Although—and I'm sure you recognize this—the dividing lines between these are far from clear, and in many cases don't exist at all.Originally Posted by Dayuhan
The challenge with relief is to provide it in a way that addresses immediate humanitarian need without creating structural dependencies (reshaping human geographies through refugee camps, depressing local agricultural production through food aid, etc) or aggravates existing tensions (looting and taxing of relief supplies by combatants). Reconstruction almost always involves the sort of political and social challenges you discuss under the heading of development.
As for development, I absolutely agree. However, credit where credit is due—there are a lot of folks in the development community (although certainly not all) who recognize that politics permeates everything, and unless you have a very good sense of the stakeholder dynamics (and some genuine local buy-in) you're not going to go anywhere.
Bookmarks