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You are a UN Humanitarian Aid worker who has recently been sent to Liberia to provide aid to women, men and children in surrounding IDP camps. Using the readings, notes from the guest lecture, and film, state what steps you think the UN must take to ensure the safety, health and well being of these communities. What information must be recorded and why? What services must be delivered, and how?
Cultural consciousness is the first key when entering a foreign country to provide humanitarian aid. Since I know very little about Liberia, my first step would be to educate myself as much and as quickly as possible–hopefully finding “experts” who could advise me. These experts shouldn’t just be those who have an academic or intellectual understanding of the situation, geography, and country (though some of them might be) but people are experts by virtue of being Liberian. It would be especially important to involve Liberian women in planning the kinds of services needed and the method of delivery. Involving women in this way is empowering, and as Mary-Wynne Ashford writes, “The empowerment of women is slow, but, where it is advancing, the trend away from armed violence is clear.” The UN should therefore be acting as a catalyst to speed the empowerment of women. Involving both women and men ensures that aid isn’t “gender-blind” and rather addresses the needs of both men and women, which do differ. This is true in terms of health, especially reproductive health. One of the most essential services to provide in an IDP camp is a health clinic that is clean, staffed and supplied well, and accessible to all of the residents of the camp.
Food is an essential resource in these camps and proper nutrition is necessary to keep the residents healthy. To ensure the fair distribution of food, rations should be given at the individual level, rather than familial. For this to happen, there has to be very accurate record keeping about the population of the camp, and this information should be stored in such a way that it is not easily lost or destroyed. For example, digital records that can be backed up, modified and stored easily might be ideal (assuming the availability of electricity). In addition, it is important to strike a balance between distributing enough food to allow the residents to maintain autonomy over their food supply and consumption, while also discouraging wastefulness and/or hoarding given that funding and resources for such camps is often limited. Sanitation is also a major concern–lavatories located too close to people’s residences can create unhealthy spaces but lavatories located too far from the camp can be inconvenient inaccessible to some, and put certain populations–including women–at increased risk for violence.
Ultimately, the most important thing is that the camp is a safe space. This means that the camp must in its very construction take into account gender relations of the population, which are affected by culture and religion. Women should be able to sleep, relax, and conduct their daily tasks without fear of violence, and without having their movements restricted by a poorly planned camp. Again, here it is crucial to have the input of the camp residents themselves to ensure cultural consciousness.
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