Aid in the Middle East: How the quality of mercy is strained

UK Only Article: 
standard article

Issue: 

Eradicating disease

Fly Title: 

Aid in the Middle East

Rubric: 

Even if they have enough money, it is hard for aid agencies to be effective

Location: 

GAZIANTEP AND GAZA

Main image: 

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IMPOVERISHED Jordanians in the northern city of Mafraq have learnt to curse the arrival of foreign aid agencies. Since they began dishing out cash to Syrian refugees to help them pay for housing, rents have soared, pricing some families out of their homes. “We have a way of going in gung-ho, giving things, and not looking at what the impact will be on other communities,” says an adviser to a British charity.
Aid now plays a big part in the turbulent Middle East. Last year the area consumed almost 60% of the global budget for humanitarian relief, which reached almost $25 billion. Of the four largest recipients, all but one, South Sudan, was in the Middle East. Tales of heroic personal …
Source: The Economy