First time asking a question here. I can only find one post in this entire forum mentioning the Sri Lankan Economic crisis, which I find very surprising
The UN says that “70% of people are missing a meal every day and one in five are hungry.” I watched a BBC video a few weeks ago (I cannot find it anymore, sorry) which mentions that schools are closed because there is no petrol for teachers and students to get to school. In the video tuk-tuk drivers were literally pushing their tuk-tuks around to deliver people from A to B because of the lack of petrol, which just seems maddening.
I know that EAs in general tend to be wary of anything political (this could be counted as a political issue). Perhaps that is why I find this topic relatively neglected in EA circles (would you agree this is a cause)? My other guess about why this is not often spoken about is that the issue is just really intractable. I certainly feel that way, because what can do you do about a country going into economic collapse, if you do not have a PHd in economics working for say, the World Bank.
I donate 10% of my income, are there any outlets I can donate to, or is it too tricky an area? I feel like giving hungry Sri Lankans meals would be relatively cost effective in terms of the Good one can do, right now.
Looking forward to your answers everyone.
Thanks!
You can ask Sri Lankans what kind of help they want. They might not want meals, they might want something else and without asking you probably wouldn’t know, and then be running into the play pumps problem. Here is an article about play pumps: https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2010/07/01/the-playpump-what-went-wrong/#:~:text=If%20demand%20is%20too%20great,put%2C%20there%20is%20no%20panacea.
The idea was great, right? Help generate water from wells, and have a merry go round? Yeah that sounds great! But you have to remember that as EAs we’re cautioned against acting in a crisis, or working as triage in an emergency.
But you want to donate money to a cause earmarked to help normal everyday Sri Lankans? Okay well let’s try to think about what would be the best way to do that. You’ll need some way to distribute the local aid, unless you’re going to go in country yourself, and first you need to figure out what aid to give.
Here is how I would approach this if I were going about this seriously. Do an assessment of what the populace wants via interviews, on the ground temperature taking with talks in Sri Lanka, have an interpreter, or a local trusted agent take me around for this part. If I was doing this in my official capacity (US Government) I would have a vetted interpreter (if applicable) and or driver that the embassy had already cleared to work with me, and probably a list of important local organizations leaders to talk with.
I would probably spend about $10-20k trying to understand the problem at hand and who exactly I could vet to be a steward of whatever aid I was bringing. It’s one thing to bring in tons of food aid that is unwanted. It’s another thing to spin up tons of food aid and then not have a retail distribution setup on ground, this is where proper vetted people come in.
I would partner with some organization like catholic charities or the World Food Program to do the actual on the ground distribution or a local equivalent. Chances are that the WFP https://www.wfp.org/ is already there in some part helping out, or they are already developing a plan. Again, in my professional capacity I defer to organizations already set up to do this job a lot better than I could even with my logistics and diplomatic background. As an individual, why would they want to work with me? They would have to spend their precious time vetting me on their end, unless I came in as a recognized person. (Hence the professional angle.)
So unless you already came in with good information about how to help out, you’re be there trying to hand out the wrong kind of sandwiches in the wrong area, and become a part of the problem yourself.
It’s not an intractable issue for an organization, but it is something difficult even for a four person team to accomplish. Can you help by learning how to deliver wanted aid to the right individuals at the right time? Yes. Are those things simple or easy to accomplish? No.
There is enough food to feed the world, however it is in the wrong area and according to my cursory check, Sri Lanka is an island, further complicating their position. It’s a big logistics problem and I implore you to look into the WFP and how they run things.