IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v24y1993i1p131-158.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

NGOs, Disaster Relief and Asset Transfer in the Horn: Political Survival in a Permanent Emergency

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Duffield

Abstract

Famines have winners and losers. Conventional analysis has concentrated on the losers: what has been neglected is that famines can result from the conscious exercise of power in pursuit of gain or advantage by the politically strong. This article is an attempt to analyse the process of political survival in the context of permanent emergency. Through examples of local asset transfer, and indicating how this process articulates with a wider regional parallel economy, the paper offers an analysis of political survival in the arc of crisis that runs from Sudan through southern Ethiopia to Somalia. The role of donors and NGOs is examined in terms of how they relate to the weak and the strong within the asset transfer economy. Donors are seen to have supported the strong whilst the position of NGOs is more contradictory. Although programme measures to protect assets have been developed, and the disjuncture between the rules of sovereignty and the protection of human rights has been highlighted, these measures have essentially failed. A review of trends since the end of the Cold War suggests that the chances of preventing the further consolidation of a transfer economy within the region are negligible. The position of those who gain from such a destructive se the process of political survival in the context of permanent emergency. Through examples of local asset transfer, and indicating how this process articulates with a wider regional parallel economy, the paper offers an analysis of political survival in the arc of crisis that runs from Sudan through southern Ethiopia to Somalia. The role of donors and NGOs is examined in terms of how they relate to the weak and the strong within the asset transfer economy. Donors are seen to have supported the strong whilst the position of NGOs is more contradictory. Although programme measures to protect assets have been developed, and the disjuncture between the rules of sovereignty and the protection of human rights has been highlighted, these measures have essentially failed. A review of trends since the end of the Cold War suggests that the chances of preventing the further consolidation of a transfer economy within the region are negligible. The position of those who gain from such a destructive process seems assured.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Duffield, 1993. "NGOs, Disaster Relief and Asset Transfer in the Horn: Political Survival in a Permanent Emergency," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 24(1), pages 131-158, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:24:y:1993:i:1:p:131-158
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1993.tb00480.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1993.tb00480.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1993.tb00480.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keith Griffin, 1991. "Foreign Aid after the Cold War," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 645-685, October.
    2. Taylor, Daphne S., 1992. "Implications of the Uruguay Round for food aid," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 141-149, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Komikouma Apelike Wobuibe Neglo & Tnsue Gebrekidan & Kaiyu Lyu, 2021. "The Role of Agriculture and Non-Farm Economy in Addressing Food Insecurity in Ethiopia: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Des Gasper, 1993. "Entitlements Analysis: Relating Concepts and Contexts," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 24(4), pages 679-718, October.
    3. Kirstie Méheux & Dale Dominey-Howes & Kate Lloyd, 2007. "Natural hazard impacts in small island developing states: A review of current knowledge and future research needs," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 40(2), pages 429-446, February.
    4. Susan Banki, 2009. "Contested Regimes, Aid Flows, and Refugee Flows: The Case of Burma," Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 28(2), pages 47-73.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati & Yuanxin Li & Samuel Brazys & Alexander Dukalskis, 2019. "Building Bridges or Breaking Bonds? The Belt and Road Initiative and Foreign Aid Competition," Working Papers 201906, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    2. Thompson, John, 1995. "Participatory approaches in government bureaucracies: Facilitating the process of institutional change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 1521-1554, September.
    3. Taylor Fahy Winkleman & Grace Bagwell Adams, 2017. "An empirical assessment of the relationship between Official Development Aid and child mortality, 2000–2015," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 62(2), pages 231-240, March.
    4. Henry Scheyvens, 2005. "Reform of Japan’s official development assistance: a complete overhaul or merely a fresh coat of paint?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 5(2), pages 89-98, April.
    5. Robert K. Fleck & Christopher Kilby, 2001. "Foreign Aid and Domestic Politics: Voting in Congress and the Allocation of USAID Contracts across Congressional Districts," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(3), pages 598-617, January.
    6. Kohnert, Dirk & Elwert, Georg & Bierschenk, Thomas, 1993. "The long-term effects of development aid - Empirical studies in rural West Africa," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 47(1), pages 83-111.
    7. Yu Wang & Shuai Jin, 2013. "Veto players and foreign aid provision," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 43-56, March.
    8. Beletskaya, M., 2019. "Bilateral International Assistance: Factors for Donor Countries," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 43(3), pages 95-114.
    9. Yu Wang, 2013. "Veto Players and Foreign Aid Inflows," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 391-408, September.
    10. Padayachee, Vishnu, 1995. "Foreign capital and economic development in South Africa: Recent trends and postapartheid prospects," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 163-177, February.
    11. Michael Clemens & Steven Radelet & Rikhil Bhavnani, 2004. "Counting Chickens When They Hatch: The Short-term Effect of Aid on Growth," Working Papers 44, Center for Global Development.
    12. Sandra Sideri, 1993. "Restructuring the Post‐Cold War World Economy: Perspectives and a Prognosis," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 24(1), pages 7-28, January.
    13. Maestro Yarza, Irene & Martínez Peinado, Javier, 2012. "La cooperación al desarrollo como parte de la estructura económica del capitalismo global/Development Cooperation as a Part of the Economic Structure of Global Capitalism: Alternative or Reinforcement," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 811-836, Diciembre.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:24:y:1993:i:1:p:131-158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.