An ethical litmus test for disaster relief

The world today is simply too complex and too diverse for prescriptive ethics. What serious ethics can and must do is to define the questions and identify the pitfalls known to exist in every field of human endeavor. On the basis of the analysis above, an ethical litmus test for fund-raising in support of disaster relief might look as follows:

1. Are we giving due recognition in our operational strategy and in our public pronouncements to the role and contribution of the affected population and its neighbors?

2. Have the resources of the affected local community and of the affected country at large been adequately recognized, factored in and drawn upon in our operational strategy and in our fund-raising efforts?

3. Have we constructively solved, or at least avoided, what is at times referred to as the “luxury island” problem, whereby the victims of a particular disaster end up being substantially better off economically and with respect to social services than the local population surrounding them?

4. Does our intervention play a genuinely supportive role vis-a-vis the recipient government’s own disaster relief efforts, or does it directly facilitate or indirectly condone the recipient government’s neglect (be it benign or malignant in nature) of the plight of its disaster-stricken citizens?

5. Does our assistance for disaster relief in a given situation have a built-in long-term perspective, promoting disaster prevention and disaster preparedness, so that the recipient country will be better equipped to solve its own problems the next time disaster strikes?

6. Are the needs of the disaster victims the sole or the primary factor determining what we intend to do in a given situation? If other considerations are at work, are they justifiable as a means of maintaining public interest in the donor country and preventing future “compassion fatigue?” Are there other legitimate long-term reasons informing the plan for humanitarian assistance?

7. Do our fund-raising efforts project a true picture of the situation in the disaster-stricken country? Do they convey respect for the dignity of the survivors? Have we carefully considered the effect of the images of reality we project on the psyche and inter-cultural attitudes in the constituencies from which we hope to raise funds?

Hard-sell fund-raising aimed at income maximization for the disaster relief agencies is no longer acceptable as an overriding objective in disaster relief.

There may have been a time, some decades ago, when disaster relief was seen as a simple question of getting as much money as possible as fast as possible. Clearly, a rapid response is still essential, but we have learned through the last few decades that there are no “quick fix” solutions in disaster prevention and mitigation, even if it has been possible to achieve spectacular operational results with the help of modern technology, particularly in the fields of communications, transport and logistics.

It follows that hard-sell fund-raising aimed at income maximization for the disaster relief agencies is no longer acceptable as an overriding objective in disaster relief. Money is obviously necessary, but it is a very blunt instrument which can only be used responsibly in the context of carefully calibrated long-term policies and considerable inter-cultural sensitivity.

Q How does competition for funds pose ethical problems? From your experience, what were the major ethical dilemmas faced when you or your organization applied for funding?

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