Humanitarian Aid in Post-Soviet Countries: An Anthropological Perspective (Central Asian Studies)

159 Pages·2008·0.95 MB·English

by  L Atlani-Duault

Humanitarian Aid in Post-Soviet Countries
An anthropologist among aid workers. Her objective: to study that exotic
tribe, humanitarian and development workers, along with their state and
non-state partners, as they ‘export democracy’ to the post-Soviet countries
of Central Asia and the Caucasus. Her method: to join the tribe for ten
years. From New York to Alma-Ata, by way of Geneva and Baku, Lae¨titia
Atlani-Duaultprovidesbothanunderstandingoftheindividualsworkingin
the field and a critical analysis of the sweeping political implications of
NGO activities. A focus on supposedly ‘de-politicized’ policy areas (notably
the prevention of the HIV/AIDS epidemic) provides wider insights into the
objectives and practices of international aid workers in countries beset by
rising poverty, drug trafficking, prostitution and decaying education and
health services. The author also provides a rich canvas of human stories,
from the ‘workshops’ in which diametrically opposed political approaches
often clash tothe occasional smalltriumphs in which effective publichealth
interventions are worked out. This timely book will be of great interest not
only to scholars of post-Soviet countries, but also to those interested in
humanitarian and development aid worldwide. It will also be relevant for
the study of the anthropology of development, as well as medical and poli-
tical anthropology.
Lae¨titiaAtlani-Duault isAssociateProfessor (MCF) inAnthropologyatthe
University of Nanterre Paris X (France) and a frequent consultant with
humanitarian and development aid agencies in Central Asia and the Cau-
casus, Eastern Europe and Asia. She is the authorof Au bonheurdes autres.
Anthropologie de l’aide humanitaire (Socie´te´ d’Ethnologie, 2005).
Central Asian Studies Series
1 Mongolia Today
Science, culture, environment and development
Edited by Dendevin Badarch and Raymond A. Zilinskas
2 Turkestan and the Fate of the Russian Empire
Daniel Brower
3 Church of the East
A concise history
Wilhelm Baum and Dietmar W. Winkler
4 Pre-tsarist and Tsarist Central Asia
Communal commitment and political order in change
Paul Georg Geiss
5 Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia
Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924
Seymour Becker
6 Russian Culture in Uzbekistan
One language in the middle of nowhere
David MacFadyen
7 Everyday Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia
Maria Elisabeth Louw
8 Kazakhstan
Ethnicity, language and power
Bhavna Dave
9 Ethno-Nationalism, Islam and the State in the Caucasus
Post-Soviet disorder
Edited by Moshe Gammer
10 Humanitarian Aid in Post-Soviet Countries
An anthropological perspective
Lae¨titia Atlani-Duault
Humanitarian Aid in
Post-Soviet Countries
An anthropological perspective
Lae¨titia Atlani-Duault
Translated by Andrew Wilson
Firstpublished2007
byRoutledge
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
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LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Atlani-Duault,Lae¨titia.
Humanitarianaidinpost-Sovietcountries:ananthropological
perspective/Lae¨titiaAtlani-Duault.
p.cm.–(CentralAsianstudiesseries;10)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Humanitarianassistance—FormerSovietrepublics.2.Non-
governmentalorganizations—FormerSovietrepublics.3.AIDS
(Disease)—FormerSovietrepublics—Prevention.4.HIVinfections—
FormerSovietrepublics—Prevention.I.Title.
HV555.S685A852007
362.196’9792009475–dc22 2007022540
ISBN 0-203-93730-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN978-0-415-44884-0(hbk)
ISBN978-0-203-93730-3(ebk)
To Petrev

Contents
List of figures viii
Foreword ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
An anthropology of international aid organizations 3
1 The first steps 13
New York, New York 14
Good governance and HIV 24
2 The legacy 30
The Caucasus and Central Asia 32
The HIV/AIDS epidemic 36
3 Negotiating assistance 51
Advocacy 53
In search of partners 62
Negotiating in order to help 75
4 White, red and grey 85
White 85
Red 95
Grey 98
Conclusion 107
The construction of an institutional ideology 108
The cultural versus the political 110
And what of the epidemic? 111
Notes 115
Bibliography 121
Index 144
Figures
1.1 Financial flows and potential partnerships between
different types of development agencies 16
2.1 The Soviet health system 49
Foreword
Since 1994, I have closely followed Lae¨titia Atlani-Duault’s work within
several international development agencies in New York, Central Asia and
the Caucasus.
In this book, she vividly depicts the confrontation that occurred between
Soviet and Western models when faced with a shared social phenomenon:
the promotion of a development model. She demonstrates that, beyond the
question of HIV, it was a confrontation between ways of seeing the world
and thinking about collective life. That is where the true strength of this
book lies, in its analysis of the political implications of such a confronta-
tion.Duringthe1990sandparticularlyafter1992,theprincipalobjectiveof
Westernersintheex-SovietUnionwastoensurethatcommunismcouldnot
returntotheregion.Withthisinmind,thedevelopmentagencies(including
mine) dedicated themselves to demolishing the state structures of the Soviet
era, as quickly as possible andwithout viable alternatives to offer. That has
caused more social suffering today than ever before. Poverty, drug traffick-
ing, prostitution, a decaying education system and health services, and cor-
ruption are major problems in the former Soviet Union after more than ten
years of independence. In helping to develop the local non-governmental
organization (NGO) sector, the leading development agencies had and gave
theimpressionthatlocalNGOsofferedanalternativetothestate;therewas
no thought of them as possible partners in a process of rethinking the role
of the state without going as far as dismantling it. Local and international
actors participated in these events without always grasping their repercus-
sions, a point this book illustrates with admirable clarity.
Very little material, particularly documented studies, exists on the subject
of this book. Most of what has been written about the international devel-
opment agencies comes from the field of political science. An ‘insider’ eth-
nographicapproachiscompletelynew.Inwritingthisbook,Lae¨titiaAtlani-
Duault has had to work with a great many sceptical government officials,
aid agency bureaucrats and self-styled international ‘experts’ – difficult
partners with whom she managed to work with great competence, earning
the respectand admiration of all. Critical analysis isalways difficultbut her
insiderapproachandstyleofwritinghaveprevailed,resultinginaworkthat