World Humanitarian Day, to be observed tomorrow, Monday, August 19, is “directed towards honouring humanitarian efforts worldwide and propagating the idea of supporting people in crisis.”
This year’s campaign is on women humanitarians and their undying contribution in making the world a better place. Women humanitarians hold a sense of unparalleled uniqueness, one that adds to the global momentum of female strength, power and perseverance.
“It is time to honour the women who have acted as first responders to the darkest hours of crisis…women who have tirelessly improved countless lives, showcasing incredible strength along the way” (UN).
Today natural and man-made disasters continue to adversely impact the lives of billions of persons around the world. In December 2018, the International Rescue Committee’s emergency response experts ranked the countries most at risk of humanitarian catastrophe in 2019.
There are 21 countries on the list. The top 5 of the 10 which “account for approximately half of internally displaced people and two-thirds of refugees across the globe” are: Yemen, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Venezuela. Today humanitarian interventions “are becoming more frequent, severe, complex and protracted”.
As the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states: “Despite global development gains, one in every 70 people around the world is caught up in crisis and urgently needs humanitarian assistance and protection. More people are being displaced by conflict…Natural disasters and climate change have a high human cost. Disasters affect 350 million people on average each year and cause billions of dollars of damage. Food insecurity is rising.”
There are countless unsung women humanitarians, including mothers, carers, and other workers. As well as women like St Teresa of Calcutta and Malala Yousafzai, there are women who continue to take leadership positions in emergency responses and help to empower communities.
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The Catholic Church has a long history of playing its part in humanitarian emergencies through organisations such as the Catholic Relief Services, CAFOD, and Caritas.
In October 2018, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the UN, stated at a Security Council Debate on Women, Peace and Security: “Women, as Pope Francis has said, are at the forefront of the ‘revolution of tenderness’ that the world urgently needs…The Catholic Church, especially through the activity of its many courageous religious sisters and missionaries, has always defended the dignity and human rights of those enduring conflicts and humanitarian emergencies, by providing physical protection, as well as moral and spiritual support, and working with police and border control agents; facilitating access to justice and humanitarian aid; helping against arbitrary detention; assisting them with access to housing, emergency healthcare, and education in many cases when there is no one else to provide such basic humanitarian requirements; and mediating tensions with host communities.”
For Catholics, the transcendent nature of the human person is an integral dimension of humanitarian aid. Peter Dizikes’ article, ‘The anthropology of humanitarianism’ refers to anthropologist Erica James’ examination of the effectiveness of aid to those on the margins of society.
Her field research in Haiti produced an award-winning 2010 book, Democratic Insecurities, about the post-1994 reconstruction of Haiti. “Some aid programmes…helped Haitians recover despite a climate of violence, but other programmes reconstituted social divisions or sustained what James calls a ‘political economy of trauma’ in which citizens found financial gain in assuming victim status, and organisations profited from brokering…citizens’ traumas.”
Not all aid pledged is delivered e.g. because of corruption, and we are aware of reports such as the damning 2018 report from British MPs who said: “The aid sector is guilty of ‘complacency verging on complicity’ over an ‘endemic’ sex abuse scandal” (BBC). There are revelations that senior Oxfam staff paid survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake for sex. There have been similar allegations about a number of other charities.
Following Pope Francis’ 2017 TED Talk, Ron Anderson noted that “his new language and themes in the TED talk respond to a declining use of the humanitarianism terminology globally” due, perhaps to “a widespread capitulation to egoism and narcissism. But it may also reflect greater use of terminology such as ‘service to others,’ compassion, and caring.” Pope Francis warns us that “tenderness, equality, and solidarity must prevail”.
