Editing Humanitarian aid (section)

== Types ==

=== Food aid ===
Food aid is a type of aid whereby food that is given to countries in urgent need of food supplies, especially if they have just experienced a natural disaster. Food aid can be provided by importing food from the donor, buying food locally, or providing cash.

The welfare impacts of any food aid-induced changes in [[food prices]] are decidedly mixed, underscoring the reality that it is impossible to generate only positive intended effects from an international aid program.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}} Although food aid constitutes a significant part of humanitarian assistance, evidence also suggests that it can initiate or amplify violent conflicts in the recipient countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Koppenberg |first1=Maximilian |last2=Mishra |first2=Ashok K. |last3=Hirsch |first3=Stefan |date=2023-11-01 |title=Food aid and violent conflict: A review and Empiricist's companion |journal=Food Policy |volume=121 |pages=102542 |doi=10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102542 |issn=0306-9192 |doi-access=free}}</ref>  

==== Changed consumption patterns ====
Food aid that is relatively inappropriate to local uses can distort consumption patterns. Food aid is usually exported from [[temperate climate]] zones and is often different than the staple crops grown in recipient countries, which usually have a [[tropical climate]]. The logic of food export inherently entails some effort to change consumers' preferences, to introduce recipients to new foods and thereby stimulate demand for foods with which recipients were previously unfamiliar or which otherwise represent only a small portion of their diet.<ref name=":32">{{Cite report |url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/289062/files/a-ag301t.pdf |title=Food Aid's Intended and Unintended Consequences |last=Barrett |first=Christopher B. |date=1 March 2006 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1142286 |location=Rochester, NY |language=en |ssrn=1142286 |s2cid=19628562}}</ref>

Massive shipments of wheat and rice into the [[Sahel|West African Sahel]] during the food crises of the mid-1970s and mid-1980s were widely believed to stimulate a shift in consumer demand from indigenous coarse grains – [[millet]] and [[sorghum]] – to western crops such as [[wheat]]. During the 2000 drought in northern [[Kenya]], the price of [[changaa]] (a locally distilled alcohol) fell significantly and consumption seems to have increased as a result. This was a result of grain food aid inflows increasing the availability of low-cost inputs to the informal distilling industry.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Barrett |first1=Christopher Brendan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0ebgfiiMn0C |title=Food Aid After Fifty Years: Recasting Its Role |last2=Maxwell |first2=Daniel G. |date=2005 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415701259 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Natural resource overexploitation ====
Recent research suggests that patterns of food aid distribution may inadvertently affect the natural environment, by changing consumption patterns and by inducing locational change in [[grazing]] and other activities. A pair of studies in Northern Kenya found that food aid distribution seems to induce greater spatial concentration of [[livestock]] around distribution points, causing localized [[rangeland]] degradation, and that food aid provided as whole grain requires more cooking, and thus more fuelwood is consumed, stimulating local [[deforestation]].<ref>McPeak J.G. (2003a) Analyzing and assessing localized degradation of the commons. Land Economics, 78(4): 515-536.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McPeak |first=John G. |url=http://crsps.net/resource/fuelwood-gathering-and-use-in-northern-kenya-implications-for-food-aid-and-local-environments/ |title=Fuelwood Gathering and Use in Northern Kenya: Implications for Food Aid and Local Environments |date=May 2003 |work=CRSPs |language=en-US |access-date=28 May 2018}}</ref>

=== Medical humanitarian aid ===
[[File:Development assistance allocated to health causes, OWID.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Global medical aid by cause (2017, [[OWID]])]]
There are different kinds of medical humanitarian aid, including: providing medical supplies and equipment; sending professionals to an affected region; and long-term training for local medical staff. Such aid emerged when international organizations stepped in to respond to the need of national governments for global support and partnership to address natural disasters, wars, and other crises that impact people's health.<ref name="Buse-2011">{{Cite journal |last1=Buse |first1=Kent |last2=Tanaka |first2=Sonja |date=2011-08-01 |title=Global Public-Private Health Partnerships: lessons learned from ten years of experience and evaluation |journal=International Dental Journal |series=Live.Learn.Laugh. A Unique Global Public-Private Partnership to Improve Oral Health |language=en |volume=61 |issue=Suppl 2 |pages=2–10 |doi=10.1111/j.1875-595X.2011.00034.x |issn=0020-6539 |pmc=9374971 |pmid=21770935}}</ref> Often, a humanitarian aid organization would clash with a government's approach to the unfolding domestic conflict. In such cases, humanitarian aid organizations have sought out autonomy to extend help regardless of political or ethnic affiliation.<ref name="Buse-2011" />

==== Limitations ====
Humanitarian medical aid as a sector possesses several limitations. First, multiple organizations often exist to solve the same problem. Rather than collaborating to address a given situation, organizations frequently interact as competitors, which creates bottlenecks for treatment and supplies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hunt |first1=Matthew |last2=Miao |first2=Jingru |date=April 2017 |title=Moral Entanglement and the Ethics of Closing Humanitarian Medical Aid Projects |journal=Prehospital and Disaster Medicine |language=en |volume=32 |issue=S1 |pages=S47–S48 |doi=10.1017/S1049023X17001376 |s2cid=157630210 |issn=1049-023X|doi-access=free }}</ref> A second limitation is how humanitarian organizations are focused on a specific disaster or epidemic, without a plan for whatever might come next; international organizations frequently enter a region, provide short term aid, and then exit without ensuring local capacity to maintain or sustain this medical care.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fourie |first=Carina |date=2018-05-15 |title=The trouble with inequalities in global health partnerships |url=http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/4856 |journal=Medicine Anthropology Theory |language=en |volume=5 |issue=2 |doi=10.17157/mat.5.2.525 |s2cid=139190114 |issn=2405-691X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Finally, humanitarian medical aid assumes a biomedical approach which does not always account for the alternative beliefs and practices about health and well-being in the affected regions.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Khalikova |first=Venera |date=2021-06-17 |title=Medical pluralism |url=https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/medical-pluralism |encyclopedia=[[Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology]] |doi=10.29164/21medplural |language=en|doi-access=free }}</ref> This problem is rarely explored as most studies conducted are done from the lens of the donor or Westernized humanitarian organization rather than the recipient country's perspective.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jammihal |first1=Ravindra |last2=Ralte |first2=Harry |last3=Roy |first3=Nobhojit |date=February 2009 |title=Humanitarian Medical Aid to Developing Nations: A Recipient Country's Perspective |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/listing?q=Recipient+Country%27s+Perspective&searchWithinIds=5827EB647E0D2120933D43CC884BF7EA&fts=yes |journal=Prehospital and Disaster Medicine |volume=24 |issue=S1}}</ref> Discovering ways of encouraging locals to embrace bio-medicinal approaches while simultaneously respecting a given people's culture and beliefs remains a major challenge for humanitarian aid organizations; in particular as organizations constantly enter new regions as crises occur. However, understanding how to provide aid cohesively with existing regional approaches is necessary in securing the local peoples' acceptance of the humanitarian aid's work.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}