Outside the Asylum.

The aid industry might be having its #MeToo moment, but sexual exploitation is just a symptom of a more fundamental issue: the neo-colonial structures through which most aid is delivered in disaster and conflict areas. If this is not addressed, no amount of independent investigating committees and hotlines will solve the problem. I have been an aid worker for more than 25 years. I’ve mostly worked through structures that, while espousing the rhetoric of empowerment of the ‘beneficiaries’ and listening to their voices, marginalise, excludes and disempowers those it wants to help.