PANEL DEBATE - 'The impartiality of aid and development NGOs towards bearing witness and political agendas'
To see or not to see: should aid organisations bear witness?
Date: 18th January 2011, 8.15pm
Location: Bateman Auditorium, Caius College, Cambridge
Should aid organisations report what they see abroad? Do aid organisations have an obligation to respond to human rights abuse? On the 18th January 2011, we will be joined by 4 panel speakers debating whether "teimoignage" is justified.
Please join us for what promises to be an eye-opening discussion about the nature of giving aid in the contemporary world.
Drinks and nibbles to follow in the Green Room.
Speakers
Sorcha O'Callaghan - British Red Cross
The Red Cross pursues a policy of silent diplomacy, meaning they will rarely speak out about things they see when working in the field. Does the greater access to those in need justify refusing to testify?
Marc Dubois - UK MSF head of operations
Medecins Sans Frontieres offers aid to any country where there is a need, and hold an inflexible policy of bearing witness to what they see. Does this avoid further deaths by blowing the whistle on human rights abuse?
Susan Wright - Medecins du Monde
Medecins du Monde also bear witness, but will not provide aid where they disagree with governmental political agenda. Does the pressure they place on governments to change for the better outweigh the detriment to people they choose not to help?
Andrew Reicher - Caius alumni and development worker
Offering an economic perspective on delivering aid, Andrew heads PIDG, a multi-donor organisation which creates and funds business activities to help boost private economic infrastructure investment in the world's poorest countries. How can economic aid complement humanitarian aid, and do the former have a duty to bear witness?