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Abstract
AbstractThis article aims to rekindle the debate on the politics of aid in the increasingly common – yet still under-studied – authoritarian and low-intensity conflict settings, detailing the case of Ethiopia in 2016, when a 50-year drought coincided with a wave of protests and a state of emergency. During four months of qualitative fieldwork in 2017, state, civil society, Ethiopian and international actors were approached – from humanitarian headquarters to communities in the Amhara, Oromiya and Somali regions. Research participants relayed stark discrepancies between the humanitarian theatre's ‘frontstage’, where disaster responders showcase an exemplary response, and its ‘backstage’, where they remove their frontstage masks and reflect on the information, the decision-making monopoly of the state and the intrusion of conflict dynamics into the humanitarian response. In humanitarian research and in policy, a collective conversation is necessary on where to draw the line between respect for governments’ sovereignty and the intrusion of humanitarian principles.
Highlights
Ethiopia used to be a textbook case of the intermingling of politics and humanitarianism
A few exceptions are condemning human rights reports (Human Rights Watch ) and academic literature focusing on the politics of development issues (Bishop & Hilhorst ; Cochrane & Tamiru ), refugee care (Corbet et al ) or the more openly conflict-ridden Somali region (Binet ; Hagmann & Korf ; Carruth )
The data collection involved a total of study participants, of whom participated in semi-structured interviews or focus group discussions focusing on disaster response, especially how decision making was shaped among different actors, as well as general and -specific challenges and solutions
Summary
Ethiopia used to be a textbook case of the intermingling of politics and (international) humanitarianism. De Waal ( : ) characterised the drought of as a ‘second-degree famine crime’, as the controlling Dergue military regime ‘created and sustained the famine as part of its counterinsurgency’. International aid was instrumentalised to lure the population into ‘protected’ villages (Hagmann & Korf ). Analyses of the politics of foreign aid flows are thinner regarding humanitarian issues concerning Ethiopian nationals, the less peripheral regions of the country and more recent events. A few exceptions are condemning human rights reports (Human Rights Watch ) and academic literature focusing on the politics of development issues (Bishop & Hilhorst ; Cochrane & Tamiru ), refugee care (Corbet et al ) or the more openly conflict-ridden Somali region (Binet ; Hagmann & Korf ; Carruth )
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