Competitive Humanitarianism: Relief and the tsunami in Sri Lanka

This short article is concerned with a common issue in disaster relief: high levels of competition between the agencies involved, coupled with a lot of talk about the need for "co-ordination". This particular setting for the discussion is the relief that poured into Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the tsunami of 26 December 2004, and the article is based on my role as an advisor to one of the major British-based agencies which became involved in the relief and rehabilitation process.