Corruption and Humanitarian Relief

A broad distinction is normally made between development assistance and humanitarian or disaster relief assistance. In reality the distinction is not that clear. Most relief operations typically involve a more intensive relief phase, followed by a transitional reconstruction / rehabilitation phase that develops into a more long term development phase. What is said about development assistance and its vulnerability to corruption can also be relevant for humanitarian relief, particularly in the fields of procurement, transport, customs, distribution, staffing and project selection or design.

See information on preventing corruption in Tsunami Relief.

Recommended readings

TI -Transparency and Accountability in Humanitarian Aid Study, Tara Polzer, 2001
Transparency International (TI) carried out a series of consultation interviews with humanitarian actors in May and June 2001. The purpose of these consultations was to establish whether TI could constructively contributes to efforts among organisations involved in humanitarian activities to improve transparency and accountability in the provision of humanitarian aid. This report summarises the reactions of the interviewees to the overarching questions of whether more transparency and accountability are needed within the humanitarian system, and whether misuses of aid and corruption are significant problems.

On the Problem of Misuse in Emergency Aid
Georg Cremer in the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, 2000
This article focuses on corruption as an internal problem in emergency aid, i.e. misuse by the relief organisations themselves or by employees within the structures of the organisations. The paper discusses structural components of the work of foreign emergency aid organisations which make it difficult for them to cope with the problem of misuse. Disbursement pressure and information barriers inside the emergency aid organisations are two of these components. Another factor is the inadequately maintained administrations of aid organisations which are due to a common condemnation of administration costs. If the assistance policy of foreign donors does not leave their local partners enough leeway to support the partners’ necessary structure and to pay qualified employees adequately, they encourage the development of corrupt structures within the partner organisations.

Mapping Accountability in Humanitarian Assistance, Peter Raynard, 2000
This study has been commissioned by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Assistance (ALNAP) as a preliminary attempt to consider and explore contemporary approaches to accountability. It draws on current practise and initiatives within the Humanitarian sector and from the experience of other sectors in relation to efforts to enhance stakeholder accountability.

World Bank: Lessons from Natural Disasters and Emergency Reconstruction, 2005
The Operations Evaluation Department (OED) is an independent unit within the World Bank. This note was prepared following the earthquake and tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004, to gather together salient findings and lessons from project evaluations OED has conducted over the past decade. Natural disasters are also the subject of an ongoing thematic evaluation that will be published in 2006.