29. Ethical Issue #5

Labeling and counting beneficiaries

Donor accountability often requires the categorization of beneficiary target groups (refugees, displaced persons, returnees, vulnerable, male/female, children, elderly, etc.). Review the ethical issues involved with this action and ask participants to identify ways they can be addressed.

This is full of ethical dilemmas:

· Labeling generalizes needs and may lead to inappropriate assistance and stereotypes.

· It can intrude on privacy and evoke painful memories.

· It may involve expenditure of resources that could have been provided directly to the beneficiaries.

· Providing different assistance programs to neighboring populations with similar needs, but different labels can cause confusion and resentment.

· Labeling needy people in a way that excludes them from needed assistance is clearly unethical and requires imaginative solutions.

· Census and registration systems usually reduce freedom of movement and home, as well as infringe upon personal rights

· When done sufficiently rigorously to control "cheats", some methods often exclude deserving beneficiaries from assistance schedules

· Administrative benefits gained from accurate counting are often lost through damage to relationships with beneficiaries and local host population authorities

· Replacing local systems of distribution and accountability with policed and centrally managed ones can sometimes reduce the fidelity of distribution systems