Be careful what you wish for

We know that money can’t buy love. We know that money can’t buy happiness. But money can buy the allegiance of an NGO, and it can buy aid work that responds to the strategic interests of the donor rather than the human needs on the ground. It can buy a place in the crosshairs of your donor’s enemy.

We know that it can buy these things because we know that it already buys these things. It is precisely the consequences of this purchase – the frequently late, supply-sided, partisan response of international humanitarian organisations – that are fuelling a major shift in resources to local humanitarian responders (aka “localisation”). But if more money flows to local NGOs, will it just replicate the unhealthiest aspects of aid funding in a new way?