A serious imbalance characterizes the international
humanitarian system. Most of the international governance mechanisms where
humanitarian assistance is discussed and shaped, such as donor support
groups or the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), are closed
circles of primarily Western humanitarian donors. States like China, Russia,
Saudi Arabia or Brazil, all of whom have increased their humanitarian assistance
provision, do not take part in these fora (Development Initiatives (DI)
2010). Outside the diplomatic fields of the United Nations General Assembly
and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), no meeting ground exists
for established donors and their counterparts from the non-Western world
to deliberate the normative and technical aspects of international humanitarian
assistance. As a result, the current discourse overlooks the different
traditions and approaches to humanitarian aid (Donini 2010), opening the
door for uncoordinated donorship that may lead to duplications, gaps and
other inefficiencies in humanitarian response.
Because of the emerging donorship from
the non-Western world as well as the increasing social and economic power
of the respective states, exclusion of non- Western donors from humanitarian
fora is no longer justifiable. Rather, this low level of cooperation between
traditional and non-Western donors could undermine current humanitarian
reform efforts and hamper the development of a more legitimate, truly universal
and effective system. Closer cooperation would change the current perception.