Before, during and after crises: how to better LRRD, 2003

01/05/2003

Emergency humanitarian aid has developed around the paradigm of life to be saved, suffering to be alleviated. The major famines in the Sahel in the 1970s highlighted the fact that emergency aid, particularly food aid, could frequently have unexpected negative side effects: destruction of local production, dependence on imports, prevalence of "free" services making the establishment of economically viable systems quite difficult, etc. The issue of the link between emergency aid, rehabilitation and the resumption of development has therefore begun to appear on humanitarian agendas. The challenge was to better think about emergency action to avoid these negative effects on the future.