The study published through Tufts' Feinstein International Center (FIC) on the work of humanitarian agencies comes at a difficult time for humanitarian aid agencies in Iraq.
Between the beginning of the invasion and Sept. 27, 2007, 94 aid workers were killed in Iraq, according to the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq.
This, coupled with growing demands in many countries for troop withdrawals, makes it unsurprising that less than 50 percent of aid organizations canvassed during a 2004 study referenced in the report are still operating directly in the country.
But humanitarian aid is needed now more than ever.
Iraqi citizens are suffering under the weight of crumbling infrastructures caused in large part by a continuing insurgency and an incompetent government.
For example, four million Iraqis currently cannot regularly afford enough food, according to Oxfam.
So the question for humanitarian workers is: If not now, when?
We cannot blame humanitarian agencies for their concern about the growing violence, but far too many are floundering around trying to find a perceived middle ground.
Those that have left the country should not maintain illusions that they can have direct control over what goes on in the battle zone.
Local NGOs have the best understanding of the situation on the ground, and they are the ones that should be directing the day-to-day operations.
But more importantly, they should live up to the meaning of their name. Too many Iraqis are suspicious of the over-reliance of aid workers on the American military. And can we blame them?
Aid workers are supposed to operate above and beyond the call of politics. Those who choose to remain in the country cannot afford to hide in the Green Zone or remove themselves from the realities of the suffering in the country. And those who leave should let their counterparts in the country play point.
From a practical standpoint, it makes more sense to have a few workers doing direct work than it does to have many struggling to be effective while taking refuge in bunkers or while working outside of the country.
The rest of the organizations not willing or able to take on these jobs should lend their support, but by creating partnerships rather than trying to operate by themselves. This support best comes from the pocketbooks.
The report notes that "[donor] responses to the present crisis have failed to sufficiently acknowledge the capabilities of operational actors inside Iraq." The European Union, for example, recently gave ?100 million for reconstruction, but only ?10 million for humanitarian aid.
Local NGOs will be more effective than the ones that have pulled out, but they need help to realize their full potential. It was a lack of multilateralism that got us into this war. Let it not be the cause of continued human suffering in Iraq.
