Lessons from When Helping Hurts, Part II

Last week I wrote about how this fine book by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert underscores the importance of humility in relief work, not simply because humility is some sort of abstract virtue but because humility prompts people with money to realize that financial wealth is often accompanied by poverty in other important aspects of life, such as friendships and resilience, and that possessing money does not magically give one the wisdom required to use it effectively to help without hurting.

That said, people who have more than enough wealth should not be discouraged from helping those who lack things like sufficient food, safe water, and access to education, for example.  But how does one help without hurting?

One cardinal rule that the authors repeatedly emphasize is the importance of respecting local people, organizations, and solutions that are already sustaining communities that might look poor from a western perspective.  Those of us with money are often too quick to rush in with solutions to problems that were not necessarily problems--or to problems that local people could or would have solved without outside intervention.  One of Yo Ghana's strongest supporters likes to remark that the West African community in which he grew up was much better off several decades ago than it is today because western NGOs had not yet discovered it.  The residents knew that they had to meet their own needs, and they did so.  Now the temptation is to wait for a western NGO to take care of everything, an expectation that undercuts the work ethic and determination needed to succeed in any society.

Indeed, a growing number of people from diverse backgrounds point out the problems that commonly ensue when outsiders come in and simply start building schools, hospitals, wells or providing other materials or services:
1) Local leaders feel undercut and undervalued.  If food is being given away, for example, how will local farmers make a living?  A local pastor may take days to gather money to help a church member in need finds that a stranger visiting from the U.S. will provide the funds instantly.
2) Local elites and local and national governments conclude that they are not responsible for helping the less fortunate, as western donors are taking care of that.  A local wealthy person may feel no responsibility for helping neighbors.
3) Spending money quickly and in large amounts attracts and rewards corruption.

Next week we'll look at the key solution Corbett and Fikkert recommend for how to help without hurting.