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We live in a grossly unequal world. Bill Gates’ personal fortune exceeds the annual economic output of Sri Lanka, is double that of Tanzania and more than 6 times the size of Nicaragua’s. While the number of billionaires has almost doubled during the last 5 years, over 8o per cent of humanity try to live on less than $10 a day. As rich countries attempt to control an obesity pandemic, nearly one-third of children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. More than 20,000 of them will die today due to treatable conditions such as diarrhoea and malaria and because they cannot afford to be immunised.

Poverty and low levels of public health are also related to the occurrence of war. People in poor countries are 10 times as likely to die violently as those in rich countries. Each year, 95 per cent of war casualties, as well as earthquakes, floods and other disasters, occur in the developing world. 

It is thus no surprise that those of us living in high-income countries can expect to live to 80 on average, while those in low-income countries will not live beyond an average of 60.

What can be done in the face of such suffering?

Humanitarian aid has become an important response. Governments are committing increasing shares of their overseas development assistance to short term interventions that aim to save lives and improve global health. In 2012, the humanitarian emergencies in Afghanistan, Kenya, Sudan (north and south), Somalia and the Congo all received more than half a billion dollars in such assistance.

Additionally, individual donations to humanitarian work continue to rise. The Gates foundation alone has channelled over a billion dollars into a fund to fight HIV, TB and Malaria. Humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are also growing with an estimated 200,000 individuals in the field. NGOs now commonly work alongside private companies, security forces and local staff to deliver aid and support global health programmes. 

Within this context this course explores these critical ethical and logistical questions:

• Is humanitarian aid as a concept, as simple as the rich helping the poor?
  
• Are these interventions well-meaning and effective? 
  
• Should governments be committing tax revenues – involuntarily given – to improve the health of others far away?
  
• Do those that can afford it have a responsibility to act in some way?
  
• What does receipt of aid mean for the recipient country, its leadership, its future, and its responsibility?
  
• Must people be helped only according to need, regardless of what a regime might have done?
  
• Must humanitarians remain neutral – silent perhaps – in the face of injustice in order to ensure access?
  
• Must the causes of inequality, suffering and violence be ignored in favour of access, action and outcome?

What do you think...?

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