|
Abstract
The
Dinka of southern Sudan see relief aid as a resource that should be distributed
evenly amongst the whole population through the kinship system, while donors
and relief agencies recognise that the aid that they give is limited and
should be targeted at ‘the most vulnerable groups’. During the
famine of 1998, as in many African famines, adequate general food distribution
to the majority of the population proved more effective in containing the
effects of famine than targeted interventions. However, aid agencies continue
to be attached to the notion of targeting the vulnerable, due to its alchemic
potential to make more of giving less. The theoretical weaknesses underpinning
this perspective, including the weakness of the dependency argument, are
exposed together with the advantages of adopting an anthropological approach
to ‘local knowledge’ that accepts that local people and aid
workers will both be attached to their own ways of conceiving reality and
each likely to misrepresent the view of the other. Aid efforts will continue
to fail if they do not attempt to overcome the suspicion that aid agencies
feel towards local political structures, and, by a greater understanding
of the intricacies of local cultural and political behaviour, to identify
those instititions of genuine importance which make local leaders accountable
to their most vulnerable populations.
|
|
A
forum to foster dialogue across disciplines on issues related to culture
and development.and their implications for public action.