Last Thursday, War Child hosted a sold-out event entitled “The Future of Aid: Our Shared Responsibility” with students, community members, and faculty packing Isabel Bader theatre.
Co-hosted by the Canadian Council of International Cooperation (CIC), the event profiled leading humanitarians.
“In the most basic sense, aid is only one thing: hope. Through collective action we can begin to mould prosperity from the ashes,” said Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder and executive director of War Child and the author of Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aids in her opening address. She also emphasized the continued importance of aid, calling out political and corporate interests that threaten local communities.
“Aid is not about the rich giving charity to the poor. It is about building relationships with communities so that they can help themselves and become autonomous in the future,” stated Biju Rao, lead economist in the development research group of the World Bank.
The speakers stressed that aid should be an internal income at the local level to generate local capacity. Rao was also critical of conventional aid organizations that apply the same model of humanitarianism across all poverty-stricken countries.
Sylvester Bagulo Bayowo, a senior Ghanaian government official, added that countries have their own aspirations and that aid should build on existing institutions.
“Imagine some foreign power came to Toronto and told everyone what to do and how to spend their money. I’m sure citizens would not be enthusiastic to conform, so why apply this model to third-world countries?” questioned Bayowo.
Panelists also argued for increased public consultation and greater transparency. The consensus was that organizations should also focus on better informing Canadians about where and how their money is being used. Nutt also added that there is an overall lack of public interest in foreign affairs.
Rao argued that small organizations are more flexible and can afford to be experimental. These kinds of groups are freer to innovate, and when they succeed, larger organizations should follow their lead and apply their ideas on a larger scale.
At the end of the panel discussion, the experts turned their attention to the audience, speaking about how individual students can contribute to humanitarian work.
“You don’t necessarily have to be an aid worker. There are many other small-scale ways to get involved. You can make demonstrations in your local neighbourhoods, publish newspaper articles, or make petitions,” said Sasha Lezhnev, policy consultant at Enough and executive director of the Grassroots Reconciliation Group.
Nutt also added that students don’t need to get on a plane and pay for an expensive trip to get involved. She stressed working with local humanitarian groups as a fundamental step in becoming an activist.
