Word: ngos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Norphel found his state funds cut in 2006 as part of the fallout from an unrelated political dispute between government officials and Ladakh's notoriously crowded field of NGOs. Still, the quixotic Ice Man remains determined to prove the power of his invention. His biggest and most successful glacier is also the most remote, meaning that few officials are willing to make the seven-mile hike to see it. One nearer to town has been reduced to a series of dirt pits from neglect and a major flood. Unperturbed, Norphel sees this as a chance to rebuild the perfect showpiece...
These security concerns - real and perceived - are the chief obstacle to the NGOs coming back. "We are still dealing with the fallout of 2003," says Guy Siri, a humanitarian coordinator with the U.N.'s mission in Iraq, referring to the bombing of the U.N. headquarters that claimed 22 lives, including the U.N. Secretary General's special representative to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. The following month, the U.N. withdrew from Iraq, returning only in August of 2004 in very small numbers...
Agron Ferati, country director for the International Medical Corps (IMC), one of a few international NGOs in Baghdad, says that since November 2007 the IMC has been calling for a "humanitarian surge," not only in financial resources but also for other NGOs to set up shop in Iraq rather than work remotely in neighboring Jordan. It is necessary, he says, "if we want this current security leading to tangible sustainability." His point was echoed during the recent visit by Angelina Jolie, a U.N. goodwill ambassador, when she expressed concern for the millions of Iraqis affected by the war and stated...
...groups are also hard-pressed to come to a country where a large percentage of budgets must go to protecting foreigners. It is also of deep concern that humanitarian projects cannot be easily monitored because of a lack of security. For the handful of foreign NGOs currently in Baghdad the situation is frustrating, they say, because of the lack of direct contact with their Iraqi beneficiaries. "You are dependent on secondhand information - you could be in Amman or Washington or Paris," says Guy Siri, who says he can count the number of international aid agencies in Baghdad on one hand...
...course, launching quiet, targeted measures does not mean that international ngos and activists should refrain from publicizing the junta's atrocities or stop offering moral support to suffering Burmese democrats. Public-attention campaigns, followed inside Burma through foreign radio stations, give courage to Burmese dissidents. They keep Burma's cause in the world's media. They engage a new generation of human-rights activists around the globe. But moral support alone cannot triumph in a fight against an immoral regime. Putting the squeeze on the generals' cash is different. That would truly be payback...