Issue date: 3/18/10 Section: News

How effective are NGOs at helping their own causes? Photo: BlogUT

This past weekend was the annual Health and Human Rights conference at UofT. Our institution was host to an interdisciplinary group of University students, professors, and professionals. There were four panel discussions, all pertaining to the main topic of the conference, "An Exploration of Foreign Aid Effectiveness." There was also an NGO fair and a benefit dinner where students could network and learn more about the goings on of the humanitarian movement.

The four discussion topics varied from what actually constitutes humanitarian "aid," to highlighting the more recent debate which has surfaced among academics regarding effectiveness of working abroad. The panels featured speakers from various academic and professional backgrounds. This allowed the discussions to be well rounded and enlightening.

Two speakers in particular livened up the room, as they displayed the most charisma and were easiest to follow in their ideas and arguments. It was possible to feel the slight rustle of audience members sit up in their chairs as Jason Saul took the podium to present his ideas on re-inventing global aid.

He began by saying that our society's value equilibrium is "out of whack," proceeding to allude to the fact that it now costs 1.6 cents to make a penny.

He followed this by saying: "this isn't a time for 'change,' it is time for a reset." He suggested people have become desensitized to hype words such as "change" and "movement," mainly because of how much they hear them and how little they understand them. "We don't know what 'good' is, anymore," he said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "We don't know when something is good or not."

Once upon a time, throwing money at an organization such as "World Vision" was a good way for a middle class Westerner to relieve him or herself from an impeding sense of guilt after watching a commercial with images of starving children and their dire living situations.

Now there is great multifaceted controversy regarding such organizations, and more specifically, such organizations with religious affiliations and missionary-type motives. Much of the West is even contemplating whether or not giving money to major non-governmental organizations in support of developing countries is the right thing to do.

The second crowd-pleasing speaker was Ben Peterson, the founder of a rapidly developing NGO: "Journalists for Human Rights." What started as a rigorous and discouraging process in his parents' basement has now become a successful and renowned NGO with a chapter in British Columbia, and a head office at Spadina and King here in Toronto.

The organization produces a magazine called Speak which features articles regarding human rights abuses within Canadian communities. They also train journalists to travel overseas to work with news papers and radio stations, spreading awareness of human rights, and helping produce exposure pieces on human rights violations within those communities. There is a chapter at UofT as well, where students can contribute articles.

The two day conference ended with a benefit dinner held at Hart House, where conference members mingled together and with the panel speakers.

The weekend raised poignant topics of discussion which are all hopefully still percolating and being discussed by the conference's 2010 attendees.

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