Civil Society Development Versus the Peace Dividend: International Aid in the Wanni

Abstract

Donors that provide aid to the Wanni region of Sri Lanka, which is controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), are promoting initiatives that seek to advance the national peace process. Under the rubric of post-conflict reconstruction, the actions of political forces and structural factors have led to the prioritisation of two different approaches to peace-building: community capacity-building projects; and support for the 'peace dividend'. Both of these approaches face challenges. Cooperation with civil society actors is extremely difficult due to intimidation by the LTTE political authority and the authoritarian nature of its control. Peace-building successes with respect to the peace dividend are difficult to measure, and must be balanced against the negative effects of misdirected funds. Aid organisations must be careful not to consider the tasks of peacebuilding, humanitarian relief and community empowerment as either interchangeable or as mutually reinforcing endeavours.

The Securitisation of Sri Lankan Tourism in the Absence of Peace

“…Just as humanitarian aid can be diverted for conflict-related purposed during war (Culbert 2005), so too is there a risk that resources for social and economic development can be used in ways that control and offer no benefit to citizens.…”

NGO-led Microfinance: Potentials and Challenges in Conflict Areas

“…There were two such councils established in Vanni, and the local NGOs were required to obtain membership with these councils. The local NGOs, which were operating at sub‐district level, were responsible for implementation of projects in a cluster of villages (see Culbert, 2005). The allocation of projects was based on the extent of work an NGO in an area could carry out, irrespective of its capacity to deal with specific issue addressed in such interventions.…”

“…However, in many locations SEDGs and VDFs functioned concurrently. Whilst these aid channelling arrangements were viewed as having the motive of diverting resources into the Development Wing (Culbert, 2005), they nevertheless provided basic institutional infrastructure for aid to reach the remote communities.…”

Local perspectives on humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka after the tsunami

“…5 Although humanitarian assistance is assumed to be beneficial, aid can have detrimental effects and many aid programmes are inadequately evaluated. [6][7][8][9] Evaluations conducted frequently have a donor or INGO bias where the achievement of targets and objectives take precedence. 10,11 These evaluations often lack sufficient beneficiary feedback due to operational constraints in emergency settings that favour top-down approaches.…”