NGOs (Part II): Congo and Southern Sudan

Abstract

I asked an Action contre la faim employee in Freetown why ACF worked predominantly in camps. She replied, ‘Because that’s where the emergency needs are. We take care of emergency.’ NGO interventions in Sierra Leone followed the model of a camp: people came from areas where life was dangerous to safer areas, and some received assistance. In Rwanda society was reorganised to make one peace more likely than others and, maybe, more likely than war; in both countries NGOs were on the winning side. Congo and Sudan are much larger and NGOs worked on all sides of the frontline, taking assistance to people, rather than attracting people to assistance. Little consensus existed between aid agencies and governments or militias. Assisting was expensive; there was insufficient infrastructure to support NGOs and the incidentals— installing satellite dishes, repairing stretches of road, taxi or beer money—had minimal impact and were rare.