From the UN to Everywhere Else

How a common story in International Relations majors relates to the inequalities among NGOs

By Gabriel Matias Castilho

International Relations is a lovely area of study in Political Science. You get to learn about the disunity and unfairness of international politics while debating about which school of thought better describes your vision of the world. A story I heard many times is: you probably took this major because of a dream to become a diplomat and work in the United Nations, but you later end up deciding to work for another international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). The initial appeal is big–after all, the United Nations are everywhere in the news. Whenever there is a large-scale conflict, headlines from every publication condemn their inaction.

Those publications, however, cast a shade on other international disaster relief organizations that struggle to obtain funds for their projects. It is not uncommon for relief NGOs to compete for private funds by convincing donors their disaster is worse and in immediate need of attention—which is hard when news coverage is not looking at it. In the book Chasing Chaos, Jessica Alexander describes the fundraising process during her time overseeing earthquake relief projects in Haiti as “moving from the nosebleed seats to the orchestra.” According to her recollection, one photographer asked a bunch of children to sit in a partially collapsed school so he could take pictures whose message was: look how eager Haitian children were to return to their education! Resorting to “disaster porn” has become the go-to method of attracting attention of celebrity donors who would ensure constant support for relief projects for those organizations.

When tsunami response teams flocked all over Sri Lanka in December 2005, Alexander observed the large influx of relief money and found herself comparing it to her work in Darfur. There, everything had to be cut short and none of their goals were met due to a shortage in funding. A phenomenon I find curious is, just like those students who later learn of the NGO world, donors learn these crises took place only after they occur. By then, however, it will already have been too late.

Bibliography:

Alexander, Jessica. Chasing Chaos: My Decade in and out of Humanitarian Aid.

Broadway Books, 2013.