, water, etc. This is a serious concern and a major problem for the future economy of Somalia. Now stopping aid will be difficult but also keeping them going means the long term economy is gloomy.

Overall, the cost incurred by Somalis and the rest of the world for Somalian crisis has been high. It is high from financial, economic, cultural and humanitarian perspective. It is high from both the sides. Overall it has been a disastrous approach and still the sad part is that there isn’t any better way to solve this.