Not so long ago, the standard procedure in a disaster was for a large non-governmental organisation (NGO) or aid organisation to decide what a community needed and simply to give it to them. “One of [the humanitarian sector’s] worst failings historically is that it has been supply led, not demand led,” says Michael Mosselmans, head of humanitarian division at Christian Aid, an international organisation working to end poverty. “Organisations have food, or blankets and tents, in their warehouses, but they haven’t asked [people in crisis] if that is what they want. Often it is not what they want.”
That’s not to say that mass distribution of aid has no place, particularly in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. “All communities, all crises are different, so we need a more bottom-up vision,” Mosselmans says. However, without direction from those in need, good intentions can have adverse effects: for instance, an influx in the imports of secondhand clothes (most of them donated), can undermine local textile and garment markets. In more acute emergencies, precious time can be wasted unloading donated goods that serve no purpose, while the goods themselves can often contribute to litter and pollution problems.
