In Search of Relief with Development

Abstract

From Bangladesh and Myanmar to Syria, Mexico and Puerto Rico—today’s world is fraught with crises. Some are people-made, some are ‘natural’. Many are some combination—underpinned by the earlier symptoms of global warming or widening gaps between rich and poor. Since at least the earlier post-World War ii years, international development agencies, not least the World Bank and European Investment Bank, sought to balance ‘structural adjustment’ strategies with fostering efforts ‘to oil’ economies through a reduction of impediments to freer flowing markets: ‘perfect competition’ remained a theory to be cited, if not a practice to be pursued ‘in one’s own backyard’. Principles and procedures needed to be articulated and infused into legal systems. Among two such examples are the various efforts to codify ‘human rights’ (tracking back to the initial Geneva Convention triggered by Henry Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross movement) and the law of the sea (much supported by the life work of Elisabeth Mann Borgese). This short essay, and more particularly the brief book that it draws upon, is much influenced by both. The experience of working within, and exposure to, Henry Dunant’s legacy of the International Red Cross Federation led the author to write a small booklet Projects for Relief and Development.1 The subsequent use of that work as part of course materials by the author for International Ocean Institute (ioi) courses, at the request of Elisabeth Mann Borgese, led in part to the writing of the ‘more cautious’ book that is addressed in this essay, Projects in Search of Relief with Development.2 That work comprises six main chapters, incorporating a number of planning and management frameworks, as well as drawing upon a variety of case studies and ‘lessons learned’ critiques. These case experiences range from the 2015 earthquake in Nepal to challenges that have been encountered by Newfoundland, Canada, from a variety of African and South-East Asian events, to reflections on a sample of North American and European Union approaches. The introductory chapter opens by challenging the reader to define a ‘good project’ and just how its potential impacts are indeed to be assessed. So-called ‘relief ’ and ‘development’ projects are introduced: issues such as community