Geopolitics of pre-tsunami and post-tsunami aid to Sri Lanka
Date
2008
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Dept. of Geography, University of Simon Fraser, Burnaby, BC, CA
Abstract
The paper presents evidence from research conducted before and after the tsunami to argue that crisis creates exceptionalism. CIDA dramatically changed its neoliberal application of ‘aid effectiveness’ policy in Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, and this situation illustrates the historicized and geopolitical antecedents that shape aid practices on the ground. Aid is a highly geopolitical project that varies among bilateral donors and among international non-governmental organizations. Since the adoption of aid effectiveness principles in the early 2000s, CIDA planned to wrap up its bilateral aid programming and exit Sri Lanka. The tsunami changed that thinking, and this case study traces why and how.
Description
Also published in “Tsunami in a time of war: aid, activism & reconstruction in Sri Lanka and Aceh,” de Alwis, Malathi and Hedman, Eva-Lotta E., eds. (2009)
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Keywords
CONFLICTS, INTERNATIONAL AID, POST-TSUNAMI RECONSTRUCTION, NATURAL DISASTERS, EMERGENCY RELIEF, ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION, AID PROGRAMMES, SRI LANKA, CIDA