By Katie Nguyen | Tue., October 18, 5:12 PM | Comments ( 0 )
A Somali refugee girl holds an empty cup while waiting to be registered by the United Nations High Commission of Refugees at Dagahaley camp in Dadaab in Kenya's northeastern province, June 3, 2009. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
Counter-terrorism laws introduced after 9/11 are having a huge impact on humanitarian operations, according to research published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) this week.
This is hardly news to many of the aid agencies trying to operate in Somalia, where famine has gripped most of the south, much of it under the control of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, a group the United States and others have designated as terrorists.
Understandably many of them are nervous about operating in al Shabaab areas and the risk of falling foul of laws criminalising material support to terrorist organisations.
Not only has funding for Somalia halved between 2008 and 2011, mainly due to a drop in U.S. contributions, but aid groups are being asked to introduce a host of measures to offset the possibility of aid ending up in the wrong hands.
The hoops aid agencies have had to jump to meet conditions set by donors are raising operating costs, curtailing funding, preventing access and changing the quality of assistance, ODI said in its report.
"Whilst humanitarian organisations clearly consider risk mitigation measures important, many also feel they have become too cumbersome and are preventing them from taking the necessary risks to assist communities in need," it said.
"Interviewees felt that funding shortfalls and the difficulty of complying with counter-terrorism laws in countries like Somalia have led organisations to scale down their presence in areas controlled by designated terrorist groups."
And that leads to questions among local communities about the neutrality and impartiality of aid groups.
ODI said murkiness about the implications of such legislation and donor policy has led to less transparency in the way aid workers operate when they meet and talk to "terrorists" and "terrorist" groups.
For example in Gaza, where Hamas – an Islamist movement most Western nations have branded as terrorist – is in charge, minutes are often not recorded in cluster meetings to avoid officially acknowledging any engagement with its officials.
The report pointed out that Islamic charities have been hit especially hard by certain counter-terrorism laws. Not only has their funding suffered, but they have come under greater scrutiny than other organisations.
"Whilst preventing material support to terrorist acts is an important objective, the steps many states are taking to achieve this are having an adverse impact on efforts to provide life-saving assistance to those caught up in conflict," ODI concluded.
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