Implications for Practice & Policy

Abstract

Earlier chapters conducted a philosophical investigation into a particular set of moral problems, set against a background of particular philosophical dimensions. The aim of this chapter is to examine the practical implications of the interconnected ethical approach that has emerged from this analysis and to consider implications for aid practitioners, institutions, and policy-makers. Beginning with two real-world cases, this chapter will seek to explain how current practices and policies can and do result in unintended outcomes, how such outcomes are currently hidden from moral scrutiny, and how responsible action, inclusive engagement, and accumulative duties within an interconnected ethical approach are impeded by contemporary institutional arrangements. It then considers what measures would be required from a policy and practice perspective to ensure that outcomes can be evaluated and scrutinised so that recipient populations can be protected, assisting agencies can act responsibly, and unintended harms can be addressed. It examines the implications for the various sets of actors engaged in the practice of assistance introduced in chapter one and seeks to establish the ethical reference points that can guide industry actors in their activities, and provide a more informed basis for ethical practices of assistance. From a policy perspective, such an account demands a much more holistic approach to aid, with a specific need to bridge policy and institutional gaps between humanitarian action and short term interventions, with longer term development aims and objectives.