Imposing Aid: Emergency Assistance to Refugees

Drawing on months of fieldwork among Ugandan refugees in the Sudan, the author provides an eye-level account of refugee life and the workings of emergency relief programs. Her conclusions are provocative and valuable: refugees should contribute to the local economy and should be integrated into it; refugees themselves and the local community should plan development projects; and aid should aim at building the local infrastructure for the benefit of both refugees and the original local inhabitants.